''Fifi and the Flowertots'' is a British preschool children’s

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

created by Keith Chapman (who also created the ''

Bob the Builder ''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment which ran from to in the United Kingdom through the CBBC strand and later CBeebies. The series centres on the adventures ...

'' series) that ran from 2 May 2005 until 5 July 2010. The series was commissioned by Channel 5 and Nick Jr. and was the first production produced by

Chapman Entertainment Chapman Entertainment Limited was a British television production company founded by Keith Chapman and Greg Lynn and based in London. The company focused on producing content aimed at pre-school audiences. History 2001-2008 The company was foun ...

Cosgrove Hall Films Cosgrove Hall Films was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, headquartered in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films, which are s ...

handled animation production for its first two seasons while Chapman took over stop-motion production in-house for the third, with newly-added CGI sequences produced by Studio Liddell. The series features a group of flower-and-insect-based characters doing activities and having adventures through the garden. Fifi Forget-Me-Not (the title character and hostess) and Primrose were voiced by

Jane Horrocks Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed Bubble and Katy Grin in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous''. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage pl ...

, while the other characters were voiced by

Maria Darling Maria Darling is a British voice actress who has provided many character voices for children's television programmes in the United Kingdom and the United States. She is known for voicing Dizzy and Roley in the US version of Bob the Builder. T ...

Tim Whitnall Timothy Charles Whitnall (born 27 June 1961) is an English actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is known for playing Angelo in the long-running CITV series ''Mike and Angelo'' and narrating the BBC Children's Television programme ''Teletubbi ...

Marc Silk Marc Silk (born 14 September 1972) is a British voice actor. Career During his school years, Silk was a quiet student who was aspiring for creativity. He presented a mock radio show for his media course, in which he performed an "unusual mix" ...

and John Thomson. The music is produced by Alan Coates and Kim Goody, who worked on '' Tiny Planets''.

Characters

* Fifi Forget-Me-Not (voiced by

) – The cheerful hostess of the series and a

forget-me-not ''Myosotis'' ( ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. The name comes from the Ancient Greek "mouse's ear", which the foliage is thought to resemble. In the Northern Hemisphere, they are colloquially known as forget-me-no ...

. She says hello at the beginning of each episode, and she says goodbye at the end. When she forgets what to do, she says: "Fiddly Flowerpetals!" before describing the problem for the audience to guess, and when she remembers, another character says: "Fifi Forget-Me-Not forgot!" while her catchphrase, sometimes, when she forgets what to do, is "Buttercups and Daisies!" and when something is wrong she says: "Diggly

Dandelions ''Taraxacum'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus has a near-cosmopolitan distribu ...

!" She likes to cook and look after plants, and lives in a watering can house. She also loves her stuffed toy rabbit, named Cottonsocks. *Bumble (Fuzzbuzz in the United States) (voiced by

) – A good-natured

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

who is Fifi's best friend. He often visits her and is always ready to rescue her, but he isn't good at landing and usually crashes. His catchphrases are "Wiggly Worms!" and "Bouncing Blueberries!" He's also very, very helpful, but nearly every time he tries to help Fifi remember something, he often adds to the confusion. * Aunt Tulip (voiced by

) – Fifi's aunt, who likes to have tea parties and chats with the Flowertots. Her personality is described as very motherly and lively. She lives in a pineapple house and she has a pet

grub GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a use ...

named Grubby, who is very small and often goes missing easily. Her catchphrase is "Sweet Potatoes!" She also loves tropical things and

Hawaiian culture The culture of the Native Hawaiians encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms practiced by the original residents of the Hawaiian islands, including their knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits. Huma ...

. *Buttercup (voiced by

Joanna Ruiz Joanna Ruiz (born ) is a British voice actress. She has mainly done voice acting for children's television shows. She attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. List of credits * ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'' – Casper (UK) (1991) * ...

) – A

buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed worldwide, primarily in temperate an ...

who lives in a milk bucket house with her twin sister Daisy. She has a stuffed toy mouse named Cornflower, so named because of its lovely blue colour. She has a very fun-loving, excitable and lively personality and frequently has good intentions, but ends up causing problems as she is often unaware of the consequences. Whenever she and Daisy play with Pip, she comes off as very irritated. *Daisy (voiced by Janet James) – A daisy who is shy and dreamy, just like her twin sister Buttercup, but is a little bit clumsy. She likes her stuffed comfort toy duckling named Diddyduck. Her personality is affectionate and polite. She had her head in the clouds in the first two seasons, but Buttercup's name was never mentioned until Season Three. She and Buttercup love playing games with Pip. *Poppy (Poppady in the United States) (voiced by Maria Darling) – A

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...

