Keith Chatfield
Creator of Hatty Town and Issi Noho!
Sumbit YOUR question now!

Only suitable questions will be used, and may be edited if required.
The interview question submission will be closed when enough questions have been received.
Please check back at a later date after it has closed for Keith's answers!

Alan Rogers
Part creator of Pigeon Street, Bod and The Flumps

DEC 2005

CATEGORY: PIGEON STREET

1) Many, many people asked… Is Pigeon Street ever going to become available on DVD?
I'd like to think so. It's not in my hands because the BBC hold the rights. I've prompted them several times but with such a big organisation it's often difficult to target the right person. I'm in discussions with them at the moment....lets hope something comes of it. Maybe someone out there should organise a lobby! There is an online petition - sign here!

2) Simon from Spalding: Question: Who came up with the idea of Long Distance Clara? I'm sure the program influenced a whole generation of girls to become lorry drivers.
I can't quite remember who came up with the idea but I imagine it was the writer Mike Cole. I know we angsted for a while over whether we could use a word like "Juggernaut" for under fives! I wanted to keep her fairly feminine rather than make her blokey, so I gave her big hair and lipstick, (it was the 80's!). Then Benni Lees wrote music that had a sort of country and Western truck driver twang. So I suppose the end result was, as usual, a combination of several people's inputs.
I know of a number of instances where women have said they were directly influenced by Clara in their choice of career. I wonder if Hugo effected Jamie Oliver?

3) DK from Watford: Question: How far was Pigeon Street based on, or informed by educational techniques/requirements for children? Was there a 'hidden curriculum' in there and if so did educational experts advice on it?
There were no formal educational advisors on the series. There was no "Hidden Curriculum". In those days Education and Entertainment were kept pretty much apart and handled by two different departments at the BBC. There was less overlap than there is today, no one had yet coined the word "Edutainment"!
Having said that though, we were all aware we talking to under fives and being parents ourselves we were conscious and careful of what messages we were sending to the audience. Mike Cole in particular had had a long experience of making BBC programmes that contained some educational content like "Playschool". In some ways, everything is education when you are under five!

4) Jen from Leicester: Question: What ever happened to Pigeon Street and would it be such as successful now as it was when I was a kid or do you think that it would not fit in with children's TV today?
Like all programmes, Pigeon Street reached the end of it's natural transmission life. Though it was repeated for a lot longer than many children's series.
I doubt that Pigeon Street would work as well for today's audience, without making some changes to it. Even as relatively recently as the 80's, TV was generally more slowly paced than it is now. There was a more limited choice of alternative TV channels and every TV didn't have a remote control! So audiences were easier to hold on to. Today's MTV generation would probably be hitting their remote controls looking for something faster than Pigeon Street.
In the 70's and 80's I think children's TV was consciously slower in an attempt to allow children to keep up with the plot etc. Children are now more used to rapidly changing images, though sometimes that can simply be used to mesmerise rather than inform.
Also on a practical level, working to limited BBC budgets meant that by holding each shot for a few frames longer less actual animation was required and so the budget stretched further!

6) Chris from Portsmouth: Question: Hi, Firstly I'd just like to say that the shows that you have made are classics that I have grown up with- Pigeon Street in particular I've always loved because it was so different to other shows. I just wondered why in the end credits, does it say "production DAVID YATES" in capitals and then have your name in small lettering? The other thing I was interested in was, in Rosie and Jim in 1990/91 when you animated John Cunliffe's stories, where some of the animated drawings of background characters actually characters from Pigeon Street such as Long Distance Clara?
Thanks Chris. I'm not really sure I know the full answer to the end credit question! David Yates owned the company and he initially set up the project with the BBC. So he was in fact the "Producer". I was actually "Director/Designer" though at the start of the series David had a sort of Directorial role too. It was often a BBC TV convention at the time to merge the two roles for their in house programmes. We were an outside company but for some reason I don't think we had a "Director" credit. I only became a "company director" of David Yates Ltd after Pigeon Street was finished, so I think it was also a hierarchical thing!
Clara does a lot of travelling around but I'm sure she never turned up in Rosie and Jim! She wouldn't dare do that because her contract wouldn't allow it! The background characters were left to me to invent so I suppose I might have unconsciously reverted to my natural default drawing style which is more or less the one I used for Pigeon Street.

