Noddy and Big Ears had their makeovers years ago -- now it's the turn of the Famous Five.

In a new Disney Channel series, the sons and daughters of Enid Blyton's four adventurers are back in manga cartoon form as multicultural, techno-hip dudes on the trail of eco-evil with the ever-faithful dog Timmy. No room for ginger beer and jolly japes here.

What next? Richmal Crompton's "William" as an asbo-carrying hoodie?

Were you a Famous Five fan? And what do you think of the idea of updating them for the 21st century?

The idea of a boycott of this Summer's Beijing Olympics in protest at the handling of events in Tibet is not yet an official policy of any government or major human rights organization.

But actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has told Reuters he believes it would be "unconscionable" to attend the Games if China fails to deal with  peacefully with the latest unrest.

Do you think Britain -- or Britons -- should boycott the Games over Tibet?

Britain has long regarded Tibet as autonomous while recognising the special position of the Chinese there but has often been criticised by activists who accuse it of being supine over the issue, preferring not to rock the boat by, for example,  allowing the Dalai Lama to meet the prime minister on his visits to the UK and refraining from trenchant public criticism of Beijing over human rights in Tibet. The Dalai Lama next visits Britain in May.

With international attention increasingly focused on China ahead of the Games, has the time come to take a stand, or would such a move merely aggravate the lot of the Tibetans? 

Once, kids had to work hard to become famous.

Whatever their chosen route, it would usually involve endless hours of practice -- be it in the gym, on the pitch, at the keyboard or on the stage.

Now, with the advent of the reality TV star and the explosion of shows like the X Factor, America's Next Top Model, Laguna Beach and the like, it seems anyone can do it and earn themselves millions in the process.

In the meantime, the media obsession with celebrities like David Beckham and Paris Hilton reinforces the yearning for stardom.

No wonder then, perhaps, that many children think it's hardly worth bothering with their studies any more, as a survey of teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

"Celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable," the Association said.

Are kids becoming dangerously celebrity-obsessed these days or do they still have their heads screwed on? And if it really is a problem, should schools be trying to counter the trend more actively?

On the same day as heroes from the Iraq and Afghan wars are being decorated comes news that life on the streets of Britain for the average squaddie in uniform can be a trial.

So persistent has been the abuse shouted out in Peterborough to personnel from the nearby base of RAF Wittering that the station commander has ordered them to wear civilian clothes in the city.

The insults come from a small minority opposed to the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, says the government. Not so, says the Daily Mail which quotes airbase officials as saying they come from a cross-section of the community.

Lack of public respect for the armed forces appears to extend beyond the boundaries of Peterborough. Last September, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, complained there were no U.S.-style ceremonies for homecoming troops and the Royal British Legion launched a campaign calling on ministers to mend the "broken military covenant."

Stung by these accusations, Gordon Brown ordered a review last year into public attitudes towards the military, which is expected to recommend scrapping any remaining curbs on troops wearing uniform off duty.

Would you welcome such a recommendation? And do you agree that we at home are not supporting our troops on the ground as much as we should?

Author Jacqueline Wilson says she thinks children these days are growing up too fast.

Some may feel she has pandered in the past to this tendency with titles like "Girls in Love" or the pupil-teacher romance of "Love Lessons" and she herself says it can look as though she is pushing for teenagers to have more freedom.

"But, it's not what I believe," she says, advocating a firm stance against teeenage strops and their demands for ever more freedoms.

At the same time, a survey suggests most British parents think childhood is over by 11.

These opinions express a growing feeling that childhood is a precious time which is being overrun by adult notions, ranging from what extra-curricular activities kids should do in their spare time to the now-infamous Health and Safety-inspired ideas of what's just too risky nowadays.

(And those small, glossy women's magazines read by young girls in their thousands are enough to make any parent tremble at the thought of what their teenage daughters are getting up to.)

