Penny Crayon
Penny Crayon is an animated children's television series that tells the adventures of a very intellectual and well-meaning schoolgirl who loves to draw, and her escapades accompanied by her best friend Dennis. Using the magic crayons she always carries with her she brings everything she draws to life, to aid them on their adventures or to get them out of tricky situations, and usually creating a world of chaos until it's either rubbed out or washed away.
The origins of Penny's crayons was never explained or hinted at in the series; however series creator Peter Maddocks released a prequel story, along with an adaptation of the episode 'Dickens of a Mess', in digital format in 2012, which told the story of how Penny came to have her magic crayons.
Characters
- Penny Crayon is a highly intelligent and resourceful schoolgirl, with a Northern accent and who loves drawing. She has magic crayons and pencils that can draw on any surface including brick walls, cave interiors and even the inside of a whale's mouth. She is voiced by comedy actress Su Pollard, whose face Penny visually resembles.
- Dennis Pillbeam is Penny's best friend, an excitable, good-natured simple boy who can often to be heard praising Penny's cleverness or bravery. The only other regular character in the series, he is voiced by Peter Hawkins, who had also done voice-work for Maddocks Animation's previous television series.
Origin and production
Penny Crayon was produced for the BBC in the United Kingdom and YTV in Canada. first broadcast weekly as part of Children's BBC on BBC One from 14 September 1989. It was made by Maddocks Animation, which had previously produced Jimbo and the Jet-Set and The Family-Ness, and utilized much of the same production staff, as well as featuring the vocal talents of Peter Hawkins in all three series.Twelve episodes were produced in a single production run, although spread across two separate broadcast runs in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The series was subsequently repeated a number of times, airing into the early 2000s and was also later repeated on GMTV2 with Bertha.
Penny Crayon had first appeared read as a story in an early episode of Playdays. In that story, not animated but read out over static images drawn by Peter Maddocks, when a school trip to the zoo is rained off, Penny tries to entertain her disappointed classmates stuck inside school by drawing zoo animals on the walls of the school hall, which come to life and cause havoc around the school. When she and Dennis can't catch them to erase them, she eventually draws a huge cage to put them all in, thus allowing her to rub them out.
This early version of Penny had darker hair - she was given blonde hair in the following series to match that of Su Pollard, and both her and Dennis' appearance was modified for the subsequent series. One of Dennis' lines suggests that Penny and Dennis might be siblings, though this was never mentioned in the series. The story was one of several submitted by independent writers for the new daily series, and although a selection of rotating story characters was soon picked for Playbus, it was well-enough received that then-Head of Children's Programmes Anna Home recommended that Hawkins might develop it as a series.
Due to the original Penny Crayon story appearing on Playbus, some episode guides to the series erroneously list thirteen episodes.
Episodes
- Tower of London
- The Cookery Class
- Circus Lion
- Amusement Park
- Waxworks Museum
- Pantomime
- Haunted House
- Silly Daydream
- Camping Holiday
- Treasure Hunt
- A Dickens of A Mess
- Dog Show
VHS releases
In 1989 Parkfield Publishing released two videos from the first Penny Crayon series.| VHS video title | Year of release | Episodes |
| Penny Crayon: Volume 1 | 1989 | The Circus Lion, Waxworks Museum, Cookery Class, Pantomime, |
| Penny Crayon: Volume 2 | 1989 | Tower of London, Amusement Park, Camping Holiday, Treasure Hunt |
In 1992, Tring Video UK released three Penny Crayon videos with four episodes on each tape.
| VHS video title | Year of release | Episodes |
| The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Camping Holiday | 1992 | Camping Holiday, |
| The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Dog Show | 1992 | Dog Show, A Dickens of a Mess, Pantomime, Tower of London |
| The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Treasure Hunt | 1992 | Treasure Hunt, Amusement Park, Circus Lion, Silly Daydream |
In 1994, Carlton Home Entertainment released a single video with only four episodes.
| VHS video title | Year of release | Episodes |
| Penny Crayon: As Seen on TV | 1994 | Camping Holiday, Waxworks Museum, Haunted House, and The Cookery Class |
Several book adaptations and a 1990 annual annual were also released.