This post is bought to you with the letter S and the number 40

When Hollywood actors clamour to get on to a children's television show, you know it's something special. This week Sesame Street celebrated it's 40th birthday and I don't know anyone who hasn't at some point wished that they could go and eat cookies with Cookie Monster, hang out with Bert and Ernie or sit in a nest with Big Bird. The programme has become an institution, and the fact it has remained on air for so long and so successfully only serves to attest to this fact. Put a photo of Elmo next to one of the Teletubbies and I have no doubt in saying that Elmo would be the most recognisable every time.

What I want to know is why isn't it shown in the UK anymore? There is so much tripe littering up kids channels over here at the minute, it is incomprehensible that these shows are given screening prescedence over one of the greatest children's programmes ever made. Sesame Street is both endearing and educational and has never been one to talk down to children, which is what many programmes are guilty of doing nowadays. Big shots in the children's television sector are continually looking for new and modern directions in which to take programming. But why? Sesame Street successfully proves that an enduring and trusty format works, whilst still managing to keep content relevant to modern times and issues. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and Sesame Street is still a long way from needing a trip to the repair shop.

Below is one of my all time favourite scenes from the show, and if it doesn't put a smile on your face then shame on you! Here's to another forty years of Elmo and the gang...