THE TRUMPTONSHIRE TRILOGY

CAMBERWICK GREEN,TRUMPTON AND CHIGLEY

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

*All 39 episodes were first broadcast in the BBC 1 1.30pm Watch With Mother timeslot for pre-school children.

*The first broadcast dates were

Camberwick - 3rd January,1966

Trumpton - 3rd January,1967

Chigley - 6th October,1969.

*The animation was done by Bob Bura and John Hardwick,and their team.Both of whom were well known to Murray having worked on his earlier BBC string puppet project,"Rubovia".But who'd subsequently embraced stop motion with work on adverts and animated inserts for kids tv programmes.And also famously went on to work with John Ryan on his 3 signature series of Mary,Mungo & Midge,Captain Pugwash and The Adventures of Sir Prancelot.The last of which was effectively a knights-in-armour re-working of Pugwash,for anyone unfamiliar with it.

*The filming was done in a disused church in Crouch End,London.Which they later went on to part-lease to Eurythmics pop duo Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox who completed their debut "Sweet Dreams" album there in the early 80's, before eventually buying the whole freehold.

*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.

Whether that was true or it was a BBC decision or a combination of the two is unknown.But seeing as Chigley was the least popular of the 3,then it probably wasn't that hard a decision -whoever took it.

* Gordon Murray post-Chigley   ? Trumptonshire was a once-in-a-lifetime creation,so it's maybe not surprising that what followed wasn't nearly as successful.Although I won't say "as good" because I haven't see any of them.But how many have to be fair   ? :- All were made using stop motion.And left to right in pic montage........

1976- Rubovia. 6 episode remake of a string puppet series he'd made pre-Camberwick whilst still working for the Beeb.

1977- Skip and Fuffy.Short 5 minute episodes with the 2 main characters using rhyming wordplay.

1979 -The Gublin Legends.13 episodes featuring rather bizarre looking monkey-like "people" & more rhyming wordplay.

Rubovia was shown at lunchtime on BBC1.The latter 2 were both shown on Noel Edmond's Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, and appear in its annuals too.But all 3 failed to get re-commissioned after their 1st series,and the small amount of spin-off merchandise confirms their lack of impact.

But Murray's place in tv history is assured and the Trumptonshire merchandise had more than paid off the mortgage by then,so I don't suppose he lost too much sleep over it,other than maybe nursing a slightly bruised ego.

*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 Jnr kids channel,in addition to the 2 complete dvd boxsets floating around.

So there's really no escape,even now  !

Letter to the Webmaster

"Clearly the omissions render your position untenable"

Webbie responds

"Admittedly a mere Pot Noodle to a man like yourself my friend.But do please read on !"

Some basic facts and figures about Camberwick Green,Trumpton and Chigley.

* All 3 series were made using stop motion model animation,and actual 3D scaled down models.

The characters were about 6" tall.They had very simple aluminium wire skeletons to make them sufficiently rigid yet pliable.With ping pong balls for the heads,and clothing made predominantly out of foam latex.

None of them were given mouths,as lip movements were too time consuming (ie.costly) to film.The idea of speech was simply reinforced by all the usual body language that accompanies it,with plenty of arm and head movements when the characters talk to each other.And basic nods and waves in response to direct questions from the narrator.

That said,in Camberwick there were ocassional instances of mouths suddenly appearing to reinforce an exclamation, before disappearing just as quickly as they appeared.Although even this was dropped for Trumpton and Chigley.

In short,a much cruder form of stop motion than that used for Wallace and Gromit,but the same basic principles.And each 15 minute episode still took around 4 weeks to film even allowing for the re-use of stock footage,with 25 still photos producing just 1 second of footage.             Murray and animators pictured in 1965.

*All the songs and sound effects were composed and performed by Freddie Phillips.Following his death,his son John 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 in Chessington 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.

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*All 39 episodes 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.

*Their creator was Gordon Murray (b.1921).Pictured here in 2005.

A professional puppeteer for the BBC,who left to develop a series of his own,and hit the

jackpot with his first one -Camberwick (the original working title of which was Candlewick)

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

most of the characters. 

*In the case of Trumpton,writing duties were shared with author Alison Prince,who also

came up with the names of the firemen.So her place in T3 history is assured.

And she also created and wrote another much-loved Watch With Mother series, "Joe"

*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 first episode of Camberwick had also doubled as the original pilot.

And the first person to emerge from the famous music box in the opening titles of that episode was Peter Hazell,the postman.The ideal narrative vehicle to introduce most of the main locations and cast during the course of his daily round.

the clown only ever featured in the titles.