The Lampies
| The Lampies | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Entertainment |
| Created by | Dave Bonner |
| Voices of |
Jimmy Hibbert Eve Karpf Rob Rackstraw Susan Sheridan Martin Clunes Neil Morrissey Julia Sawalha Lenny Henry Lorelei King Kate Harbour Marc Silk Su Pollard |
| Composer(s) | Mcasso overseas |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Theresa Plummer-Andrews, James Coldwell |
| Producer(s) | Morgan Francis |
| Editor(s) | Mark Edwards, Rory Timoney |
| Running time | 11 Min |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBBC Cartoon Network |
The Lampies is a children's animated television series created by David Bonner and features a mixture of traditional hand-drawn 2D animation and 3D animation.
Created by David Bonner in conjunction with Uli Meyer Animation Studios and music by Mcasso Music, there are 52 eleven-minute episodes that were originally commissioned by the BBC. Financial issues caused the creative and business drive to falter and momentum was lost. In 2003 The Lampies IP was bought from the receiver by a private investor.
Plot
A group of sprite-like power engineers maintain and defend the lamp post HO32 which is the critical area of the entire Lighting Network. The Roons who live in the sewers below are the creatures who threaten the Lighting Network due to their strong dislike to the presence of light. Sewer rats can also prove to be a pest to the Lampies.
Characters
The Lampies Crew
- Burnout - The laid back Foreman of the Lampies who has to run scheduled switches for the lamp light.
- Matronly Spotlight - The routine inspector of the Lampies.
- Charge - The clumsy, day-dreaming assistant worker of the Lampies.
- Contact - The serious and sensible computer operator of the Lampies.
- Livewire - The cute and feisty young girl of the Lampies, who looks after Dustywugg and is Contact's niece.
- Dustywugg - A furry dog-like sprite who serves as the Lampies pet and mascot.
- Captain Bright Light - The absent-minded captain of the Lampies.
Others
- Brigadier Big Beam - The superior organiser of the Lighting Network.
- Phosphorous - The Brigadier's officer liaison and Charge's love interest.
- Captain Spentflint - Formerly the Lampies' captain and now retired. Criticised as a slave driver.
- Spark - The keeper of a bike light. People like him are called Bikeys.
Episodes
Series 1
| # | Title | Summary | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain Who | The Roons invade HO32 but the newly recruited Captain Bright Light repels them. | September, 28, 2001 |
| 2 | Dustywugg: Space Marine | With the HO32 crew captured by the Roons, Dustywugg inspired by Captain Spectrum, goes superhero. | October, 5, 2001 |
| 3 | Walkabout | Charge runs off from HO32, Dustywugg following him. They both get lost in the sewers, but Dustywugg finds their way back. | October, 12, 2001 |
| 4 | The Inspection | The HO32 crew to try to clean for the Brigadier's inspection, when an alien called Jeff arrives with just what they need. | October, 19, 2001 |
| 5 | Flash By Name | Captain Bright Light dreads a visit from his brother Flash Light. Flash Light is however not what he first appears to be. | October, 26, 2001 |
| 6 | Dustywuppy | Livewire adopts a Dustywuppy who turns out to be extremely messy. Eventually he is returned to his rightful owners. | November, 2, 2001 |
| 7 | Birds Nest Oops | As Charge tries to fix a malfunction in HO32, a pigeon mistakes him for her baby. The lampies solve this and fix HO32. | November, 9, 2001 |
| 8 | Bit of a Jam | Fed up with being pushed around, Livewire runs away and manages to thwart a Roon plot to short circuit HO32. | November, 16, 2001 |
| 9 | Bikey | A Bikey called Spark visits the Lampies and later that night Livewire pays him an exchange visit. | November, 23, 2001 |
| 10 | Thunder and Frightening | The Lampies are missing a Denby Attecorn to prevent the worst during a thunderstorm. Contact manages to get one in time to save HO32. | December, 7, 2001 |
| 11 | Bouncer | On a visit to Burnout's cousin Haywire, Charge rescues a trapped Bouncer, who in turn saves him from a cat. | December, 14, 2001 |
