FLOBBALOBBALOB may sound like gibberish but for anyone of a certain age it can only mean one thing - two characters who live in plant pots at the bottom of the garden.

Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, along with their friend Little Weed, became stars throughout the early days of children's television.

Spending most of their time in hiding, they would only come out when the gardener went for his dinner and Weed gave the all-clear. Then they would peer over the top of their pots and the fun would begin.

Now Bill and Ben are being re-potted for a new generation, in a revival which is guaranteed to appeal as much to the parents as their children.

The new Flowerpot Men will be without the strings of the original puppets, with the programme instead using model animation.

And they have also been given a makeover, with yellow arms and lime green bow ties, although fans of the original will be relieved to hear that they have kept their straw hats.

The new series will be shown next year and is the latest in a series of reworkings of children's classics, which have seen new versions of Captain Pugwash and the Wombles, as well as the digitally-restored Thunderbirds now showing.

And for cartoon experts, the decision to revive a programme last seen in 1971 is an indication of the importance of the 30-something market.

"The programme makers have picked up on the idea that there is a baby-boomer generation that is the original audience and will want to watch it again," says Professor Paul Wells, of Teesside University's media and cultural studies department.

"There is also a new market of children who would probably not be able to appreciate the black and whiteness or the 'amateurism' of the original show, which is why they are doing it in a new way to appeal to a new audience.

"They are hoping they will be able to make the link between the baby boomer parents and their children."

But he claims that the revival of Bill and Ben isn't a sign that programme makers are running out of ideas.

"There is a guaranteed audience among adults and it is as good a guess as any about what children want to watch now on television."

The original Bill and Ben was screened in the Watch With Mother slot, ran from 1952 to 1960, and was repeated over the next 11 years. Filming originally took place in a tin shed in the BBC's Lime Grove studio complex, before moving to a purpose-built puppet studio in its Television Centre.

And if the new version proves successful, it could pave the way for a revival of other classics, including Andy Pandy and The Woodentops.

"It might sound pretentious but the term that comes to mind is post-modern nostalgia. It has quite a lot to do with people reliving their childhood," says Dr Michael Anderson, of Newcastle University's Centre for Family Studies.

"There is a lot of debate about children and television, about whether they watch too much and what they are watching, but with this there is a feeling that if it was good enough for us it is good enough for them.

"It is also about trying to regain an innocence that adults imagine themselves having when they were watching these programmes originally."

But he says encouraging children to watch something their parents watched is not necessarily trying to force the values of the past on the next generation.

"It gives parents something they can relate to, both as adults and through memories of being a child. It gives them a point of contact, whereas maybe Bob the Builder or other contemporary programmes do not," he says.

"It could be a bond between parents and children but they will relate to it in different ways. "

The new version of Bill and Ben will again see a narrator on hand to explain what is happening to anyone who doesn't understand flobbalobbalob. And new characters are being introduced to add a little variety to the storylines, in the shape of an earthworm, a hedgehog and a tortoise.

But even if they don't appeal to the younger viewers, it seems certain that the new Flowerpot Men will still be a hit.

"I think it will get a cult following among teenagers in the same way that the Wombles did," says Dr Anderson.

"Not many young children watched it but teenagers watched it in droves and the same thing might happen with Bill and Ben. There might be people who say the fact they speak another language might be harmful for children's linguistic development.

"I don't see where they're coming from but in any case it is not strictly-speaking educational, it is purely entertainment."