George Orwell, in the course of reviewing the magazine genre of the British school story ( Boys Weeklies , 1940), once complained of the lack of good honest leftwing stories for children.  He contrasted the Tory sentiments of Billy Bunter's world with a Spanish anarchist children's magazine, which contained adventure stories about virtuous criminals escaping from corrupt police.

Broadcasters have since rather taken this sentiment to heart, and children's TV is full of moralising inclusive sentiments.   Bootleg , a school story where children rebel against chocolate prohibition, was still a pleasant surprise.

The newly elected Good For You Party bans chocolate; and soon there's SWAT team raids on candyshops and shock tactic ads on the TV.  Young Pioneer bands are formed to clean up the streets, and black market street dealers start charging $40 for bars cut with sawdust.

Though a certain amount of handwaving at the bad effects of chocolate - obesity etc - is made, it's basically a brainwashing goldmine for sprogs of libertarians left and right, and rather witty at that.  Now before the hypothetical conservative readership's head explodes, it is a tad much to suggest something like marijuana is as safe as chocolate, there are mental health issues, especially for teens.  A Doctor character does make sure to assert these banned substances should be evaluated on the basis of sober medical advice; perhaps if cornered the makers would claim to be satirising the American experiment with banning alcohol instead.  That aside, as a sketch of the inevitable outcomes of prohibitionary policy, it's fantastic.

I have no idea how much the target yoof audience will like it - it seems more subtle than Captain Planet to me, and we still used to watch that, with a certain wincing detachment.

Bootleg was made for the BBC but shot in Victoria, so there's a mix of English and Aussie accents (though I must admit I had wondered if they'd just shot it in Shepard's Bush).

The remaining two episodes air Wednesday and Thursday on the ABC at 5pm .

More Reading on Bootleg

• Bootleg
• Prohibition
• Good For You Party
• Think Of The Children
• Drugs
• So Apparently the BBC Is the One Thinking Of The Children