The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten (1960– ) User Reviews

from another time, another place...

[morpheusatloppers · 7/10 · 16 April 2009]

Like the other commentators, I was a young lad when I saw this series, almost FIFTY years ago, on our 19" black-and-white Sobell (whatever happened to THEM?) telly. And although I haven't seen it since, it remains. In England, it WAS just called "The Adventures Of The Terrible Ten".

Twenty-five-minute trips to a pretty, sunny land - with little kids riding on horses, to perky musical accompaniment.

But oh, how the definition of the word "terrible" has changed. Those "little terrors" were angels, compared to today. Tragically nowadays, little kids really CAN be terrible - stealing cars, setting fire to houses, etc.

Maybe it's time this series was given an airing again (if it still exists) to remind people just how far DOWN we've all come...

Wish I could remember more.

[ashmored · 9/10 · 26 May 2021]

Can't believe it must be 60 years since I saw this on the old black and white T. V. when I was 7 or 8 years old and I remember it being called The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten (who were not terrible at all in todays meaning of the word). They also seemed so grown up, although they can't have been much older than I was at the time.

Although my memories are very vague, I seem to remember the Terrible Ten all riding horses in the introduction and I also remember not missing an episode, so it was obviously compulsive viewing.

The only episodes I have any memories of is one where the gang saw a submarine surfacing in a secluded bay and they foiled a kidnap attempt and the second where Lynda Keane fainted after spending too long in the sun and the whole episode was in a dream like state. When Lynda revived from her fainting spell she was in Ten Town hospital, of course, and quickly recovered.

The only other things I can remember was all 10 never seemed to be in an episode together and there was a bully (McGurk, I think) who was determined to destroy Ten Town but never succeeded.

Cute kids' series

[bigdinosaur · 30 March 2005]

I remember watching reruns of 'The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten' on TV when I was a kid. I grew up in Canada so I don't know if this show played in the U.S. or not, but it was definitely broadcast in Canada.

I have only 3 episodes of this programme on 16mm film in my collection so my comments are based on these episodes...I can't remember much about the ones I saw as a kid.

First: I'm very impressed with the production values of this programme. The musical score is excellent and the photography is well done also.

Second: The stories are juvenile, but appropriately so as this was a kids' programme. I found them cute and suitable for any age kids. All the kids have noticeable Australian accents.

The stories centre around ten kids who have established their own town (Ten Town) and run it themselves. It has its own hospital, town hall, radio station, bank, general store, etc. It looks like a bunch of clubhouses kids would build and is very cute.

Now where these kids' parents are is another story. But who cares when you're a kid watching this stuff!

Another mystery: In all 3 of my episodes there are never 10 kids present. Where are the rest of them?

My episodes are:

'Two Days To Zero' deals with a stolen rocket fuel formula. The formula is made up of, among other things, bicarbonate of soda and hot tea (and they make it on a kitchen table...oh boy!). The kids save the day by making their own rocket fuel and naturally foil the thief too.

'Marooned' in which the kids go to an island to cut Christmas trees and their boat drifts off. A raft is built and the kids calculate currents and such to get to their lost boat.

'Mystery At Wallaby Creek' Wallaby Creek is a town a few miles from Ten Town. A burglar/firebug is plaguing the town and everyone thinks a person who dresses up as a cat is the culprit. The kids from Ten Town help prove otherwise.

Each episode was originally made in two parts. Later (for reruns I imagine) the two parts were combined to make each story complete in itself. The original episodes were approximately 15 minutes. The combined ones run at around 25 minutes...Hey! 5 extra minutes for advertisers you know! IMDb has erred slightly on the title of this series. All three of my films state the title as 'The Terrific Adventures Of The Terrible Ten'.

The programmes were made in Melbourne, Australia by Pacific.

I've never seen this on video ever. Maybe I'll have to transfer some of my films one of these days. Copyrights are probably expired by now.

Ten Pound Pom

[nigel_gardener · 10/10 · 6 April 2013]

As a very young lad in the Uk way back in the 60's I got to see this somehow. It was my first contact with Australia and unknowingly, I saw were I was going to live and work of sort. The idea of a fort hidden away from all and living a life in my mind such as this was what intrigued me so much. As that was my life back then as a boy in a family that never understood me. I have been hunting this show and DVD of this and now can get the first episode. Now at 57 still travel the roads of the central west NSW and relive in my mind that time...Would love to know the locations that the show was made. I know some of the actors from other shows. The film industry was and is very progressive here but unfortunately the TV shows need a boost....I hope to get the DVD to jog my mind more on a great show

Wish I could recall more

[scimart · 5/10 · 9 October 2013]

I have very vague memories of this when I was around 8 or 9 in the early 60s.

I'm sure we used to play a game in the playground based on this series which we called Ten Town Tommy.

