''Andy Pandy'' is a British

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early eveni ...

that first appeared on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced t ...

in summer 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. A revival of the show was made in 2002. The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazines '' Robin'' and '' Pippin''.

Original 1950 and 1970 versions

The original version of ''Andy Pandy'' premiered on

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

TV in 1950, on either 11 JulyWatch with Mother
/ref> or 20 June, as part of the ''

For the Children ''For the Children'' is a British television programme targeted at children of school age. First broadcast on the BBC Television Service in 1937 at 3pm as the opening programme for afternoon viewing (as television would generally be broadcast fr ...

'' strand (later ''

Watch with Mother ''Watch with Mother'' was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a developm ...

'') narrated by Maria Bird who also narrated the black & white 1950s original broadcasts of

Flower Pot Men ''Flower Pot Men'' is a British programme for young children produced by BBC Television. It was first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years. A reboot of the show called ''Bill and Ben'' was produced in 2001. ...

, The Woodentops and Bizzy Lizzie. Initially it was broadcast live, but it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. 26 fifteen-minute episodes were filmed on

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

TV studio history Lime Grove
around 1952 and repeated continuously until 1969. In 1970, 13 new episodes were made in colour with Vera McKechnie as narrator. A

marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or reveale ...

who lived in a picnic basket, Andy was later joined by Teddy, a

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy be ...

, and Looby Loo, a rag doll, who came to life when Andy and Teddy were not around. Looby Loo sang ''Here we go Looby Loo''. All three lived in the same picnic basket. Each episode ended with a variation on the song: "Time to go home / Time to go home / Andy is waving goodbye." It is claimed that the character's design was based on Paul Atterbury, the then young son of puppeteer

Audrey Atterbury Audrey Selma Atterbury (19 April 1921 – 8 April 1997) was a British puppeteer best known for her work on the 1950s pioneering BBC's children's series ''Andy Pandy''. Biography Born in London in 1921 as Audrey Holman, during World War I ...

.Audrey Atterbury on Telegoons.org
A comic-strip version was published in '' Robin''. The production staff for the original series were: * Producer:

Freda Lingstrom Freda Violet Lingstrom OBE (23 July 1893 – 15 April 1989) was a BBC Television producer and executive, responsible for pioneering children's programmes in the early 1950s. She and her friend Maria Bird together created ''Andy Pandy'' and '' The ...

. * Narrator: Maria Bird and later in the 1970 remakes Vera McKechnie. * Writer/composer: Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. * Singers: Gladys Whitred, Julia Williams oiced the 'Little Weed'and Maria Bird (in the 1970 colour series). * Puppeteers:

, Molly Gibson, Martin Grainger, The Stavordales and Christopher Leith (in the 1970 colour series).

Episode list

The 26 episodes were: # "Tea Party" (20 June 1950) # "Presents" (27 June 1950) # "Music" (4 July 1950) # "Hand Bells" (11 July 1950) # "ABC" (18 July 1950) # "Bricks" (25 July 1950) # "Playing School" (1 August 1950) # "Play Shops" (8 August 1950) # "Leaning House" (15 August 1950) # "Pram" (22 August 1950) # "Farm" (29 August 1950) # "Garden" (5 September 1950) # "Wall and Tortoise" (12 September 1950) # "Turtles" (19 September 1950) # "Boats" (26 September 1950) # "Paddling Pool" (3 October 1950) # "Horse and Fish" (10 October 1950) # "Bird and Butterfly" (17 October 1950) # "Rabbits" (24 October 1950) # "Kittens" (31 October 1950) # "Kings and Queens" (7 November 1950) # "Jack in the Box" (14 November 1950) # "The Cart" (21 November 1950) # "Swing" (28 November 1950) # ? (5 December 1950) # ? (12 December 1950)

1970 series

By 1970, as BBC1 was by then transmitted in colour, 13 new episodes were produced and shown from 5 January 1970. The 13 episodes are: # "Andy Pandy's House" (5 January 1970) # "Hobby Horses" (12 January 1970) # "Scooters" (19 January 1970) # "Trampoline" (26 January 1970) # "Jack-in-the-Box" (2 February 1970) # "A Wall and a Hedgehog" (9 February 1970) # "Cleaning the House" (16 February 1970) # "Tricycle" (23 February 1970) # "Looby Loo Has a Cold" (2 March 1970) # "The Jeep" (9 March 1970) # "Tea Party" (16 March 1970) # "Red Engine" (23 March 1970) # "Sailing Boats" (30 March 1970) The series was parodied by

Des O'Connor Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with '' The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years. He ...

in his ''Dandy Sandy'' sketches with Harry Seacombe and Britt Eckland.

2002 revival

A sequence of 52 episodes was made in 2002, using the

stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames ...

technique instead of using string puppets. The original nursery and garden were expanded to an entire village, with Andy, Teddy, and Looby Loo now owning individual houses, and four new characters were introduced into the series: Missy Hissy; and her brother, another snake who is never seen; Tiffo; a teal-and-purple dog, Bilbo (vocals performed by David Holt); a sailor, and Orbie (vocals performed by Maria Darling); a yellow-and-blue ball. The new series was narrated by actor

Tom Conti Tommaso Antonio Conti (born 22 November 1941) is a Scottish actor, theatre director, and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1979 for his performance in '' Whose Life Is It Anyway?'' and was nominated for the Academy A ...

. While the emphasis of the original series was on music and movement, the emphasis of the 2002 series was on making and doing. The series was animated and produced by

Cosgrove Hall Films Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of childr ...

and Ben Productions who also worked on the 2001 remake of Bill and Ben. Listed are the episodes in each series, along with their songs (if any):

Series 1

Series 2

UK VHS and DVD releases

References

External links