Sooty


Sooty is an orange glove puppet television, stage, comic book and film character, who is a small yellow, magical male bear with black ears and nose who likes to perform magic tricks and play practical jokes. Although mute to the audience, he is said to be able to communicate by 'whispering' in the ear of his handler. He was created by Harry Corbett in 1948. Sooty debuted on local television in 1952, and the children's television programmes that carry his name have continued in various forms since 1955.
According to Guinness World Records, together they are the longest-running "non-consecutive" children's programme in the UK, with 857 episodes being aired as of 30 October 2018. Blue Peter holds the record for the world's longest running children's programme.

History and development

Creator: Harry Corbett

Sooty was originally devised for media by magician and puppeteer Harry Corbett, who had bought the puppet as a present for his son, Matthew Corbett, from a stall when he was on holiday in Blackpool in 1948.
He first appeared on screen on the BBC in 1952 on the BBC's Talent Night. This particular show came from the TV Theatre at the annual British Radio Show held on this occasion at Belle Vue, Manchester. For ten days there had been nightly heats of hopefuls in the theatre culminating in each of the winners performing live on the Saturday night variety show transmitted nationally. Harry Corbett won his heat and then, by public vote, the overall winner on the live TV show. Sooty and Harry then became regulars on the BBC children's show Saturday Special from 1952–1955.
The original bear was completely yellow, and Harry covered his ears and nose with 'soot' so that he would show up better on black and white television - hence the puppet's name. He would later be joined by other puppet glove characters, including Sweep, Soo, Kipper, Butch, Ramsbottom, 'Enry the Robot, Algernon Fortesqueue, Cousin Scampi, Miki and Maggie Mouse. Like Sooty, Scampi appears to talk only in a very light whisper which can be heard only when someone puts their ear close to his mouth.

Television and stage hosts

Matthew Corbett

, the son of Harry Corbett, took over the character after Harry's retirement in 1976. Sooty then enjoyed a new wave of popularity on stage and TV. The Sooty Show continued on television until 1992, evolving into a sitcom format. Like his father, Matthew took on a paternal role to the puppets, sharing a house with Sooty, Sweep, Soo and becoming the butt of many practical jokes. Matthew developed a well-meaning but slightly conceited screen character, whose boasting and pomposity was frequently punctured by the mayhem caused by Sooty and Sweep.
Connie Creighton, who with her husband John had worked with Harry Corbett and Sooty for many years, continued to work on the programme, and co-starred in several episodes as well as touring with the stage show.
In 1993 Sooty, Sweep, Soo, Little Cousin Scampi and Matthew all moved to Manchester for Sooty & Co., with the gang running a shop that "sells almost everything". Brenda Longman, the voice of Soo since the early 1980s, co-starred as neighbour Mo.
In May 1996, Matthew Corbett sold the rights to Sooty to the Global Rights Development Fund for £1.4 million. Corbett commented: "I have worked hand in glove with Sooty for the past 20 years, but now it is time for him to stand on his own two feet. The plan is to use my 50th birthday in two years' time as a springboard to shoot Sooty to true international stardom." The deal included Corbett staying as the host of the show until 1998.

Richard Cadell

Matthew Corbett retired in December 1998, bequeathing Sooty to then co-star Richard Cadell.
Sooty came back to screens in 1999 at first under the name Sooty Heights, which featured Cadell, Liana Bridges, and the puppets all running the titular Sooty Heights hotel.
In December 1999, The Britt Allcroft Company announced they had acquired a 50% stake in the franchise from Sooty International Limited, forming a joint-venture company called Bridgefilms, which would also handle licensing rights to existing Britt Allcroft creation Mumfie. The company would be rebranded as Gullane Entertainment in September 2000, and continued their plan of exporting Sooty worldwide.
Under the ownership of Gullane, Sooty Heights was replaced with Sooty, which was similar to the former, but set in a refurbished hotel and Vicki Lee Taylor replaced Liana Bridges. Repeats of Sooty Heights and Sooty were shown on the CITV channel between 2006 and 2010.
In October 2002, Gullane Entertainment was bought by rival company HIT Entertainment, giving them the rights to Sooty. The property suffered from cutbacks under HiT's ownership, with many of the puppeteers and Soo's voice actor Brenda Longman leaving. Sooty was cancelled in 2004 due to this, making 2005 the first year when no new Sooty series was shown.
After a failed attempt to produce a new Sooty series for ITV in 2006, HIT announced they had put the rights to Sooty up for sale in October 2007. In June 2008 it was announced that Cadell had bought the rights. Plans for three new TV shows were under way, plus a reworking of one of Matthew Corbett's stage shows. A brand new Sooty adventure, Sooty's Big Day Out, was released on DVD and was made available via the official Sooty Show website.
Since 2011 he has starred in Sooty on ITV, set in a holiday camp with Richard Cadell as the caretaker working under the orders of his boss "Mr Slater" who is never actually seen but whose annoyed muffled voice is heard on the end of Richard's phone. It is filmed at Brean Leisure Park which Richard owned in real life with his brother David until 2014, at which time they sold it to outside interests; Richard Cadell has said that they sold the park as it was difficult to run.

