Fireman Sam
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Fireman Sam (Welsh: Sam Tân) is a stop-motion animation Welsh children's television programme about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other townspeople in the Welsh town of Pontypandy (a mix of two actual places, Pontypridd and Tonypandy, in the South Wales valleys). The original idea for Fireman Sam came from two ex-firemen from Kent. They took their idea to S4C who saw the potential in the series and commissioned it.
Fireman Sam first appeared on BBC television and S4C television between 1985 and 1986 and remains popular to this day. Fireman Sam has been sold to over 40 countries, from Australia to Norway and is used across the UK to promote fire safety.
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[edit] Original series
The series comprised 32 10-minute episodes a 20-minute Christmas special & a firework bonfire night special. The narration and character voices were done by John Alderton
Sam is the protagonist in the show, and interacts with both colleagues at the fire station and local townspeople.
In the original 1985/6 - 1994 series produced by Bumper Films, the Fire brigade staff had black clothes whereas in the 2003-05 series produced by Hit Entertainment they are yellow and blue.
[edit] Firefighters
- Fireman Sam is referred to as the "hero next door". He is the archetypal fireman, who remains composed in an emergency and unfailingly offers assistance to all those in need. Sam is not married, but maintains a close relationship with his nephew, James, and niece, Sarah. Sam's tragic flaw is a penchant for invention, which rarely results in a productive outcome, and can undermine his emphasis on fire safety.
- Elvis Cridlington provides a contrast to Sam in both competency and demeanour. Elvis is an exuberant rock 'n' roll fan and an appalling cook. He failed his 11+ exam at school.
- Station Officer Steele is the chief of Pontypandy Fire Station. As a former army officer, he insists upon a high standard of both hygiene and efficiency in the station.
- Penny Morris is the only female member of the Pontypandy fire brigade. She is originally from Newtown, and doubles as a mechanic.
- Trevor Evans is an auxiliary fireman with the brigade. His day job is as the town bus driver. He is known for his awkward manner and general bad luck streak, but nonetheless exhibits a great devotion to the welfare of others (especially Dilys).
- Jupiter is a bright red fire engine.
- Venus is a rescue tender. It is driven by Penny Morris and kept at Newtown Fire Station.
[edit] Townspeople
- Dilys Price runs the town grocery store. She is a well known gossip, and has great affection for Trevor, the bus driver. Dilys is the mother of town mischief-maker Norman, but is frequently blind to her son's troublesome ways.
- "Naughty" Norman Price is a seven year old with a love of practical jokes and skateboarding. Unfortunately, Norman regularly fails to set appropriate limits on his own behaviour, and has been known to wreak havoc with the lives of Pontypandy residents.
- Sarah and James are the relatively well behaved niece and nephew of Fireman Sam.
- Bella Lasagne is the absent-minded town cafe owner, originally from Italy.
- Rosa is Bella's temperamental cat.
The firefighters attend to emergencies in their fire truck Jupiter and Penny drives Venus, the red rescue tender.
[edit] Commercial Availability
Only two DVDs have so far been released; Action Stations, containing what are believed to be some of the better episodes, and Snow Business, containing the Christmas special and two other episodes, Safe with Sam and Rich and Famous. A further DVD of original series episodes was available from the newspaper The Sunday Mirror in 2006, but only contained two episodes. However, a boxset of the first three series of 1985 - 1994 including the fourth of 2005 is due for release on March 26th 2007 in the UK, most likely to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the show since 1985.
Most of the original episodes have been made available on VHS previously (on The Hero Next Door, released in the United States and Canada by Family Home Entertainment and the United Kingdom by BBC Video), but apart from a VHS version of Action Stations these are all now out of print.
[edit] New series
A new series of Fireman Sam was produced between 2003 and 2005 by Siriol Productions (now known as Calon TV), comprising of 26x10 min episodes, using up to date puppet-making, mouth movement and stop-motion animation techniques. It features all the original characters, but adds some new characters:
- Tom Thomas, the Australian pilot of Wallaby One, the rescue helicopter
- The Flood Family: Mike Flood (Pontypandy's odd job man), Nurse Flood (a nurse of Jamaican origin) and their daughter Mandy (a bit of a mischief maker, like Norman Price)
- Dusty, a stray dog
Instead of having all of the voices done by one person, there were three principal voice artists. John Alderton was not one of them. The voice of Sam was provided by John Sparkes
The new series has been broadcast and translated into several different languages, and is available on DVD.
From 2006, a live show of the series toured the UK, and a DVD of the live show is also available.
[edit] Theme Tune
The series had a theme tune composed by Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson. The lyrics were written by Robin Lyons, and sung by Maldwyn Pope. A full length version was also released.
The new series theme tune followed a similar tune but slightly more funky, although the lyrics differed greatly, and it was now sung by Cameron Stewart, a maths teacher from South Wales.[1] Some of the lyrics were originally used in the full length version of the original theme tune.
[edit] Spoofs
There are a variety of spoof versions of Fireman Sam in which original footage has been re-recorded or re-dubbed with new adult content. These are quite common on sites such as YouTube
[edit] References
- ^ "On track to indie fame", Penarth Times, June 16, 2005. Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
