Pipkins
| Inigo Pipkin/Pipkins | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Michael Jeans & Susan Pleat |
| Starring |
George Woodbridge Wayne Laryea Jonathan Kydd Nigel Plaskitt Heather Tobias Lorain Bertorelli Elizabeth Lindsay Anne Rutter Alex Knight Diana Eden Paddy O'Hagan Jumoke Debayo Royce Mills Charles McKeown Preston Lockwood Billy Hamon Sue Nicholls Janet Dale |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 333 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | ATV |
| Running time | 15 minutes per episode |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 1 January 1973 – 29 December 1981 |
Pipkins (originally Inigo Pipkin) is a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981.
Pipkins was one of the first children's programmes on British TV where the characters had regional accents (Pig had a Birmingham accent) while Topov the monkey was a Cockney and Octavia the ostrich had a French accent).
In 1972, the ITV network expanded its daytime broadcasting hours and the Independent Broadcasting Authority commissioned four of the main ITV companies to each provide a series of interest to pre-schoolers, as an alternative to the successful US import Sesame Street. From this commission Thames Television came up with Rainbow, Yorkshire with Mister Trimble, Granada with Hickory House, while ATV’s contribution would be Inigo Pipkin.
Inigo Pipkin was first shown on New Year's Day 1973. When the show started, the main character was an elderly puppet maker called Inigo Pipkin (hence the original title), played by George Woodbridge. The puppets were his creations, and over the course of the first series, viewers saw Inigo bring to life Hartley Hare and the Tortoise (a.k.a. George) played by Nigel Plaskitt; and Topov the monkey, Pig and Octavia the ostrich, all played by Heather Tobias.
However, Woodbridge died suddenly from a heart attack in March 1973, while recording of the second series was still taking place. Inigo Pipkin was not recorded in the order it was transmitted, and Woodbridge had only completed taping of the latter episodes. The scripts for the episodes that would be broadcast first in the transmission run, i.e. those that Woodbridge had not managed to record, were thus hastily rewritten, with Inigo's absence explained by his being away on a fishing holiday.
...
Wikipedia