''The Animal Shelf'' is a British 1997–2000 animated children's television series produced by

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 ...

, and based on the books written and illustrated by British writer Ivy Wallace about a group of talking toy animals who live in Timothy's

bedroom A bedroom or bedchamber is a room situated within a residential or accommodation unit characterized by its usage for sleeping. A typical Western world, western bedroom contains as bedroom furniture one or two beds, a clothes closet, and bedsid ...

. Aimed particularly at pre-school children, ''the Animal Shelf'' first aired on ITV running for 4 seasons and 52 episodes, running from 25 June 1997 to 3 August 2000.

Characters

* Timothy (voiced by Susan Sheridan in the United Kingdom and Marc Donato in the United States) is the shelf animals' young and friendly owner who occasionally goes to school (and sometimes a few other places). Like all of the other human characters in the programme (apart from Mr Trigg, who is only shown from the neck down), only his

shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...

is seen on-screen. * Gumpa the

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

(voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK and Chris Marren in the US) is the leader of the shelf animals, and is the oldest of Timothy's five toy animals. * Little Mutt (voiced by Susan Sheridan in the United Kingdom and

Jill Frappier Jill Frappier is a British-Canadian voice actress. Frappier was born in Lord Louis Mountbatten's stately home, Broadlands, in Romsey, England. She moved to Canada in 1967 to work as a British hostess at the British pavilion during the 1967 ...

in the United States) is a tiny white dog or bear with a pink bow, who is still close friends with Gumpa. * Woeful the

Monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

(voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK and

David Berni David Berni is a Canadian actor, stand-up comedian and writer. Life and career Berni is well known for voicing Frank on '' Go, Dog. Go!'', Bernie on ''Ollie's Pack'' and Bird Bud on '' The Snoopy Show''. He is also known for voicing Brent Mclean ...

in the US) wears a red fez and coat. He often acts, and speaks, without thinking. * Stripey the

Zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

(voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the United Kingdom and

Jen Gould Jennifer "Jen" Gould (born March 10, 1971) is a Canadian actress. She won the 2008 Juno Award for Children's Album of the Year for ''Music Soup''. She is also known for her role as Hotaru Tomoe, and her alter ego Sailor Saturn, in the Clover ...

in the United States) is thoughtful, kind, wise, and is Getup's best friend. In the United Kingdom version, Stripey himself speaks with an

West Country Accent West Country English is a group of English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of the West Country, an area found in the southwest of England. The West Country is often defined as encompassing the officia ...

. * Getup the

Giraffe The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...

(voiced by Susan Sheridan in the United Kingdom and

Linda Ballantyne Linda Anne Hodgins is a Canadian voice actress, who is best known for voicing the title role of Serena Tsukino/Sailor Moon in the second half of the original English version of ''Sailor Moon''. Early life Ballantyne was born to Gloria (née Sawy ...

in the United States) is Stripey's black-eyed best friend, with brown hair on her long neck, although she is still close friends with the other four shelf

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

s. Getup often falls over, (mostly onto her tummy) hence the name Getup. In the UK dub, she speaks with a broad English accent. She was originally male in Ivy Wallace's books. * Mr. Trigg (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK) is a friendly pet shop owner. He is the only human character in the show to appear onscreen, albeit only from the neck down. * Parrot (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK) is Mr Trigg's only pet parrot, who enjoys mimicking others. * Mrs Mole and her Baby Moles are a family of moles who live underground. The moles themselves only squeak instead of talking. * Kinker the

Mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

once caught his tail in a mouse trap, but he managed to escape, so he is named after the kink that it left in his tail. He cannot speak, and can only communicate with

body language Body language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use o ...

, although the five shelf animals understand him. * Jick the

Jackdaw Jackdaws are two species of bird in the genus ''Coloeus'' closely related to, but generally smaller than, crows and ravens ('' Corvus''). They have a blackish crown, wings, and tail, with the rest of their plumage paler.Madge & Burn (1994) 136� ...