Do you believe children are growing up too fast or could the problem be that adults are growing old too fast and imposing their outdated ideas on the younger generation? And if kids are missing out on childhood, how might it be restored? 

The footage of Cornet Wales mucking in near the Afghan front line and zapping "Terry Taliban" is a far cry from the usual pictures of him falling out of nightclubs.

Have they in any way changed your opinion of him?

Was it right for Harry to go to such a dangerous area in Afghanistan, given his own admission that he would have been a "bullet magnet" had he been sent to Iraq?

Was it fair on the soldiers around him to have such a tempting target in their midst?  

And, despite the obvious operational reasons, has the media crossed an important line by agreeing en masse not to report something?

Marks and Spencer is to charge food customers five pence for plastic carrier bags, starting in May, in an effort to help reduce the damage they do to the environment.

The company found in a Northern Ireland trial that charging for carriers cuts their use by around 70 percent. If that holds good across the country it would amount to something like 280 million bags saved.

Standard plastic bags can take 100 years to decompose in landfill sites and in the UK more than 13 billion of them are given to shoppers every year -- working out at roughly 220 bags a year for each one of us.

Many supermarkets are introducing bags with recycled elements and the move by M&S is to be applauded, but in the wider context of the excess packaging debate, is it enough?

Some of the families of the five prostitutes murdered by Steve Wright have called for the reintroduction of the death penalty, which was effectively abolished in Britain over 40 years ago.

Such calls usually surface in the wake of criminal atrocities when feelings are running high but surveys consistently show a considerable public demand for the reintroduction of capital punishment.

The likelihood of the rope coming back is remote at the moment: all three main parties are opposed to the idea -- some apparently more than others -- and Britain's membership of the European Union and its commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights would not allow it.

But are the enormity of some crimes, particularly terrorist attacks over the last decade, and a widespread perception that courts and laws in Britain are too soft on criminals beginning to influence the debate?

Is there a place for capital punishment on the UK statute books? 

Ever since he set sail for Cuba from Mexico in the dead of night 52 years ago aboard the Granma, Fidel Castro has been a towering figure on the world stage.

His toppling of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and the establishment of a communist state within swimming distance of Florida was to provoke one of the most infamous humiliations of the Cold War and its indisputably most dangerous moment.

The first was the 1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco, in which a band of Cuban exiles funded by the Kennedy administration failed miserably in an attempt to retake the island. The people, they realised to their cost, liked Fidel and were not about to rise against him.

The second, the following year, was the Cuban missile crisis, when he allowed Moscow to station nuclear missiles on Cuba, prompting a stand-off between the Kremlin and the White House which brought the world within a whisker of nuclear war.

His supporters point to very real Socialist achievements like the island’s health services. He himself once said: “One of the greatest benefits of the revolution is that even our prostitutes are college graduates.” 

His detractors, principally his implacable exiled foes in Miami, revile him as a tyrant.

Do you believe his quitting the stage will make any difference to Cuba’s future direction? Was the island in a sense being held a hostage to history by his presence?

Or had he already become just the figurehead of a government that intends to remain firmly on its Communist course?    

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, now on the establishment side of the barricades as a member of the European parliament, says the rebels of 1968 had a much more positive feeling towards the future than protesters do nowadays.

"Now there is more anxiety and fear," he tells Reuters in an interview marking the 40th anniversary of the social upheavals that swept through many Western countries.

Campaigns nowadays may back specific causes but they don't aim to change the world, the way they did in 1968, say grizzled veterans of the barricades. Some claim 1968 was the year of the "Big Bang" in terms of social protest, never to be repeated.

Maybe it's because students nowadays face too much pressure to conform, to get jobs, to earn money. Maybe there are not enough causes around -- or at least not enough of them that require a complete revolution in society to resolve.

But what about global warming, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and that old chestnut, the ills of global capitalism? Don't they count as big issues?

Should today's students be making themselves heard a bit more? Or was 1968 another world?