| 12 | Boris | A Pipistrelle Bat named Boris rests in the lamp. As the Roons make a daytime attack, Boris scares them away. | December, 21, 2001 |
| 13 | Decoy | The Roons kidnap Brigadier Big Beam. Using a diversion and the Roons' decoy, the Lampies rescue Big Beam. | January, 4, 2002 |
| 14 | Dick Static | January, 11, 2002 | |
| 15 | Too Many Cooks | Burnout builds a cooking robot to help Spotlight, but the robot hardly improves cooking for the Lampies. | January, 18, 2002 |
| 16 | Striplight | January, 25, 2002 | |
| 17 | Tooth of the Matter | February, 1, 2002 | |
| 18 | Chief Beef | February, 8, 2002 | |
| 19 | Roadworks | February, 15, 2002 | |
| 20 | Pinspot | February, 22, 2002 | |
| 21 | Who Dares Whines | March, 1, 2002 | |
| 22 | Dark and Stormy Night | Separated from her friends, Livewire undergoes a mission to aid Sector 13, which ends successfully. | March, 8, 2002 |
| 23 | Cyber Lampy | March, 15, 2002 | |
| 24 | Return of Geoff | March, 22, 2002 | |
| 25 | And That's Magic | April, 5, 2002 | |
| 26 | Shipmate Charge | April, 12, 2002 |
Series 2
| # | Title | Summary | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neon | October, 25, 2002 | |
| 2 | Save By the Bikey | November, 1, 2002 | |
| 3 | The Boy Who Could See Lampies | PJ, a boy who can see Lampies gets friendly with Spark, Livewire and Dustywugg. | November, 8, 2002 |
| 4 | Space Walk | November, 15, 2002 | |
| 5 | Boogie Lights | November, 22, 2002 | |
| 6 | Pump it up | December, 6, 2002 | |
| 7 | Charge's Sausage Mole | December, 13, 2002 | |
| 8 | Sacked | December, 20, 2002 | |
| 9 | Roon Goo Attack | January, 3, 2003 | |
| 10 | HO32 Squadron | Spark drives a remote controlled airplane to rescue Dustywugg, causing chaos in a hardware store. | January, 10, 2003 |
| 11 | Bike Gone | January, 17, 2003 | |
| 12 | Moth Magic | January, 24, 2003 | |
| 13 | Football Roonigans | February, 7, 2003 | |
| 14 | Lampies Unplugged | February, 14, 2003 | |
| 15 | An Open and Shut Case | February, 21, 2003 | |
| 16 | The Haunted Lamp | February, 28, 2003 | |
| 17 | Lights on Legs | March, 7, 2003 | |
| 18 | House Call | March, 14, 2003 | |
| 19 | The Vacation | March, 21, 2003 | |
| 20 | Watching Over Lois | March, 28, 2003 | |
| 21 | Red Light at Night | The Roons topple the HO32 lamp post. The Lampies try to find an exit before the lamp is crushed at the dump. | April, 4, 2003 |
| 22 | The Goon Roon | April, 11, 2003 | |
| 23 | All That Glitters | April, 18, 2003 | |
| 24 | A Day at the Movies | April, 25, 2003 | |
| 25 | Roon Alert | May, 2, 2003 | |
| 26 | Bright Light in Love | May, 9, 2003 |
Music
The Lampies theme tune was one of the most popular on CBBC, and helped the show gain popularity. It won first place in an International Songwriting Competition in 2006. Written by Mike Connaris of London-based Mcasso Music, the Lampies Title song won the Children's category against huge International competition. The judges included Tom Waits, Chris Hillman, John Mayall and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Lampies released a Christmas single called "Light Up the World for Christmas" in 2001. There is an extended version of the song, which is over two minutes.
Reception
TV distribution rights for Series One were sold into 33 countries."International Songwriting Competition Results". 2006. When series one was broadcast in 2001 it regularly achieved over 40% of target viewing audience. This figure reached over 50% during 2002. Series two of The Lampies was completed in March 2002 and generated similar audience figures with prime slots on BBC 1 and 2.
Availability
An introductory DVD - SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES was launched on 7 April 2008. The first full DVD, Disc 1 Series One - A BIT OF A JAM AND OTHER STORIES was launched on 19 May 2008. LP Productions formed a partnership with Save the Children in 2008. £2 from the sale of each SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES DVD will go towards the Save the Children protection work with very vulnerable children in Mongolia.
References
External links
- The Lampies at the Internet Movie Database
- The Lampies official website
- The Lampies at toonhound.com
- Uli Meyer Animation Studios (TV section)