Camberwick Green


Camberwick Green is a British children's television series that ran from January to March 1966 on BBC1, featuring stop motion puppets. Camberwick Green is the first in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which also includes Trumpton and Chigley.

Background

The series was written and produced by Gordon Murray and animated by Bob Bura, John Hardwick and Pasquale Ferrari. Music was by Freddie Phillips while narration and song vocals were provided by Brian Cant. There are thirteen fifteen-minute colour episodes produced by Gordon Murray Pictures. The inspiration for the name is believed to have stemmed from the East Sussex village of Wivelsfield Green, supported by the nearby villages of Plumpton and Chailey.
Each episode begins with a shot of a musical box which rotates while playing a tune. It is accompanied by the following narration:
Then the lid, a hexagon constructed of six triangles in alternating colours, slowly opens up like an iris, or in the manner of a camera shutter, while the box smoothly revolves to the accompaniment of an exquisite Baroque minuet. An hexagonal platform bearing the motionless figure of the puppet character which will play a central role in today's episode, slowly rises into position: the platform flush with the shifted triangular cover-tiles, which are now splayed open like the stiff petals of a flower; as the music-box comes to a halt with an audible click. After a brief introduction, the background appears and the story begins.
The series is set in the small, picturesque village of Camberwick Green, Trumptonshire, which is inhabited by such characters as Police Constable McGarry, and the iconic Windy Miller, owner of a clanking old – but nevertheless efficiently functional – windmill and a firm believer in old-fashioned farming methods.
The series mixes contemporary technology with Edwardian costume and social attitudes. Almost all the characters have their own theme songs and travelling songs. There are other characters who never appear in the stories, including Mr Honeyman who "keeps the chemist shop", and an unnamed clown or pierrot, who turns a roller caption to display the show's opening and closing credits.
Each week the villagers undergo such domestic crises as a shortage of flour, a swarm of bees, a water shortage and rumours of an unwanted electrical substation being built in the village, but all problems are happily resolved by the end of each episode. The episodes then conclude with the narrator bidding farewell to the puppet character who was seen at the beginning and is shown going back into the musical box.
Camberwick Green has no overt fantasy content apart from the musical box. For the most part, it is simply about ordinary people doing everyday things, and perhaps for that reason it remains popular. Along with its two successors, the series was repeated many times on the BBC until 1985, and then on Channel 4 from 1994 to 2000.

Episodes

  1. "Peter the Postman"
  2. "Windy Miller"
  3. "Mr Crockett the Garage Man"
  4. "Dr Mopp"
  5. "Farmer Jonathan Bell"
  6. "Captain Snort"
  7. "Paddy Murphy"
  8. "Roger Varley the Sweep"
  9. "PC McGarry"
  10. "Mr Dagenham the Salesman"
  11. "Mr Carraway the Fishmonger"
  12. "Mickey Murphy the Baker"
  13. "Mrs Honeyman and Her Baby"
Episode titles were given in Radio Times, but were not shown on screen.

