''Birthday People'' was a British children's

television programme A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

that ran for several years on south-west England's regional channel

Westcountry Television ITV Westcountry, formerly known as Westcountry Television and Carlton Westcountry, was the ITV franchise holder for the South West of England, covering Cornwall, Devon, Isles of Scilly, southern and western Somerset and western Dorset. The co ...

. The programme, showcasing children's birthday cards and messages, was Westcountry's replacement for the highly successful Gus Honeybun slots aired by the company's predecessors TSW and Westward and was a considered a very poor replacement by viewers. During its first few years it was sponsored by

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

. A number of different formats for ''Birthday People'' were tried out from 1993, including a nature theme presented by ex-'' Really Wild Show'' host Nicola Davies. Chris Langmore, one of Westcountry's two continuity announcers, presented the show with science themes from locations around the South West. From Plymouth City Airport he took the show high over the countryside, presenting one of the sequences from a light aircraft. From Kent's Cavern in Torquay he dressed up as a caveman to show how hard life was in prehistoric times. Westcountry presenters were also sent out to read birthday cards from local tourist attractions. From around 2000, ''Birthday People'' was hosted by a pair of

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

characters called Flotsam and Jetsam. Captain Flotsam lived in a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

on "Herringbone Rock" with his sidekick Jessie the Seagull. Here they would present "The Birthday Log", while having various, often surreal, adventures. The first episode was never aired as it was considered too rude. It was an Easter programme in which Jessie (the seagull) sprayed the lighthouse with eggs. It is believed it was pulled because these eggs came from her bottom. The decision of executives not to air this episode left most of ITV Westcountry baffled. It is not known if a tape of this programme remains. They would occasionally be joined by other puppet characters - the

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s Salvador Swash and Buckle the Seadog, their cleaner Lighthouse Lil, an errant marauding sock (a pastiche of Alien) and their resident scientist The Eminent Professor, who would frequently be put through painful and humiliating experiments to test a silly theory or would answer emails from the viewers at home (who seemed to include a large number of students). The programme was only two to three minutes long, but would often have an ongoing story or theme that would take them through the week. The characters went on to star in their own half-hour Christmas specials in 2002 and 2003, in which Flotsam and Jetsam rescued

Father Christmas Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrela ...

from the clutches of Swash and Buckle and helped

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

recover the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

from marauding

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

s in an adventure through time (involving a ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' pastiche). The programme aired until 2004. The show's puppeteers and voices were Dave Oliver, Austin Hackney, Laurence Penfold and Adam Carter; they also wrote the scripts, along with Ian Searle (one of the technicians who worked on the show), who also script-edited the Christmas Special, 'Guardians of the Grail'. The programme was firstly produced by Tod Grimwade, Mike Geldard then took over and produced the weekly show and the two half-hour Christmas specials, the final person to produce the three-minute programmes was I-tasha Honeyghan. Birthday People was filmed at

Plympton Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

and on location.

References

More info about the show can be found on the internet movie database a

and TV Ark at {{usurped,

} British television shows featuring puppetry ITV children's television shows