Trumpton

Trumpton
Genre Stop motion animation
Written by Gordon Murray
Narrated by Brian Cant
Theme music composer Freddie Phillips
Country of origin United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 13
Production
Producer(s) Gordon Murray
Running time 15 mins
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
Original run 3 January 1967 –
28 March 1967
Chronology
Preceded by Camberwick Green
Followed by Chigley

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 Pasquale Ferrari. Scripts are by Alison Prince; all other production details are identical to Camberwick Green.

Contents

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; never too quickly, never too slowly; 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 (Mitzi, Daphne and Lulu); 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, Grub."[1] with the exception of "Cuthbert's Morning Off"[2] in which Cuthbert is omitted. 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 after "Right men Action Stations", 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!").

Episodes

  1. "The Printer and the Bill Poster" (3 January 1967)
  2. "Miss Lovelace and the Mayor's Hat" (10 January 1967)
  3. "Mrs Cobbit, the Ice Cream Man and the Branch" (17 January 1967)
  4. "Miss Lovelace and the Statue" (24 January 1967)
  5. "Mr Platt and the Painter" (31 January 1967)
  6. "The Mayor's Birthday" (7 February 1967)
  7. "Telephone" (14 February 1967)
  8. "The Rag and Bone Man" (21 February 1967)
  9. "The Window Cleaner" (28 February 1967)
  10. "Cuthbert's Morning Off" (7 March 1967)[3]
  11. "The Plumber" (14 March 1967)
  12. "Pigeons" (21 March 1967)
  13. "The Greenhouse" (28 March 1967)

Note: Episode titles were given in Radio Times, but were not shown on-screen.

Remastered versions

As with Camberwick Green, the original masters seemed to be lost; surviving versions often suffered 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. Although there are noticeable improvements, a number of episodes still exhibited 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 was 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.

However in 2011 BBC Studios and Post Production digitally restored all 39 episodes of The Trumptonshire Trilogy (Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley) after William Mollett, son in law of the creator Gordon Murray, found some footage buried deep in an attic. He then approached the BBC to see if they could track down the missing 50‐year‐old original footage. They eventually traced it to a BBC vault in Perivale, West London, but it soon became very clear that the age of it meant that the restoration would be a painstaking task. Gordon and William enlisted the expertise of BBC Studios and Post Production who took the footage and frame by frame meticulously cleaned, scanned and digitally restored it.[4]

Appearances in popular culture

VHS and DVD Releases

In 1984, 17 years later after the broadcasts on BBC in 1967. Longman Video released the first four episodes on Video as part of its 'Children's Treasury' collection.

VHS video title Year of release Episodes
Trumpton (SLL 5022) 1983 Nick Fisher the Bill Poster, The Mayor's Hat, Mrs Cobbit and the Ice Cream Man, Miss Lovelace and the Statue.
Trumpton 2 (SLL 5028) 1984 ?

References and notes

  1. ^ "The Trumptonshire Web - The Radio 4 Gordon Murray Interview". http://www.t-web.co.uk/trump_gm.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-18. 
  2. ^ "The Trumptonshire Web - Trumptonshire Episode Guide". http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumpepg.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-21. 
  3. ^ 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 between the names Barney McGrew and Dibble. 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. "Trumptonshire Web — Trumptonshire Episode Guide" T-Web.co.uk
  4. ^ http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/trumptonshire/restoring_trumptonshire_trilogy.html
  5. ^ Steven Moffat quoted in "Doctor Who star Matt Smith on sonic screwdrivers, Steven Moffat and following David Tennant", Neil Midgley, The Telegraph, 11 March 2010.

External links

Programmes
Camberwick Green • Trumpton • Chigley
Cast/crew