Zippy (Rainbow)

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Zippy is a fictional character on the children's television programme Rainbow. Zippy is an orange puppet with a huge rugby ball shaped oval head, big blue eyes and a zip for a mouth. His voice was first provided by Peter Hawkins, later by Roy Skelton. Ronnie Le Drew operated the character.

The character retains a cult following among those who watched the show as a child. He is probably the most famous character from the show, probably because he was the only one who really spoke his mind and would make for hours of laughter. He is one of the most famous puppets ever (even if he did only have one hand).

Due to his frequently loud behaviour getting him into all sorts of trouble, other characters in Rainbow would literally zip his mouth shut, rendering him unable to talk. Oddly, Zippy would never simply un-zip himself, preferring to stay down in the dumps.

In a The Sun tabloid newspaper article headlined "Revealed: Why lost star Zippy is orange", Zippy's [orange colour is apparently due to presenter Geoffrey Hayes following Dundee United F.C. when living in Dundee, Scotland, during the 1960s and 1970s. The show's producers were set to make Zippy blue - the colour of neighbouring rivals Dundee F.C. - but Geoffrey was determined otherwise.

Zippy was going to be blue before I begged the producers to make him tangerine. One of the most common questions I'm asked is "What in God's name is Zippy meant to be?" You have me, a big bear, and a pink hippo and then there's Zippy. I don't think anyone has a clue what he's meant to be, but I do know why he's tangerine. It's because - like me - he's a Dundee United fan. I lived in Dundee for much of the 60's and even came back a few times in the 70's. I had very happy times there and my fondest memories are of going to Tannadice Park one week and Dens Park the next. I became a United fan. They were languishing in the Second Division in those days, playing teams like Brechin and Alloa. Dundee were the strong successful team at the time, but we thought United played the more attractive football. Because of that I was determined Zippy was not going to be blue.

In a BBC online poll for March 2006, Zippy was named as Britain's favourite sporting celebrity by a landslide margin with 47% of the vote.^[1] Described as Dundee United's biggest fan, several newspapers including the Daily Record, The Courier and Sunday Herald also covered the story in print and online. The poll included lifelong Port Vale F.C. fan Robbie Williams and Delia Smith, a director at Norwich City F.C.. In second place with 9.74% was movie star and Sheffield United F.C. fan Sean Bean. The poll attracted more than 15,000 votes.

There has been talk recently of Zippy presenting a new TV show entitled "British Railways with Zippy", which will have Zippy travelling on his favourite railway routes throughout the UK.

Zippy is currently part of an advertising campaign for Portuguese ketchup brand "Vitakrone".

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