Chigley
| Chigley | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Stop motion animation |
| Written by | Gordon Murray |
| Narrated by | Brian Cant |
| Theme music composer | Freddie Phillips |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Gordon Murray |
| Running time | 15 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC 1 |
| Original release | 6 October – 29 December 1969 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Trumpton |
Chigley (1969) is the third and final stop-motion children's television series in Gordon Murray's Trumptonshire trilogy. Production details are identical to Camberwick Green.
As in Camberwick Green and Trumpton, the action centres on a small community, in this case the fictitious village or hamlet of Chigley, near Camberwick Green in Trumptonshire. Chigley is more of an industrial area, and according to Gordon Murray, the three communities are at the corners of an equilateral triangle. The names of the places in the series have been based on real villages in East Sussex: Camberwick Green from Wivelsfield Green, Trumpton from Plumpton and Chigley from Chailey. A digitally restored version of the series from the rediscovered original film masters emerged in 2012.
Unlike Trumpton, Chigley includes many guest appearances by characters from the previous two series, including Windy Miller of Camberwick Green and the Trumpton fire brigade, complete with their famous roll-call. This was at least partly for economic reasons, as it allowed the established characters' theme songs to be re-used, thus saving money on recording.
Notable new characters include Mr Swallow of Treddle's Wharf, Mr Rumpling the barge captain, Mr Cresswell, owner of Cresswell's Chigley Biscuit factory, Harry Farthing the potter and his daughter Winnie, Willie Munn, Mr Clamp's nephew, who is employed at the biscuit factory, Mr Bilton, the Winkstead Hall gardener, and, last but not least, the aristocratic Lord Belborough of Winkstead Hall and his butler Brackett, who also operate a private railway that seems to run through most of Trumptonshire. The pair are called on to transport or collect goods in every episode, much to Lord Belborough's delight, as he loves driving the engine, which is named Bessie. Another character frequently delighted by these excursions is Winnie Farthing, whom Lord Belborough and Brackett nearly always invite to join them for a ride on Bessie. The notable song unique to Chigley, "Time flies by while I'm the driver of a train", was always sung during these sequences.
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