Fireman Sam In Action

Fireman Sam In Action is a 1996 live-action stage play and a 62-minute film featuring three stories, Fire Station Flood Alert, Dilys’ Attic Fire and Pontypandy Fireworks Party. It was especially filmed for video, based on the Welsh stop-motion TV series, Fireman Sam. The film was released on 1 April 1996 on BBC Video.^[1][2][3] The opening sequence of this film was filmed on location at Aldenham Country Park, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. It features children from Parkside School learning fire safety with Fireman Sam played by Gary Lucas. The show, created by Paragraph International (based at Pinewood Studios) toured worldwide with Writer and Director, Charles Savage for 7 years along with a Postman Pat Musical.

Plot

The video is combined of three separate stories. They are essentially live action versions of stories from the animated series, with a few significant changes. Penny Morris appears in the stage version, though she did not appear in any of the animated versions. Also, each story includes a subplot which wasn't in the cartoon- Elvis being sacked as Fire Station cook, the training film, and Norman's pet hedgehog were all created for the stage play. Bella Lasagna is not introduced until the second story, because Bentley the Robot is played by the same actress.

Fire Station Flood Alert

Station Officer Steele (Ian Sinclair) fires Elvis (Mark Frederick) as the station cook. It gives Fireman Sam (Gary Lucas) an idea. He invents Pancake Prototype One and a robot called Bentley (Sarah Dyall) to be Elvis’ replacement, ("Gently, Bentley"). Whilst spring-cleaning, Elvis, exasperated with Bentley's constant whistling, decides to put his Elvis Presley cassette in the robot. He goes crazy and ends up breaking the stopcock causing a flood in the whole fire station. When it’s all sorted, they start to have what Bentley’s cooked, bangers and mash. It turns out that Bentley isn’t a good cook after all and everyone decides Elvis should be reinstated, ("Elvis Cooks The Lunch").

Dilys’ Attic Fire

A few weeks later, the fire station crew start making a training film with Norman Price (Karen Briffett) as Trevor (Joe Vera)’s gopher. Production of the training film begins. Norman gets bored of being a gopher, so Penny suggests he play the victim in their staged rescue, along with Sam's niece and nephew Sarah (Emma Watt) and James (Kelly East). Later Dilys (Sarah Carleton) looks for treasure in the attic, after reading a magazine article, but the candle that is her torch sets fire in the house. When she’s getting rescued, she argues about not letting go of a valuable vase that she found and could be in danger of breaking and it ends up in Trevor’s hands. Dilys lavishly praises the fire brigade, but they say it's all in a day's work, ("By Jupiter, By Jupiter").

Pontypandy Fireworks Party

On 5 November, the crew are preparing a bonfire for Bonfire Night, under the command of Station Officer Steele, ("The Person In Charge Is Station Officer Steel"). Norman is dressed as a tree and pinches Bella (Sarah Dyall) and Dilys’ bottoms. His plan is foiled by some railings which he ends up getting stuck in. After the crew rescue him from the railings, the whole village chastises him, ("Naughty Norman Price"). Norman introduces his pet hedgehog which he calls Brian. Brian scampers into the bonfire and Norman panics to get him out. The crew set up the guy and light the bonfire but Norman who is searching for Brian is in danger of being killed. After he’s rescued, it’s revealed that Brian was a girl hedgehog and has just had babies. Sam re-christens the hedgehog Bronwyn, but advises Norman to let the hedgehogs go back into their natural habitat. Trevor and Elvis light the bonfire, and the celebrations get underway, ("Remember, Remember The Fifth of November").

Cast

• Gary Lucas as Fireman Samuel "Sam" Jones/Rhys
• Ian Sinclair as Station Officer Basil Steele
• Mark Frederick as Firefighter Elvis Cridlington
• Victoria Edwards as Firefighter Penny Morris
• Joe Vera as Auxiliary Fireman Trevor Evans
• Karen Briffett as Norman Price
• Sarah Carleton as Dilys Price
• Sarah Dyall as Bella Lasagne
• Kelly East as James Jones
• Emma Watt as Sarah Jones
• Sarah Dyall as Bentley the Robot

Soundtrack

• Fireman Sam Theme
• Gently Bentley
• Elvis Cooks the Lunch (the only solo in the show, performed by Elvis Cridlington)
• By Jupiter, By Jupiter
• The Person In Charge Is Officer Steele
• Naughty Norman Price
• Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

The soundtrack was released as Fireman Sam "Ready For Action" was released on an audio cassette by Sony Wonder Records. The audio cassette is no longer available.

Notes