If The Wonder Girls has a soundtrack it's The Devil's Galop, composed by Charles Williams for, Dick Barton Special Agent a radio show of the late 1940s. The music is really a decade too late for my girls but that didn't stop it playing on loop in my head as I was writing.
The Devil's Galop is the sound of 'girls own' 'boys own' Dan(iella) Dare stories, the type I might have found in Christmas annuals, tales of derring-do, children overcoming against evil grown ups, of Scooby Doo. It's the sound of a chase, helpless victims strapped to the railway tracks by moustachioed villains evilly guffawing as they tighten the belt. It's the sound of running, skidding round corners, hurtling through streets at breakneck speed. I'm not actually a fan of running unless I can do it in my head but I am of resisting, which is also best done in the street.
We are living in the days of children taking action, resisting those adults, who through ignorance, greed or stupidity, are bent on catastrophe. I was really pleased to be with the climate strikers on Friday here in Southampton - brilliant turn out, kids addressing the crowds, lots of noise and marching through the middle of Above and Below Bar, Southampton's main shopping streets with horn blowing approval.
The Wonder Girls, a story about girls, boys and a dog resisting fascism, is set over 80 years ago but the story's for now. Children in 2019 are resisting too. I hope you'll join them.