After the 2020 Emmy-nominated success of Snoopy In Space, those assigned to keeping Charles M Schulz's characters alive have carved out more fun japes. In October last year, just as Peanuts celebrated its 70th anniversary, it was announced that Snoopy would be back with another set of his very own spin-off tales. Whereas the 2015 Peanuts movie injected the franchise with a blindingly sharp 3D aesthetic, The Snoopy Show is a full-on blast from a visual past that anyone born around the 1960s/70s mark will psychologically carry with them today.

In his head, Snoopy is an adventurous mountaineer, a derring-do pilot and a commander of the high seas, while in reality he's a regular, happy-go-lucky beagle with a largely absent owner (Charlie Brown: 'I never know what's going on') and an unlikely best friend in a chirpy yellow canary called Woodstock. A delusional, daydreaming dog (Walter Mutty?), Snoopy was always merely one adorable creation among a flurry of cuteness, but here he is front and centre for six 25-minute episodes split into three separate scenarios.

With a remit not to include any technology beyond the mid-70s and to keep the adults very much in the background (off-camera, a teacher makes indecipherable demands), there's barely a sour soul in the whole cast. At its very worst, the wannabe psychiatrist Lucy (whose ad-hoc sessions still cost just a nickel) carries the odd frown and throws out an occasional bitter remark, but this is overwhelmingly an undiluted charmfest, with Linus' comfort blanket working as the perfect visual metaphor.

There's a simplicity to all this which should seduce its veteran fanbase and hopefully gather up a newer crowd that might be looking for something only slightly more substantial than a torrent of TikTok vids. If watching The Snoopy Show leaves you cold or even hostile, then Charlie Brown has something to exclaim at you: 'good grief!'

All episodes available now on Apple TV+.