– A wild jackdaw that takes up residence in the roof of the house near Timothy's garden. In the United States dub, Jick the Jackdaw is renamed as Carl the Crow. *

Squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

- A red squirrel who is the Shelf Animals' second best friend who lives in a tree in Bluebell Wood, not far from Timothy's house. * The Caterpillar – A red and yellow striped

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

with eight pairs of legs who lives in Timothy's front garden near the moles'

trapdoor A trapdoor or hatch is a sliding or hinged door that is flush with the surface of a floor, ceiling, or roof. It is traditionally small in size. It was invented to facilitate the hoisting of grain up through mills, however, its list of uses has ...

. * Roger – Timothy's best friend in Timothy's school who is not at all shown on-screen and mentioned (in some episodes) by Timothy himself.

Episode guide

Every episode in ''The Animal Shelf'' series is 10 minutes long.

Series 1 (1997)

# Stripey to the Rescue – Stripey sets off to rescue Getup when, one dark night, she is kidnapped by a travelling

funfair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

, where she meets Kinker, the squeaky Mouse. Meanwhile, Timothy, the animals' young and friendly owner, comes down with a cold and has to stay in bed, while Doctor tries to cure him. Meanwhile, Stripey himself nearly gets taken to a jumble sale by Mr Tompkins, thinking that he and Getup encourage germs. # Gumpa and the Paintbox – Gumpa fakes illness by printing red spots all over himself, and pretending to have the measles. # Getup Crusoe – When Getup loses all her brown spots after falling in Splashing Stream, the other animals' teasing drives her to set up a solitary home in Bluebell Wood. # Kinker visits The Animal Shelf – Stripey and Getup rescue Kinker the squeaky mouse from Mr Trigg's pet shop. Kinker himself visits the five toy animals in their home. # The Treasure Hunt – Getup and Stripey come across some buried treasure somewhere in Timothy's front garden, but Gumpa only finds some onions on the ground. # Music in the Woods – Timothy wants his animals to help him find five different birds' feathers in Bluebell Wood from School's Nature Table, but Mr Trigg's parrot has other ideas – he wants the toy animals themselves to make their own music, using only some toy musical instruments that Timothy lends to them earlier on. # Woeful and the Waspberries – Woeful ventures into Bluebell Wood in search of some raspberries for Timothy's upcoming birthday. # Gumpa solves a jigsaw puzzle – One warm Spring day sees three of Timothy's animals, including Gumpa, attempt to solve a jigsaw puzzle out in Timothy's front garden. When Timothy is called in for tea, however, Woeful accidentally knocks over the almost-completed jigsaw puzzle, causing one of the jigsaw puzzle's pieces to fly into his bright red hat. # The Trail – The animals enjoy following a series of clues around Timothy's garden, in spite of Squirrel moving one of the clues away, thinking that it is an arrow made entirely out of acorns. # The Model Monster – Inspired by Timothy's model ship, (made out of an eggs box and a cornflake packet) the animals make their own models from old bits and pieces. Gumpa builds himself an

aeroplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

which unfortunately falls to bits shortly before Take-Off, and in spite of a sudden brief Summer shower, Woeful makes himself (and ends up trapped inside) a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

-suit, which soon falls to bits as well.

Series 2 (1998)

# Babysitting for Mrs Mole - Timothy has a long

School A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

day ahead of him, so the five special toy animals try their absolute hardest to look after Mrs Mole’s babies, all while Mrs Mole herself visits her sick sister far away. # Timothy's Pet Balloon – Despite Timothy winning a large model rabbit made out of blue

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

s at Roger's party, the animals are forced to stay one night in a rather disgusting hutch in Timothy's garden, which is ordered in the post by Mr Tompkins. # The Alarm Clock – Timothy has trouble getting out of bed in time for school in the mornings, so his mother decides to have an alarm clock on Timothy's dresser, which unfortunately goes off in the middle of the night, waking up all five animals in the process, including Little Mut. # The Wolf in the Wood – The five toy animals have fantastic fun in Timothy's front garden, building three different houses to live in, but they also have a difficult time dealing with Woeful, who confidently plays the role of the big bad wolf. # Woeful Flies to the Moon – Woeful uses an old litter bin to take Getup and the other four animals to Bluebell Wood for a rather exciting moon walk. # Captain Gumpa – Gumpa acts as a Ship's Captain when he becomes the oldest one out of the five Special animals. # The Hottest Day Of The Year – On a hot

Summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

's day, Timothy suggests that the five toy animals think of the best possible way to keep cool, all while his mother takes him to a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

to cool off. # The Mystery Of The Pictures – The shelf crew are puzzled about what they see in their bedroom when, one very hard morning, they borrow Timothy's Polaroid camera (after politely asking him first if they can do so). # Timothy's Guest – The remarkable animal group feel put out when Timothy's cousin has to take his

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

to stay at Timothy's house for the weekend. # Little Mut Finds an

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

– As Timothy goes off to play

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

for the day, Little Mut and the other four animals try to find some

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s near Bluebell Wood. # Kinker's Camping Holiday – Kinker the mouse's camping holiday goes completely haywire when one freezing cold night, his tent that Stripey and Getup build gets blown over to the other side of Splashing Stream, where (earlier on) he tells Getup and Stripey in squeaks he wants to camp. # Timothy's Homework – Everyone from the blue Shelf helps Timothy when he suddenly gets behind with his homework for School.

Series 3 (1999)

# Waiting For Santa Claus – The five toy animals are busy rushing around Timothy's house on Christmas Eve. # A Very Special Day – Santa Claus has been and gone for another year and the festivities begin on the animal shelf, but why is Woeful so sad about it all? # Little Mut's Long Rest – The five toy animals themselves are blown about on their blue shelf one windy morning as Autumn approaches. Can Mrs Mole rescue all her baby moles before it's too late? # Woeful and the Tooth Fairy – The remarkable animals learn the importance of keeping clean and tidy, while Timothy, the animals' young owner, awaits the arrival of the tooth fairy. # # The Art Gallery – Timothy's painting inspires his five animal friends from the shelf to go off somewhere and paint some pictures. # Woeful's Magic Wand – Woeful's eagerness to master real magic gets him into trouble, all while a strange object appears in Timothy's bedroom. # Buckets and Spades – Timothy and his parents are preparing to go away on holiday, and the five toy animals are worried that for weeks on end, there will be nobody in Timothy's house to look after them. However, Gumpa has an extraordinary plan, regardless of Stripey and Getup taking a nice, quiet walk to Mr Trigg's pet shop, where the parrot lives. # The Jam Factory – With Timothy starting another School year, the special animals decide to make some

jam Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the meth ...

, leaving Getup and Stripey up to their own eyes in fruit.

Series 4 (2000)

# Animal Watch – Woeful and the other animals learn about animals that live in a desert, including a camel, along with Timothy's guidance. # Gumpa's Ark – Gumpa has an extraordinary plan to save his four animal friends from a flood, including clumsy Getup. # The Garden Sale – The five animals find out about money as a new animal arrives on their shelf in Timothy's bedroom. # Looking for Big Mut – When Timothy draws his family

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

, the animals themselves decide to find ancestors of their own, and Little Mut goes in search of the elusive Big Mut. # A Night In A Tent – A camping adventure for Timothy inspires his special and endearing animal friends to spend the night in a tent. Getup and Stripey's fun in the woods leads to a very narrow escape, and the baby moles have some extraordinary plans in store for Little Mutt. # The King of the Castle – Timothy's book of the "round table" and a magnificent castle inspire the special animals to have a medieval adventure with dragons, evil knights and a magic sword. # Timothy's Racing Car – A remote-controlled racing car arrives for Timothy, and the special animals all decide to leave their shelf before tracking it down. # The Shooting Star – Timothy is given a

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

of the stars in the night

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

and lets his five animals into a secret. # Gumpa's Head – Timothy begins a keep fit regime, but poor Gumpa just needs to take things easy.