who is one of Fifi's friends. She's quite boisterous and very hard-working. She has a market stall where she sells everything the Flowertots need for each episode. She lives in a pumpkin house. *Primrose (voiced by Jane Horrocks) – A primrose who is one of Fifi's friends. She is prim and proper and doesn't like getting messy, always wanting to look her best and getting upset when something goes wrong for her. She likes to create apparel for herself and tries to dress Fifi up. Her catchphrase is "I am NOT having a good day!" Sometimes, when Primrose does better, she says "Bothering Bluebells!". *Violet (voiced by

) – A

violet Violet may refer to: Common meanings * Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue * One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly: ** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants Places United States * Vi ...

who is one of Fifi's friends. She is very creative and loves painting. Violet lives with Primrose in a marrow house and is much more elegant, graceful and kind-hearted, regarding to Primrose. * Pip Gooseberry (voiced by Maria Darling) – A

gooseberry Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of ''Ribes'' (which also includes Ribes, currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance, and also several unrela ...

who is the youngest of the Flowertots besides Buttercup and Daisy. He likes to help Fifi and Bumble in the garden, although he is sometimes very noisy and gets excited easily. Fifi looks after him when Stingo and Slugsy play tricks on him. While he may come off as overly energetic to some people due to his young age, he has a very big heart and genuinely cares about everyone. He lives in the gooseberry bushes in his playground. His catchphrases are "Golly Goosegogs!" and "Golly Gooseberries!", although, on rare occasions, he says "Great Green Goosegogs!" * Stingo (voiced by Tim Whitnall) – A short-tempered

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

who causes trouble for the Flowertots. He tries to steal food such as cakes, blueberries, and chocolate, and lives in a red apple house. His catchphrase is "Rotten

Raspberries The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...

!" Though Stingo is very naughty, he's not like that all the time and surprisingly has some good intentions. He has a brother-like relationship with his sidekick and best friend Slugsy. *Slugsy (voiced by

) – A simple-minded

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...

and Stingo's sidekick who lives at the top of his house and speaks with a lisp. He is always ready to help Stingo, but is very slow and often accidentally ruins Stingo's plans. He also has a crush on Primrose, but doesn't want to admit it. * Flutterby (voiced by Tim Whitnall) – A

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

who takes Buttercup and Daisy around the garden and has a landing pad near the girls' house. * Webby (voiced by Maria Darling) – A

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

who is the eldest and the wisest resident of Flowertot Garden. The Flowertots ask her for advice and help; however, Stingo and Slugsy avoid her not to hit the web she was spinning. Meanwhile, others consider her "so-called" as she lives in a web house. * Mo – Fifi's

lawn mower A lawn mower (also known as a grass cutter or simply mower, also often spelled lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a lawn, grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by ...

, who takes the harvest and the Flowertots around the garden. * Diggly (voiced by Nick Wilson) – a grumpy but funny

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

. He lives on the compost heap and eats scraps but prefers

pumpkin pie Pumpkin pie is a dessert pie with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard filling. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie are both a symbol of harvest time, and pumpkin pie is generally eaten during the fall and early winter. In the United States and Canada it is u ...

s. He gets irritated all the time, even more than Primrose and Buttercup. * Hornetto (voiced by Tim Whitnall) – A

hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the Eusociality, eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to yellowjackets, their close relatives. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other Vespi ...

who speaks with an Italian accent. He is Stingo's cousin.

Episodes

Series overview

Series 1 (2005)

Series 2 (2006)

Series 3 (2010)

Merchandising and overseas broadcast

In June 2004, Vivid Imaginations was signed as the master toy licensee for the series. In October,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

and

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

signed UK deals to release books and magazines based on the series. In April 2005, it was announced that

2 Entertain 2 Entertain Video Limited, trading as BBC Studios Home Entertainment, is a British video and music publisher founded in 2004 following the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International by BBC Worldwide and the Woolworths Group respe ...

had acquired British home video rights. In June 2007,

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (stylised as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turn ...

picked up distribution rights to the series for North America and Japan.https://www.c21media.net/news/hit-races-away-with-roary-fifi/

References

External links

Fifi and The Flowertots official site

''Fifi and The Flowertots'' on Nick Jr. UK
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifi and The Flowertots Television series by Universal Television 2000s British animated television series 2010s British animated television series 2000s British children's television series 2010s British children's television series 2005 animated television series debuts 2005 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings 2000s preschool education television series 2010s preschool education television series Animated preschool education television series British children's animated comedy television series British children's animated fantasy television series British educational television series British preschool education television series British stop-motion animated television series Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming Claymation television series British English-language television shows Nick Jr. original programming S4C original programming Television series by Cosgrove Hall Films Universal Kids original programming Treehouse TV original programming