Characteristics

Sooty's personality fluctuates between kindness, cheekiness and naughtiness, very often misinterpreting things said or suggested by Harry, Matthew, Richard or Soo. He plays an instrument described in the show as a xylophone which is in fact a toy glockenspiel, and keeps a wand with which he performs magic. This is accompanied by the catchphrase "Izzy wizzy, let's get busy!", and then Sooty tapping the magic wand to "Shave and a Haircut". Sooty also possesses a magic powder known as oofle dust which he scatters around to perform magic.
His water pistol is also iconic, with Matthew and Richard usually on the receiving end of a soaking, although even celebrities such as Jonathan Ross on "An Audience with Sooty", and a royal family member, Prince Philip, at the Honours ceremony which Harry Corbett and Sooty attended to get Harry's OBE, have fallen foul of the water. Sooty has also hit both Matthew and Richard with a hammer in some episodes,, to which they have always shouted, "Don't do that for goodness sake!". Sooty also occasionally makes use of other messy items such as shaving foam and paint.
Matthew and subsequently Richard have carried on Harry's tradition of ending every show with the line "Bye bye everybody, bye bye", and in Matthew's last ever episode, his final scene was a collection of clips of him saying the immortal words over the preceding years.

TV series

The Sooty Show was aired on the BBC from 1955 until 1967 when it was cancelled by the BBC and was then signed up to Thames Television where it aired on ITV from then until 1992. In 1957, Sooty was joined by Sweep, and in 1964, Soo was introduced as Sooty's girlfriend. The latest series, simply titled Sooty, began on 5 September 2011 on the CITV channel. On 3 September 2018, the series moved over to ITVBe as part of the channel's new morning preschool slot, beginning with the showing of the third series of the show.

Spin-off series

There were also three spin-off series.
Sooty's Amazing Adventures was an animated cartoon series that aired from 1997–1998. It featured Sooty, Sweep, Soo and Scampi living in an old run-down theatre by the coast. It was produced by award-winning animation company/studio Cosgrove Hall Films. The show gave Sweep and Scampi actual voices, but kept Sooty mute. When Richard Cadell acquired the rights to Sooty, he claimed in numerous interviews that he destroyed the master tapes to this series as he really despised any form of Sooty done in animation form.. However, the entire series still exists in the ITV Archives.

Video shows

Learn with Sooty was a straight-to-video series developed to make learning fun and introduce the basic skills that children really need to understand. There were eight videos produced; Start to Read, Have Fun with Numbers, Simple Science, Be Safe, Start to Read 2, A to Z of Animals, Down on the Farm and Have Fun with Numbers 2. In 1994, four of the videos were re-released with new packaging.
Sooty's Magic was also a straight-to-video series that taught basic magic tricks for children to learn and practice themselves, with each release ending with a magic show presented by Sooty and Richard Cadell. The videos were supported by a range of Sooty's Magic toys. Three videos were released between 2000 and 2002; Sooty's Magic Show, Sooty's Magic Club and Sooty's Magic Birthday Party. Due to Hit Entertainment's takeover of Gullane Entertainment at the time, the final video, Sooty's Magic Birthday Party, never received a wide release, with only those who pre-ordered the video receiving their copy.

Stage shows

Sooty also had a successful number of stage shows across the UK.
During Matthew Corbett's reign, seven stage shows were performed repetitively. For the first half of the tours, Matthew and Connie Creighton would present, and during the second half, while Matthew was busy writing and filming the TV shows, Connie and Spencer K. Gibbens would present.
After Matthew retired, six stage shows toured the country. All starred Richard Cadell; three of them also featured Richard's Sooty Heights co-star, Liana Bridges, with the fourth starring Amanda Howard in Liana's place.
From 2005 to 2008, annual shows, featuring the puppet characters and various different presenters, toured around the UK.
From 2009, stage shows again featured Richard Cadell. The first, Sooty in Space, was a reworking of one of Matthew Corbett's scripts, and toured the country throughout the year.
On 20 June 2014 the Radio Times confirmed that Sooty: The Movie was in production. It was set to go in production in 2016.
Wink Taylor, Alex Skerratt and Richard Cadell are writing the film. Matthew Corbett will appear in the movie, Cadell has confirmed.
It is planned for release sometime in the near future.

Books

For most years from 1957 to 1998, there was a Sooty Annual; no annual was published in 1987, 1988, or 1990. The early annuals were published by the London Daily Mirror. Later annuals were published by Purnell and Sons.
The annuals feature an expanded cast of characters including:
In 1973 a single and album were released. The single was "Super Sonic Sooty Spug" with "My Friend and I" on the B-side. The album was Around the World with Sooty...Harry Corbett and Sweep. This comprised eight songs with a linking story. The songs included both the A and B-sides of the single. These were released on the Music for Pleasure label.

Documentary

In 2016 a major documentary looking at the life of Harry Corbett and the creation of Sooty was produced by independent film-maker and Sooty fan, Jeff Smart. Entitled "Sooty Ungloved" the documentary consists of two one-hour segments and features contributions from David Corbett, Matthew Corbett, Richard Cadell, Brenda Longman and original Sooty Show producer, Trevor Hill. The documentary premiered in the town of Guiseley on 1 October 2016 with David Corbett, Matthew Corbett, Richard Cadell and Brenda Longman in attendance. A future television broadcast of the documentary is currently being negotiated.

Guest appearances