International broadcast

The series has also aired around the world including the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in Australia,

KTV2 Kuwait television channel 2 (KTV2) is Kuwait's governmental television channel dedicated for the English-speaking public. The channel broadcasts English-speaking shows, local programmes, news, English-subtitled local serials, English-speaking ...

in Kuwait,

RTÉ2 RTÉ2 (formerly branded as RTÉ 2 from 1978–88, Network 2 from 1988–97, N2 from 1997–2004 and RTÉ Two from 2004–14) is an Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched on 2 Novemb ...

in Ireland as part of their children's block ''

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in Bermondsey, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter-of-a-mile from the Old Den, whic ...

'',

Dubai 33 Dubai Channel 33 (originally branded as Ch33) was a national television channel transmitting terrestrially out of Dubai in English, targeting the expat community in the U.A.E. It was founded in 1977. Up until the late 1980s, it was a 12-hour cha ...

in the United Arab Emirates, the children's television network K-T.V. World and

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

(as part of their series of children's lineup blocks ''

K-T.V. K-T.V. (also known as Kids TV) was a children's network broadcast in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus and South Africa as a programming block on M-Net and later on FilmNet. It was owned by Multichoice. In Greece, it used to ...

'') in South Africa, Premiere 12 (as part of their children's block ''Kidz Blitz''),

Eureka Learning Channel Eureka Learning Channel, also known as Eureka, was a Singaporean cable television channel owned by and broadcast on Singapore CableVision (SCV). Portions of the schedule were also carried for free on the SCV Preview Channel. Eureka was Singapore ...

and Kids Central in Singapore,

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and

Television Malta Television Malta (; TVM) (formerly known as ''Malta Television Service;'' MTV and ''Xandir Malta'') is a Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network in Malta operated by the Public broadcasting, national broadcaster, Public Broadcasti ...

in Malta,

TVB Pearl TVB Pearl () is an English-language television channel in Hong Kong owned by Television Broadcasts Limited. Established on 19 November 1967, it shares headquarters with TVB's other properties at TVB City at 77 Chun Choi Street in Tseung Kwan ...

in Hong Kong, SVT and SVT Barnkanalen in Sweden, Wikkid Plus in Pakistan and

TVNZ 2 TVNZ 2 () is the second New Zealand television channel owned and operated by the state-owned broadcaster Television New Zealand (TVNZ). It targets a younger audience than its sister channel, TVNZ 1. TVNZ 2's line up consists of dramas, comedie ...

and

TVNZ 6 TVNZ 6 was a digital-only, commercial-free television channel operated by Television New Zealand. It launched in September 2007, and was available in 60.3% of New Zealand homes on the Freeview and SKY Television Digital platforms. TVNZ 6 was ...

in New Zealand as part of their children's block ''

Kidzone ''KidZone'' is a Canadian TV show for adolescents that aired on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia from 1992 (This reference shows that it was broadcasting by 1992) to 2001. The show is also notable for providing a start for several youn ...

'', Poland in

RTL7 RTL 7 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched as ''Veronica'' on 1 September 1995. RTL 7 is RTL Nederland's "men's channel" with action films, reality television about crime and professions, football, motorsport and talk s ...

It's Itsy Bitsy Time

The series was seen on an American children's wrapper programme called '' It's Itsy Bitsy Time'' along with several TV series from overseas and aired on the

Fox Family Channel American cable and satellite television network Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes during its history. This article details th ...

in America and

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV (commonly known as Treehouse) is a Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary specialty channel that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from sister network YTV (Canadian TV channel), YTV's former programming b ...

in Canada in 1999 with the British voices being redubbed with American and Canadian voices. The voices were directed by Canadian voice actress

Susan Roman Susan Roman (born April 17) is a Canadian television and voice actress and voice director, best known for voice acting the role of Lita/Sailor Jupiter in the Canada DiC (and later Cloverway/CWi) dub of the anime ''Sailor Moon''. She is one of ...

who is best known for voicing Sailor Jupiter in the dubbed anime ''

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's Shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 60 individual chapters (later reorganized into ...

''. Roman also directed the American and Canadian voices for another British children's animated television series seen on ''It's Itsy Bitsy Time''.

Merchandise

The series had tie in story books from Ladybird Books, and a quintet of

VHS tape VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Mag ...

s from Disney Videos between 1997 and 2001.

References

External links