THE TRUMPTONSHIRE TRILOGY

CAMBERWICK GREEN,TRUMPTON AND CHIGLEY

*There was only one series of each of the 3 shows.

*Each series had 13 episodes and each episode was 15 minutes long.

*All 39 episodes were first broadcast in the Watch With Mother 1.30pm timeslot for pre-school children.

*The first broadcast dates were as follows :-

3 January 1966 - Camberwick Green

3 January 1967 - Trumpton

6 October 1969 - Chigley

*All 39 were shot in colour,but as colour wasn't introduced to BBC1 until the autumn of 1969,both Camberwick and Trumpton were originally shown in black & white.Whilst only some of Chigley's initial run coincided with the change.

*Each was the brainchild of Gordon Murray (b.1921).A professional puppeteer for the BBC,who left to develop a series of his own,and hit the jackpot with his first one -Camberwick.

He became a stringless animation convert in the process,and wrote the scripts and made the character models 

These were made from foam latex and felt,with ping pong balls for the heads.The animators adapted them with wire inserts to make them more pliable during the filming process. In old money (appropriately) they were about six inches tall.None of them were given mouths,as lip movements were too time consuming (ie.costly) to film.

In short, a cruder form of stop motion than that used for Wallace and Gromit,but the same basic principles.

*The sets were designed and made by a husband and wife team,John and Margaret Brownfoot,who's background was in theatrical set design (for big people).All the sets were made and stored in one single room of their house in Harrow Hill,N.London      

*The animation was done by Bob Bura and John Hardwick,and their team.

Bura & Hardwick were later to work on both Mary,Mungo & Midge and Captain Pugwash,with their creator,John Ryan

*The filming was done in a converted church in Wormersley Road,Crouch End,London.

*Each single 15 minute episode took around 4 (four) weeks to film.

*The songs and all the sound effects were composed and performed by Freddie Phillips.Following his death,his son now holds all the rights to the music -the only part of Trumptonshire that Gordon Murray doesn't hold the copyright to.

*The narration and singing was all done by Brian Cant -the only voice you ever hear in all 3 series.

Predominantly a theatre actor,he was spotted by Murray on BBC's PlaySchool,which Cant had been presenting since it started in 1964.He continued to do PlaySchool and its' offshoot PlayAway until the early 80's and,more recently, fronted the Channel 5 kids' prog Dappledown Farm.For Trumps,he recorded 3 full episodes in a single day at Freddie Phillip's house which doubled as a makeshift studio.It was a suitably Heath Robinson affair,as befitted the cottage industry nature of the whole production effort.And sound insulation consisting of egg cartons proved strangely insufficient to prevent pauses in recording due to flightpath noise ! No complaints about the end results though.

*Why no fourth series   ?  "....although I toyed with the idea of a fourth series using a seaside location,I felt the Trumptonshire programmes had run their natural course" - Gordon Murray.

Was that indeed the case or was it a BBC decision  ? -unknown.But as Chigley was the least popular and least remembered of the 3,then perhaps the latter isn't entirely spurious.

*Where are they now   ?  All the team are still with us except Freddie Phillips and John Hardwick,who sadly passed away in 2003 and 2004 respectively.All the remainder are in retirement,except for Brian Cant -who still divides his time between writing and performing,despite some ill health.

*When were the series last shown on the BBC   ?  Camberwick on Nov.1st,1985 ,and Trumpton on Nov.29th,1985.

With Chigley stealing the limelight for once by being the last to air on Jan.3rd,1986.

Why   ? Well,fashions change and the Beeb clearly thought they'd had their day.

But they did subsequently pop up on Channel 4 I've been told (details ?) and they currently have an ongoing residency on the NickleOdeon kids channel.And as they're all now immortalised on dvd,you've really got no excuses.

Resistance is futile !

Letter to the Webmaster

"Clearly the omissions render your position untenable"

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SOME BASIC FACTS AND FIGURES