Captain Abercromby

Captain Abercromby
Created by	John Gorman
Starring	(puppeteers) Colin Purves, Geoff Felix, Dave Chapman, Damian Farrell, Symon Macintyre, Lynn Robertson-Bruce (voices) Kate Heavenor, Mark McDonnell, Jo James, Barbara Rafferty, Lewis MacLeod, Ian Sexon
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	15 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC
Original release	2002 – 2003

Captain Abercromby was a children's TV show that was on BBC Two in 2002-2003. Its cast was puppets.

Captain Abercromby was a puppet series about a boy named Abercromby, who is raised by his grandfather. After hearing the tale of how his Grandpa lost his watch, which was given to him by Abercromby's mother, he dreams that he is a captain of a seaship, the "Hope", and that he is on a mission to find the watch. They have a rival crew attempting to find buried treasure, run by Captain Jake in his ship "Thunderbottom", who mistakenly (but logically) believe that Abercromby is looking for buried treasure, so making the series a race between the two ships.

Each show would open with Abercromby's Grandpa telling his story, in a green wooden bedroom surrounded by characters and props which later fill out the cast of Abercromby's dreams - a suit of armour in the corner (Arthur), a carved mermaid (Siren) and the tree outside (Great Oak). The following shots showed Abercromby climbing into bed (with Pointdexter on the end) and going to sleep, saying "I'll find that watch one day", entering the dream world of the show and starting the title sequence.

Each story would finish with an alarm clock ringing, bringing Abercromby out of his dream and waking up to his Grandpa standing by his bed. Abercromby then begins to tell his Grandpa an excited summary of the episode, volume fading down as the credits and music roll over the scene.

In one episode of the series, "Out of the Hat", Abercromby and his crew briefly find his Grandpa's watch, seen every week in the opening title sequence. However, this copy of the watch is dismissed by Admiral Dobbin as being a fake.

The show was produced by Wark Clements for BBC Scotland. Filming took place from February to July 2001 in Glasgow. The series was being filmed at the Media Park in Maryhill, Glasgow but on 22 April a fire took hold of the studio, destroying all sets, props and equipment. The production relocated to another nearby studio to complete the filming, after rebuilding as much as they needed to finish filming.

The puppets and design of the show were all created in a child-friendly cartoon style, with the majority of the creatures being Muppet-type puppets (although they were built by Neil Sternberg's studio, not Jim Henson's).

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