My only recollections of the programme are a lot of trees and the fact that the boys used walkie talkies in the bush - which I was incredibly jealous of and I remember fantasising about getting hold of a pair to use with my mates.

I'd love to see an episode or two to see if anything comes back to mind...

Song from one episode

[mikeandsonia-moxon · 29 June 2005]

I watched these on British TV in the very early 60's as a 9 or 10 year old and I wouldn't miss one for anything. One thing I remember as clear now (45 years later) was a song from one of the episodes. Can't remember the name of the episode but it concerned an Irish horse and a race it has to win. To make the horse go faster a little ditty had to be sung in it's ear ;- Oh Joseph dearest, have you heard, The news that's going round. The Shamrock is by law forbid' To grow on Irish ground.

The horse would then be so angry it would increase speed and win the race.

Ten a good little show

[fergs-968-513870 · 29 September 2011]

I, too, remember this as I was born and raised in Canada. I don't offhand recall the episodes mentioned in the earlier review, but I do remember a sort of rival kids gang to the Ten, led by one Spider McGlurk. Spider's group was always outsmarted, though in later episodes, the two groups actually worked together to solve a mystery.

I remember one episode in which the Ten (and possible McGlurk's gang) took over a submarine (!), successfully submerged it, and then surfaced to a tumultuous welcome in Sydney Harbour.

I think we tended to see a maximum of 7 of the Ten at any one time. And no girls, if memory serves.

Vague memories of this series

[richard-law-1 · 4 June 2008]

I came onto this site having half-remembered the series (I thought it was called Ten Town)in search of more information. I saw these programmes in London, England after the middle of 1961 as 25-minute episodes and they were influential enough for my younger brother and I to build replicas of some of the features of "Ten Town" in our garden using scrap wood from the demolition of houses nearby.

I remember only two plot-lines; one featured the manufacture of eucalyptus oil which was misappropriated by an outsider and sold to a local fuel retailer and the other featured the end of the town when the area was gradually flooded - I assume by a new dam or some such.

I was nine years old in 1961 and I reckon that I saw these episodes and built my replica of Ten Town before I went to senior school in 1963. I hope that more information about the series turns up eventually, as I'm old enough now to enjoy revisiting my experiences of that period.

Filming Ten Town

[alan-grossman · 10 July 2013]

I was a youngster growing up in country Victoria when this show was filmed, and later became Ten Town. I was actually in a few episodes as an extra only. The show was filmed in Country Victoria not far from Macedon just off the Calder Highway. We (extras) didn't get much time with the main actors only told what to do when particular scenes were shot. In one of the episodes I wore an old football jumper and when show later on TV were able to pick myself out from the rest quite easily. The town (if I remember) was rather small and made from timber and painted but what a fun place to muck around in and enjoy with other mates. I am led to believe that it was later burnt down.

Memories from the vault

[thecutlers · 15 February 2011]

It was fascinating for me to see how kids in far off Canada and England related to what I assumed was purely Australian Baby Boomer nostalgia. I used to watch "Ten Town" as I knew it when I was growing up in Sydney. I was eight years old in 1960. To be honest, I can't remember much of the details of individual episodes. What I can remember is the first episode when one of the kids' dads, a laconic, no-nonsense Aussie farmer, drops off a huge load of building materials (mostly timber off-cuts and old crates from memory) for the kids to start building Ten Town. He then says, "Get on with it" or words to that effect. He leaves and the kids are left to let rip with hammers and nails and saws to construct their own town, which ended up like looking like a country town from Australia's 19th Century past. (Not just America had "old west" towns!) No wonder I thought it was a great series. What kid of my generation wasn't excited about building their own cubby house? But a town? That was just SO cool! (I suppose if they made it today, the parents would have bought them a town, then tried to wrestle the kids away from their Play Stations and iPads. It would probably end up like a pre-teen Big Brother, complete with a Super Nanny to taxi in to sort out their emotional problems. "Katlin won't let me be mayor!I want her and Harrison evicted!" The other incident in another episode I remember well was when the resident bad-guy kid (McGurk?) and his gang tried to raid Ten Town. The Ten Town kids repelled them with secret weapons such as catapults spewing forth flour bombs and other such "deaddly" puerile ordinance. Of course, it all ends with McGurk and his crew, utterly defeated and crestfallen, covered in flour and water. Wa wa wa wa waaaaa! Of course, this was all pure kids' stuff but that's exactly what the target audience was - kids. I'm not sure how I would react to it today - cringe or rejoice in the innocence of a childhood long past. Maybe a bit of both. If were available on DVD, I'd buy it just for nostalgia value. I'm sure my granddaughter would like it. It couldn't be any worse than a lot of the sudsy Barbie-based fairy story DVDs she watches.