A collection of trivia...

Pipkins had various title sequences with different music at various points through it's run.

The first, used when the programme was known as Inigo Pipkin, featured Mr Pipkin in his shop and a still montage of he and Johnny setting up a puppet show with Hartley and Tortoise. The song was sung by Jackie Lee who also sang the song which accompanied ATV's "The Adventures of Rupert Bear". Both were released as singles.

Following George Woodbridge's death there was a short while in 1974 when a generic title sequence featuring just the puppets was used. After this came some filmed opening titles of Johnny and the puppets out in the Pipkins puppet van (the lyrics to the song which accompanied these titles are included in the script for "The Toy Makers"). The title song was re recorded using children's voices.

The next titles featured Hartley in a puppet booth, but gradually being prised out of the the booth by stills of Pig, Tortoise, Topov and eventually the Pipkins logo. Michael Jeans, the shows producer and director, had wanted to use Chris Hazell, who wrote all the songs and incidental music, to write the title music since the shows start. Commercial considerations on the part of ATV prevented this. However at this point he managed to persuade the powers that be that Chris should write the new theme. And so the music changed.

The final title sequence used was again filmed, and featured Hartley following a bouncing ball across green fields and the town. At the beginning of each episode, the ball arrive in the Pipkins yard and usually hit Hartley and knock him over!

Sue Nicholls is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Audrey Roberts in the television soap opera Coronation Street. But in 1980 she was a regular in Pipkins, where she played their next door neighbour, Mrs Muddle. She has fond memories of working on the programme and often speaks of her delight in working alongside "a tatty hare"! There is an interview with Sue as an extra on volume one of the DVD.

Charles McKeown played Charlie the dustman, a guest character. Charles went on to write for Terry Gilliam with 'Brazil' and 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'. He appeared in 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' and many others.

Billy Hamon is an actor who wrote scripts for Pipkins. He appeared in one episode - Hartley and the Lamp - as The Genie. He went on to write scripts for,amongst other things, Eastenders.

In 1990, Watershed Pictures released a series of three home videos, each containing a selection of classic children's programmes from the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. The 1980s volume, (cat. no. WSP 1014) contained a clip from "The Toy Makers". The title has now been deleted but copies do turn up occasionally at car boot sales, etc.

Studios A & B at ATV Elstree (now BBC Elstree) were our main base but studios C & D were also used on occasion.

Locations were mainly around Elstree in Hertfordshire

Uncle's Hollow was variously at Pinks Farm near Shenley, Panshanger Airfield and Patrick McGoohan's old house in Mill Hill and his telephone box was located at various convenient boxes in the area. It has been said that Uncle was Hartley with a straw hat and a smock on but in fact he was a completely different puppet.

The stream by the Green Dragon pub in London Colney and the reservoir nearby were also used. It was here that Hartley visited the dentist who appeared to live in a house next to the Green Dragon but had a surgery remakrably similar to London's Royal Free Hospital!

Most shopping trips were done in Shenley Road, Borehamwood and Topov's bus rides were from Edgware Underground Station and bus depot on the Northern Line.

The programme also visited Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street and the exotic location of Southend where we shot on the beach and the train on the pier.

We recorded two programmes in one day shooting one section at a time and the footage was edited after, a luxury not afforded to every childrens programme. The narration was pre recorded by Pete Wernham and played back to us in the studio. For most of the run we would spend a week at the beginning of the series filming inserts on 16mm on location. On the last series we used a new 'portable' video camera - not portable by todays standards. Though the cameraman could carry it on his shoulder it came with a truck and a cable attached to a huge video recorder!

Very many thanks to Nigel Plaskitt for this information.

Last updated 2009.