Hector's House (originally La Maison de Toutou) is a children's television series using hand puppets. Like the better-known The Magic Roundabout it was a French production (by Europe Images SA and Tellytales Enterprises) revoiced for a British audience. A gentle series, it was first broadcast in 1965.
The Magic Roundabout is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the video of the French stop motion animation show Le Manège enchanté, but with completely different scripts and characters.
The French series, created by Serge Danot with the help of Ivor Wood and Wood's French wife, Josiane, was broadcast from 1964 to 1974 on ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française). The BBC originally rejected translating the series because it was "charming... but difficult to dub into English",but later produced a version of the series using the French footage with new English-language scripts that bore little relation to the original storylines. This version, written and narrated by Eric Thompson, was broadcast in 441 five-minute-long episodes from 18 October 1965 to 25 January 1977. It proved a great success and attained cult status, and when in October 1966 it was moved from the slot just before the evening news to an earlier children's viewing time, adult viewers complained to the BBC.
Trumpton is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of Camberwick Green. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley.
Muffin the Mule is a puppet character in British television programmes for children. The puppet had been made in 1933 for Hogarth Puppets.
The Herbs is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond (creator of Paddington Bear), directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1 Watch with Mother timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long.
A spin-off series entitled The Adventures of Parsley was transmitted from 6 April 1970 in the 5-minute period between the end of children's TV and the BBC Evening News. This had 32 episodes, some of which were released on VHS as Parsley the Lion and Friends.
The Herbs consisted of a fantasy mix of human and animal characters inhabiting the magical walled garden of a country estate. At the beginning of each episode, the narrator (Gordon Rollings) spoke the magic word, "Herbidacious", which caused the garden gate to open.
As with The Magic Roundabout, the sophisticated writing style and narrative delivery of The Herbs meant that the appeal was somewhat broader than was originally intended, and much of Parsley's droll humour undoubtedly went over the heads of the age group that was its main target. Consequently, it still retains a following among those who watched it when it was first broadcast.
Sooty is a glove puppet television, stage, comic book and film character, who is a small yellow male bear with black ears and nose who likes to perform magic tricks and play practical jokes. Although mute to the audience, he is said to be able to communicate by 'whispering' in the ear of his handler. He was created by Harry Corbett in 1948. Sooty debuted on local television in 1952, and the children's television shows that bear his name have continued in various forms since 1955.
According to Guinness World Records, together they are the longest-running "non consecutive" children's programme in the UK, with 857 episodes being aired as of 30 October 2018. Blue Peter holds the record for the world's longest running children's program.
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1980. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?" Arguably, Marx was the most well-known toy company through the late mid 20th century.
