Fireman Sam
| Fireman Sam | |
|---|---|
Logo of Fireman Sam
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| Genre |
Stop-motion (1987–2005) CGI (2008–present) |
| Created by | Dave Gingell Dave Jones Rob Lee |
| Written by | Nia Ceidiog Rob Lee |
| Voices of |
Steven Kynman John Sparkes Joanna Ruiz Sarah Hadland David Carling Su Douglas Tegwen Tucker Lloyd Langford |
| Narrated by | John Alderton (1987–1994) |
| Music by | Ben Heneghan Ian Lawson |
| Country of origin | Wales, United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 178 (state from 2016) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Ian Frampton John Walker |
| Editor(s) | Richard Bradley William J. Oswald Jane Murrell |
| Running time | 10 minutes (series) 20 minutes (Christmas special episode) |
| Production company(s) |
Bumper Films (1987–1994) HIT Entertainment (1987–present) (Mattel) Hibbert Ralph Animation (2008-2010) Xing Xing Management Group (2012-2016) DHX Media (2016-present) |
| Distributor |
Mattel DHX Media |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBBC (1987–2002) CBeebies (2002–2008) Channel 5 (2008–present) Sprout (2005–2014) |
| Picture format | 4:3 576i (1987–1996) 16:9 576i (2003–present) |
| Audio format |
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| Original release | 17 November 1987 – present |
| Website | |
Fireman Sam is an animated comedy children's television series about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and Tonypandy, which are situated approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) apart in the South Wales valleys). The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from Kent, who took their idea to artist and writer Rob Lee who developed the concept, and the show was later commissioned and broadcast by the Welsh language channel S4C, in Welsh.
Fireman Sam first appeared as "Sam Tân" (Fireman Sam in Welsh), on S4C in 1987, and later that year on BBC1. The original series finished in 1994, and a new series that expanded the character cast commenced in 2003. The series was also shown in Gaelic in Scotland. The series was sold to over 40 countries and has been used across the United Kingdom to promote fire safety.
The original idea came about from two ex-firemen from Kent – Dave Gingell and David Jones. They approached Mike Young, creator of SuperTed in Barry, Wales, and asked them to further develop their concept. The idea was then brought to S4C's Director of Animation, Chris Grace, who saw potential in the idea and commissioned the series. Grace had previously commissioned Superted, which had achieved success across the United Kingdom and worldwide. The characters and storylines were created by Rob Lee, an illustrator from Cardiff, and the program was produced using stop-motion. It could take up to 4 days to produce 1 minute of this form of puppet animation. Fireman Sam has to this day 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.
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Wikipedia