Oscar Grosnez Corbière Claud Puffin, known as Oscar Puffin, is a television station mascot for

ITV Channel Television ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programmes for insertion into the ...

. Oscar was the star of the birthday greetings programme '' Puffin's Pla(i)ce'' and was the last remaining ITV regional mascot to have an on-screen presence. His show was on television from 3 March 1963 until 15 September 2013. He was born on the island of

Burhou Burhou (pronounced ''ber-ROO'') is a small island about northwest of Alderney that is part of the Channel Islands. It has no permanent residents, and is a bird sanctuary, so landing there is banned from March 15 to August 1. The island's wildl ...

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

Early development

To introduce Oscar Puffin to viewers, it was claimed that Oscar had been watching Channel Television since its inception in September 1962 and was concerned that there was no on-screen children's birthday club for

children. Oscar decided to start one himself, but was in the unfortunate situation of not possessing a name. Therefore, a competition to name him was run in the Channel Islands' local television listing magazine, ''The Channel Viewer'', during February 1963. There were several winners of the competition that include Christine Tongs from

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

chose the name 'Oscar', Caroline Romeril from

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

chose the name 'Grosnez' and Ann Balshaw of

chose the names 'Corbière Claud'.

Puffin's Pla(i)ce TV show

''Puffin's Pla(i)ce'' is a Channel Islands children's programme named after its star, Oscar Puffin, that was broadcast on

on weekend afternoons (usually just before ''

ITV News Channel TV ''ITV News Channel TV'' (referred to as ''ITV News on Channel'' on air) is a television news service for the Channel Islands broadcast and produced by ITV Channel Television. ITV News has its main Channel Islands newsroom in Jersey as well as ...

''). The programme, one of the longest-running children's series on the ITV network, had been broadcast since 3 March 1963. Originally presented by Channel Television's team of continuity announcers, ''Puffin's Pla(i)ce'' presenters have included Stewart McDonald, Matthew Shaw, Kevin Pamplin, Sam Palmano, Lucy Anderson and Jenny Mullin. In September 2013, it was announced that the show would no longer be broadcast on TV, but would move to an online format at the Channel Online website, but was quietly dropped soon after. The last TV edition was broadcast on 15 September 2013.

Present

Although Oscar no longer has his own show, he remains the mascot of the ITV regional service in the Channel Islands. He does make occasional appearances both on television and online and regularly makes updates on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that have a strong element of

absurdity Absurdity is the state or condition of being unreasonable, meaningless, or so unsound as to be irrational. "Absurd" is the adjective used to describe absurdity, e.g., "Tyler and the boys laughed at the absurd situation." It derives from the Lat ...

. In 2018, rare footage of Oscar was aired at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

References

External links

Oscar Puffin on itv.com
* Bird mascots British comedy puppets Fictional seabirds British mascots Television mascots Male characters in television Male characters in advertising Television characters introduced in 1963 Culture of the Channel Islands Mascots introduced in 1963 {{tv-char-stub