Characters

Pippin Fort

The staff and soldier boys of Pippin Fort are a regular feature of Camberwick Green, demonstrating their foot drill, working in the community, responding to emergencies, and providing the local fire-fighting capability with their bright red mobile fire pump.
The 1970s pop band Candlewick Green shares its name with the originally planned title of the series.
In 1987 the indie group Pop Will Eat Itself sampled Brian Cant's "Here is a box..." introduction for the start of their song Razorblade Kisses. The song itself is an instrumental reprise of their song Evelyn, but played in a musical box style to make it sound similar to the Camberwick Green tune.
In 1987, Windy Miller was the face of Windmill Bakery's wholemeal bread. Ceramic pots depicting Windy hugging a beehive and barrels of marmalade and jam were made to tie in with the promotion.
Camberwick Green was spoofed for a 1988 edition of Spitting Image, as "Gamberwick Greenbelt". The ninety second sketch had a puppet Nicholas Ridley, described as "Old Nicky Ridley, the village idiot", aboard a bulldozer who then proceeded to demolish the whole village for redevelopment. In 2015, Private Eye resurrected the spoof as the "Camberwick Greenbelt" strip cartoon, offering satirical comment on social and political impacts on the British countryside.
The character Windy Miller and his famous windmill appeared in September 2005 along with some other Camberwick Green characters in commercials for Quaker Oats on television in the United Kingdom. The puppets and setting are all re creations, because Murray destroyed the originals in the 1970s. The original narrator, Brian Cant, auditioned to do the voice over for the commercials, before the job was instead given to Charlie Higson.
Episode five of the second series of the BBC's Life on Mars features a recreation of the opening of Camberwick Green, with a puppet of the show's main character, Sam Tyler, emerging from the musical box and despairing over his colleague, Gene Hunt, who can be seen in puppet form "kicking in a nonce" at the end. This later leads to Sam to threaten Hunt, telling him to "Stay out of Camberwick Green!". It emerges that Sam is tripping after being accidentally overdosed in his hospital bed.
Again, the voice over was not supplied by Brian Cant, but is delivered in a similar style. It differs from the original by saying: "This is a box, a magical box, playing a magical tune. But inside this box there lies a surprise. Do you know who's in it today?"
The narration was provided by Brian Little, the co-founder of Hot Animation, the company that created the sequence. His recording was supposed to be a temporary guide track to help the animators time the shots, but the producers of Life on Mars were content to retain it for the final version. The one-minute sequence was designed and animated by Paul Couvela, the supervising animator of Bob the Builder.
Windy Miller cameos in the closing sequence of the 2009 BBC Children in Need charity single Peter Kay's "Animated All Star Band" video.
The music video to Radiohead's Burn the Witch pays homage to both Camberwick Green and The Wicker Man.

Restoration and commercial releases

The original masters of Camberwick Green – along with those of its sequels Trumpton and Chigley – were believed to have been lost, with most surviving copies tending to suffer from scratched, wobbly or grainy picture quality and a muffled soundtrack.
However, when boxes of some original film were discovered in Gordon Murray's attic – with more footage then discovered by the BBC – the trilogy was restored and remastered for a Blu-ray release in 2011. However, as of 2019, Trumpton and Chigley have yet to have received a Blu-ray release.

VHS

In 1984, eighteen years later after the broadcasts on BBC in 1966, Longman Video released the first four episodes, as part of its Children's Treasury Collection.
VHS video titleYear of releaseEpisodes
Camberwick Green 1984Peter Hazel The Postman, Windy Miller, Mr Crockett, Dr Mopp.

Later, in 1989, the BBC released a video with the last three episodes.
VHS video titleYear of releaseEpisodes
Camberwick Green 1: Mickey Murphy the Baker 10 April 1989Mickey Murphy the Baker, Mr Carraway, Mrs Honeyman and her Baby .

Then, in 1996–1997 Telstar Home Entertainnment, as part of its Star Kids range released three videos.
VHS video titleYear of releaseEpisodes
A Busy Day in Camberwick Green 1996Peter Hazel the Postman, Windy Miller, Mr Crockett, Dr Mopp.
It's Fun to Work in Camberwick Green 1997Mickey Murphy the Baker, Mrs Honeyman and her Baby, PC McGarry, Mr Carraway
Meet Your Friends in Camberwick Green'' 1997Jonathan Bell, Paddy Murphy, Captain Snort, Roger Varley the Sweep

DVD and Blu ray

The digitally remastered Camberwick Green was released in December 2011 in one multi pack, comprising a Blu ray disc and a DVD.

Credits

  • Music: Freddie Phillips
  • Narrator: Brian Cant
  • Sets: Margaret Brownfoot and Andrew Brownfoot
  • Animation: Bob Bura & John Hardwick
  • Puppets: Gordon Murray
  • Produced by Gordon Murray Puppets Ltd 1966.