Pipkins

Pipkins (originally Inigo Pipkin) was a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981.

Pipkins was one of the first children's programmes on British TV where the characters had regional accents (Pig had a Black Country accent while Topov the monkey was a Cockney and Octavia the ostrich had a French accent).

Origins

In 1972, the ITV network expanded its daytime broadcasting hours and the Independent Broadcasting Authority commissioned four of the main ITV companies to each provide a series of interest to pre-schoolers, as an alternative to the successful US import Sesame Street. From this commission Thames Television came up with Rainbow, Yorkshire with Mister Trimble, Granada with Hickory House, while ATV’s contribution would be Inigo Pipkin.

Inigo Pipkin was first shown on New Year's Day 1973. When the show started, the main character was an elderly puppet maker called Inigo Pipkin (hence the original title), played by actor George Woodbridge. The puppets were his creations, and over the course of the first series, viewers saw Mr. Pipkin bring to life Hartley Hare and The Tortoise (aka George) played by Nigel Plaskitt and Topov the monkey, Pig and Octavia the ostrich all played by Heather Tobias.

However, Woodbridge died in March 1973, during the recording of the second series. In 1974, in a first for children's television, Inigo's death was worked into the programme, predating the Mr. Hooper episode on Sesame Street by nine years. From this episode onwards the show was renamed Pipkins, and Inigo's assistant, Johnny (Wayne Laryea), took over. The direction of the programme had to change; from here on in the show ceased to centre around a puppet workshop and the characters became "The Help People", helping anyone in need of a hand. (In Death of a Goldfish) they replayed the episode except by acting on behalf of a death of a pet. Topov the monkey and Johnny discussed why the goldfish died and why do people die?

Johnny left Pipkins around 1978, to be replaced by Tom (Jonathan Kydd), who moved on in 1980, his place taken by Peter Potter (Paddy O'Hagan). In later years Sue Nicholls made regular appearances as the Pipkins' neighbour, Mrs Muddle. The name was somewhat ironic as she was always a calming, self-assured presence around the puppets.

The familiar workshop set was replaced in 1979 (in the story "Moving Out") with new interiors based around a kitchen and backyard. The new set was built up from ground level to enable puppeteers to work standing up and to move around more freely, modelled on the methods used by The Muppet Show which was also filmed at ATV's Elstree Studios.

Cancellation

The programme ended when ATV was restructured and became Central Independent Television, and was replaced by Let's Pretend. In common with other 1970s shows, a lot of Pipkins episodes, including the first Inigo Pipkin, are missing from the archives (poor storage of former ATV master-tapes has also led to the loss of many shows). However, Nigel Plaskitt, who played Hartley, made off-air recordings of many episodes and some of these have been released on DVD in the UK.

The series was made at ATV's Elstree studios with occasional filming on location. For the Inigo Pipkin episodes, the opening and closing titles were sung by Jackie Lee, who had earlier sung the themes to children's programmes The Adventures of Rupert Bear and White Horses.

Cast

References

• Simon Sheridan The A to Z of Classic Children's Television (Reynolds & Hearn books, 2004, reprinted 2007) ISBN 1-903111-27-7. Features a chapter on the making of the series and an interview with Nigel Plaskitt.

External links

• Official Pipkins website
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Pipkins at the Internet Movie Database
• Inigo Pipkin/Pipkins at TV.com