''Fireman Sam'' () is a British animated

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

about a fireman named Sam, his fellow

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

s, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of two real towns,

Pontypridd Pontypridd ( , ), Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as ''Ponty'', is a town and a Community (Wales), community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, approximately 10 miles north west of Cardiff city centre. Geography Pontypridd comprises the ...

and Tonypandy). It was broadcast for the first time in November 1987 on Welsh TV channel S4C and is shown in more than 155 countries across the world.

History

''Fireman Sam'' first appeared in Welsh on S4C on 1 November 1987, and a few weeks later on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

on 17 November 1987. The original series finished in 1994, and a new series that expanded the character cast commenced in 2003. The series was also shown as ' in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

in Scotland. The series was sold to over 40 countries and has been used across the United Kingdom to promote

fire safety Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent wikt:ignition, the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the spread a ...

. The theme song was performed by Maldwyn Pope in a classic rock style from 1987 to 1994, and then by a different singer, Cameron Stewart, in the 2000's alternative rock style since the 2003 new episode broadcasts.

Development

The original idea came about from two ex-firemen from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England – Dave Gingell and David Jones after

purchasing Purchasing is the procurement process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary gr ...

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

animation book by artist Anthony Miller. They approached Mike Young, creator of '' SuperTed'', in Barry, Wales, and asked him to further develop their concept. The idea was then brought to S4C's Director of Animation, Chris Grace, who had previously commissioned ''SuperTed'', saw potential in the idea and commissioned the series. The characters and the storylines were created by Rob Lee, an illustrator from Cardiff who also designed the ''SuperTed'' characters, and the programme was made using stop motion animation. It could take up to four days to produce one minute of this form of puppet animation. ''Fireman Sam'' has, to this day, been broadcast in several countries around the world and has been translated into over 25 different languages including Mandarin. In the original series, all the character voices were performed by John Alderton. The later series used several actors' voices. In 2021, Mike Young said that shows like ''Fireman Sam'' and ''SuperTed'' would not be able to exist without government subsidies to S4C.

Episodes

Characters

Spin-offs

In 1996, there was a stage show that was later released on video, titled '' Fireman Sam in Action''. It was interspersed with scenes of children learning about fire safety with Gary Lewis, the actor playing Fireman Sam in the stage show. In 2009, ''Fireman Sam'' appeared with other animated children's TV characters in the ''

Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...

'' single '' The Official BBC Children in Need Medley''. The single was put together by Peter Kay. ''Fireman Sam'' was adapted into a live musical theatre show, which began touring the UK in June 2011. In 2014,

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

redubbed ''Fireman Sam'' using American voices instead of British voices for children in the United States. However, the characters of Tom Thomas, Moose Roberts and Bella Lasagne have their regular, respective Australian, Canadian and Italian voices (instead of being dubbed with a US voice actor), due to their characters' accents. This cast includes the voices of Andrew Hodwitz, Jonah Ain, Chris D'Silva, Margaret Brock, Lily Cassano, Dave Pender Crichton, Jacob James, Scott Lancastle, Ashley Magwood, Michael Pongracz, Becky E. Shrimpton, Sarah Lynn Strange, Carter Treneer, Mark Ricci, Joe Marth (later replaced by Dave MacRae), Adam Turgeon and Christa Clahane.

Reception

The ABC website said of the series, "All the characters blend together into an appealing mixture of fun and entertainment for children everywhere".

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

recommended the 2005 series for ages three and up, praising it for showing how to "stay calm in a crisis" and rely on a team to solve problems. The American website found that the "distinctly Welsh characters, community, accents, and expressions may pose some minor comprehension problems for kids on this side of the pond", but considered it a useful example of life in another part of the world. In 2014, Dean Burnett wrote in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' calling Fireman Sam the "worst children's programme ever" due to its lack of realism.

Controversies

In July 2016, it emerged that in Series 9, Episode 6 called "Troubled Waters" – in which Elvis slips on a piece of paper and falls into a stack of sheets of paper, causing them to fly everywhere – one of the flying pages that briefly came into view was identified as a page from the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

: "Surah Mulk (67), verses 13–26". The production company Mattel apologised for this incident, removed the episode from broadcast, and ceased work with Xing Xing, the animation company made responsible for the error. Mattel stated: "Someone from the production company thought they were just putting in random text. We have no reason to believe it was done maliciously." It was at first thought that this episode would have to be removed from broadcast circulation, but instead was censored by having the scene edited to show Elvis just slipping on a blank piece of paper, so the television networks were still able to broadcast it. The BBC received more than 1,000 complaints and forwarded them to Channel 5 as the BBC has not aired ''Fireman Sam'' since 2008. Ofcom decided not to investigate the episode stating that even at the highest resolution it was impossible to tell if the text was from the Quran or not.

References

External links