Trumpton

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Trumpton (1967) is a stop-motion children's television show from the producers of Camberwick Green first shown on the BBC in the 1960s. The third and final series in the sequence was Chigley.

Trumpton was narrated by Brian Cant. The animation was by Bob Bura and John Hardwick and Paquale Ferrari. Scripts are by Alison Prince; all other production details are identical to Camberwick Green.

Contents

[edit] Story and structure

Following Camberwick Green, the action in the new series moves a short distance away to the imaginary town of Trumpton. Each episode begins with a shot of Trumpton Town Hall Clock, "telling the time, steadily, sensibly; telling the time for Trumpton". (The musical box device used in Camberwick Green was dropped from the new series.)

The townsfolk then appear and go about their daily business. These include the Mayor, Mr Troop the Town Clerk, Chippy Minton the carpenter and his apprentice son, Nibbs, Mrs. Cobbit the florist, Miss Lovelace the milliner and her trio of pekingese dogs, and Mr. Platt the clockmaker.

Although all of the characters and settings are new, the style of the programme follows the pattern established by Camberwick Green, in which domestic problems are cheerfully resolved by the end of the show, leaving the last minute or so for the Fire Brigade to become the Fire Brigade Band and play the episode out.

The Fire Brigade are perhaps Trumpton's most-recognised feature. Captain Flack's roll-call was recited in every episode: "Pugh! Pugh! Barney McGrew! Cuthbert! Dibble! Grubb!"[1] They are continually being called out to attend some emergency or other (in many cases to resolve fairly trivial matters); but to Captain Flack's annoyance, never an actual fire. (One reason for this may be that both fire and water would have been too difficult to animate.) However, this doesn't stop the Fire Brigade absent-mindedly getting out the fire hose and receiving a rebuke from Captain Flack ("No no! Not the hose!").

[edit] Notable episodes and events

In the episode "Cuthbert's Morning Off", Cuthbert is omitted from the roll-call because he is on leave. A respectful gap is therefore left in the roll call between Barney McGrew and Dibble. [2] This is also the only time Barney McGrew actually acknowledges his name in the roll call. The events of the episode require the Fire Brigade to find Cuthbert for his aunt.

[edit] Remastered versions

As with Camberwick Green, the original masters seem to be lost; surviving versions often suffer from technical flaws. A digitally restored DVD of the series was released in April 2006 and the restored version currently airs on Noggin and Nick Jr Classics.[citation needed] Although there are noticeable improvements, a number of episodes still exhibit a "rubber picture" effect where the image constantly 'stretches' in and out from the centre of the screen. It is thought that this effect, caused by warping of the original film, would have been too expensive to fix. On these episodes the problem is lessened slightly by cutting in unaffected common sequences from other episodes, such as the Trumpton Clock at the start, numerous fire station and fire engine sequences, and the final 'band show' at the end.

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

  • The show was referenced by the cult 1980s indie band Half Man Half Biscuit in their 1986 song "The Trumpton Riots" which referenced many of the show's characters.
  • In the UK in the early 1990s there were several dance music tracks based on children's TV programmes or short educational films. The Prodigy released the track Charly in 1991 which was then promptly followed in 1992 by Sesame's Treet by the Smart E's and A Trip To Trumpton by Urban Hype which was based on the original Trumpton music by Freddie Phillips with heavy use of Trumpton samples.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Trumptonshire Web - The Radio 4 Gordon Murray Interview. Retrieved on 2007-11-18.
  2. ^ The Trumptonshire Web - Trumptonshire Episode Guide. Retrieved on 2007-11-18.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Trumptonshire
Programmes
Camberwick Green • Trumpton • Chigley
Cast/crew
BBC • Stop motion • Watch with Mother