The Herbs
| The Herbs | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's television |
| Created by | Michael Bond |
| Written by | Michael Bond |
| Directed by | Ivor Wood |
| Narrated by | Gordon Rollings |
| Country of origin | England |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Graham Clutterbuck |
| Producer(s) | Ivor Wood |
| Running time | 15 minutes |
| Production company(s) | FilmFair |
| Distributor | Abbey Home Media (DVD-Video) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Picture format | Colour |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | 12 February – 6 May 1968 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | The Adventures of Parsley (1970) |
| External links | |
| The Herbs and its sequel, The Adventures of Parsley | |
The Herbs is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond (creator of Paddington Bear), directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1 Watch with Mother timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long.
A spin-off series entitled The Adventures of Parsley was transmitted from 6 April 1970 in the 5-minute period between the end of children's TV and the BBC Evening News. This had 32 episodes, some of which were released on VHS as Parsley the Lion and Friends.
The Herbs consisted of a fantasy mix of human and animal characters inhabiting the magical walled garden of a country estate. At the beginning of each episode, the narrator (Gordon Rollings) spoke the magic word, "Herbidacious", which caused the garden gate to open.
As with The Magic Roundabout, the sophisticated writing style and narrative delivery of The Herbs meant that the appeal was somewhat broader than was originally intended, and much of Parsley's droll humour undoubtedly went over the heads of the age group that was its main target. Consequently, it still retains a following among those who watched it when it was first broadcast.
Each character was the personification of a herb. It is said that Bond used quotes from Nicholas Culpeper's 17th Century book, Culpeper's Complete Herbal, to find the herbs whose botanical traits he could best reflect in the individual characters. As each character appeared in the show, they were introduced by a little signature song, which varied slightly from one episode to the next.
The major character was Parsley the Lion. Parsley did not actually speak (although he did have his own signature tune: "I'm a very friendly lion called Parsley....") but his thoughts were voiced by the narrator. Rollings' dead-pan style became a feature of the programme, and was similar to that used by Eric Thompson in his characterisation of Dougal the dog in the English version of The Magic Roundabout.
...
Wikipedia