The Shoe People
| The Shoe People | |
|---|---|
| Voices of | Philip Whitchurch |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 52 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 10 mins |
| Release | |
| Original network | TV-am |
| Original release | April 1987 – 1992 |
The Shoe People was a BAFTA and Gold Award winning animated television series which was first broadcast in the UK in April 1987 on TV-am. The Shoe People went on to be broadcast in 62 countries around the world.
It was the first series from the West to be shown in the former Soviet Union and became so popular there that they sold over 25 million Shoe People books.
The Shoe People was created by James Driscoll, who got the inspiration for the show from noticing that the style and appearance of people's shoes told you about their owners' personalities. He then wondered what stories these shoes could tell about themselves when they were new and when they had gradually worn out.
The theme song for The Shoe People was written and sung by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues.
A second series titled 'The New Adventures of The Shoe People' consisting of 26 episodes was commissioned using a number of new characters. However the second series was not broadcast until 1992. This series aired on children's ITV due to the replacement of TV-am with GMTV.
In a Shoe Repairs Shop, not too far away, the Shoe Mender tries to repair all the shoes he gets, but sometimes he cannot repair them all. But he does not throw away these shoes, he puts them in the back room of the shop.
These join the other shoes and boots he could not bear to throw away and the ones where their owners never came back for them but this room has a secret. Every night when the Shoe Mender locks up the shop, he makes sure the back room door is shut. This door does not shut very easily and when he slams it shut, the strangest thing happens. A large cloud of dust from the room fills the air and when it settles, the Shoes come to life and the back wall disappears and Shoe Town appears.
Just below Toecap Hill is Shoe Town, where all the Shoes and Boots live.
The characters were voiced by Philip Whitchurch and Jo Wyatt (Jo does the female voices in the Shoe People sequel, the New Adventures of the Shoe People, while Phillip does all the male voices).
Only 26 episodes were broadcast on TV-am as part of its 'Wide Awake Club' from April 1987.
A new title sequence accompanies the second series showcasing many of the new characters.
When all of the 26 episodes of the Shoe People series in 1987 aired on Nick Jr. from 2001 to 2002, the Fairwater Films/The Shoe People Ltd copyright in 1987 was replaced by FilmFair Ltd, with the restoration handled by CiNAR Studios UK. FilmFair's copyright can be seen at the end of each episode on The Shoe People Complete Series DVD. The same FilmFair copyright screen can also be seen on the 1992 version of the said programme, also on Nick Jr., when they aired the later series in Spring 2002.
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