| Bill & Ben: Flowerpot Fun! | BBC Multimedia / GSP | 2001 | |
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Bill and Ben have come up with an idea to help their friend, Scamper the Squirrel store the nuts she has collected for winter. Can you help them? Catch a Nut - Bill and Ben have come up with an idea to help their friend, Scamper the Squirrel store the nuts she has collected for winter. Can you help them? Fly with Pry - Pry the Magpie needs help. She has lost some of her precious treasure as she flew over the rubbish dump. Bill and Ben come to the rescue in a special kite, with you at the controls. Pots and Pipes - Construct a maze of pipes to get Bill and Ben safely down from the roof of the house. The better the pipe maze, the more fun the slide. Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men, were first seen on BBC TV, along with Little Weed, 60 years ago today, on 18 December 1952. The characters were originally part of a BBC series called Watch with Mother. The Flower Pot Men (who had clay-pot bodies and straw hats) was the story of two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. The pair spoke in gibberish known as 'flobbadob'. The plots largely consisting of the two characters mumbling "Flobbalobbalob, shobbalob," and their friend Little Weed crying out "Weeeeeed". The characters were devised by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Three later stories were written by Hilda Brabban. The puppeteers were Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson. In 2000, the series was updated for the 21st century for a 26-episode series accompanied by merchandising spin-offs including toys, games, videos and a Bill and Ben magazine. The black and white of the old programme was replaced by garish colours, while string puppetry was exchanged for stop-frame animation, with movable figures captured a frame at a time as they change positions and facial expressions. The Flowerpot Men were first broadcast on radio before moving to television in the Fifties. Filming originally took place in a tin shed in the Lime Grove studio complex but later moved to a purpose-built puppet studio. | ||
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