For some years, pretty much all children’s TV has been mewing pish. Every time I caught wind of a kids TV show, I could see behind it, a whole think tank scratching their chins and saying things like “Is this educational enough?” and “Do we honestly have the right cross section of society included?” While these may seem like important points for a broadcaster aiming to represent a whole nation at once, it doesn’t necessarily make for good TV. However, children’s telly seems to be turning a corner toward something far more enticing!

Related: Mof’s Top 5 Weird Kids Shows | Anna’s Top 5 Kids Shows | Keris’ Top 5 Kids Shows

When I finish my work early, I’ll tune into the Beeb to see what the kids are watching these days. CBBC has been rubbish for yonks, from the the presenters who look like they’ve just stepped off set from doing dance routines for S Club Juniors, to the cruddy shows. Now, things are different. Back is the broom cupboard format and so too, is the spirit of adventure. More importantly, kids are having the crap scared out of them!

In Holly Walsh, they’ve got a presenter who doesn’t look too wholesome and better yet, isn’t a patronising and odious turd! It’s ludicrous that we have to put up with people like George Lamb and Alexa Chung who all treat us like we’re brain-donors and the kids, the kids get someone quirky and funny. She’s probably the best children’s TV presenter I’ve ever seen! The broom cupboard is back with a bang and has just the right amount of hippery to keep everyone sweet. They’ve even got some puppet sidekicks too (a drunk cactus and a brain on springs).

In the shows, there’s Raven, which I’m becoming rather too fond of. It’s got the hokey heaviness of old shows like Knightmare (left a bit, left a bit, forward a bit… PICK UP THE GOBLET!) mixed with the tasks of Junior Krypton Factor. It’s great. Some stern Scotsman-cum-raven leads teams of pale children around the countryside as they fire rocks at druids and abseil down cliff faces. It’s the kind of show I would have watched as a nipper and thought “I’d do ANYTHING to get on that show!”

There’s also The Sarah Jane Adventures, which I saw for the first time yesterday. I couldn’t believe how good… and how terrifying… it was. Time-travel, warped little children who turned into aliens trying to kill everything in sight, apocalyptic visions of the future, ruined and controlled by this creature with no eyes… it was like Dungeons and Dragons come to life!

While us adults are lapping up crap like Britain’s Got Talent, the kids have got a superior talent show in the shape of The Slammer. Here we have a show that’s set in a prison (for reasons still not clear to me) and the kids sit waiting to be impressed. The people that do, get a round of applause, the people that fail, get huge levels of abuse from the children, with some able to stand-up and saying things like “That made me want to be sick down my top”, uninterrupted.

Of course, there’s still rubbish, but it does seem that kids are getting some good telly for the first time in years… and this particular adult is slightly jealous.