7) from 80sCartoons: Question: Who was your favourite character and why?
Ah, that's like one of those, "what's your favourite colour" questions! It depends on my mood etc. I liked Clara's individuality. But I had a soft spot for Bob cos he was based in some ways on me and Reg who was based on my Dad. I also liked drawing William and Mr Baskerville best. Though if I met Baskerville in real life, I probably wouldn't have liked him too much! Sorry to be vague on this one but I'm hopeless at filling in those tick the box questionaires too.
I had to consider this question recently when I decided to sell some of the original artwork from the series. Which character would be most likely to sell etc. I think there were about 25 characters in the series and making up 25 pictures at the outset was out of the question, since all the artwork is in many cut-out pieces. Having asked around, Clara cropped up repeatedly as a favourite, so she appears in 2 of the six, (so far) set ups.
You can see the pictures online at www.lollipopanimation.com, you can even buy them! There will also shortly be limited addition, signed Giclee prints available too.

[back to top of page]

CATEGORY: THE FLUMPS
[available on DVD - click here]

1) Dan from Knutsford: Question: What were the flumps made of?
The Flumps had Papier Mache bodies coated with fur, their facial features, hands and feet were made from Fymo, and their arms and legs were steel armatures clad with chamois leather.

2) Barry from England: Question: Is the program flumps on English television, and if so, what channel at what time, if not, could you possibly get in on English television, as I'm very interested in this scary looking programme!
I don't think its transmitted by any TV station anywhere right now. Though I can't imagine why you find it scary! It's available on DVD if you'd like to give yourself a fright.

3) Danielle C from W. Midlands: Question: Hi. No questions, just wanted to say I LOVED the Flumps when I was wee, and watched the episode where Pootle and the others are bored approx 10 million times! Pootle finds the moon in his bucket and the grandfather sings about his fishing trips... "He fished for fish, and he fished for chips...?" I bought the video on ebay and had a nice nostalgic day watching the same episode again.....and again. Thanks!
Hi Danielle, I'm from the West Midlands too....Dudley in fact. Glad you enjoyed the series. You obviously never got bored with Pootle being bored!

4) Stanley from Stanford: Question: I’m a newcomer to the flumps; I’d like to learn more about the flumps and the flump family!
They were round furry creatures that lived behind a wall on what looked like a derelict site. The wall was a bigger scale than the Flumps and was clearly a human construction. But although they inhabited a human world we never saw any humans. The stories were simply about their self-sufficient family life, and from their accents it would appear they were living somewhere in Yorkshire. The family was Grandfather, Mother, Father, and three children Posie, Perkin and the youngest Pootle. They all wore woolly hats and little else......oh except Posie who wore a bow....oh and Grandfather who had a flat cap.

5) Paul T from Plymouth/U.K: Question: Was there a record L.P released for the Flumps? I really enjoyed the music!
The music was composed by Paul Reade and the theme tune featured George Chisolm on trombone. There was an album of the music realeased years ago on vinyl and tape. The sheet music was even released in book form. I'm pretty sure that neither of these are avilable now. The DVD (still available) of course would have the music as part of the programmes.

6) Mary T from Southampton: Question: I work for a charity and we are in the process of raising our profile, with that in mind and because we put together Christmas parcels for seafarers which always include a woolly hat, I wonder if you would mind if we created a 'woolly hat person'. I am contacting you as I have just realised that there will be a similarity with The Flumps. I would appreciate your opinion.
I'm sure that the Flumps have no monopoly on woolly hats. The seafairers no doubt had them long before the Flumps were thought of. As long as your woolly hat person wasn't actually one of the Flumps, there'd be no problem. Good luck with it. I'm sure they're much appreciated on those cold nights at sea.

7) from 80sCartoons: Question: Did you have a favourite episode? Mine was the Magnet, I loved Pootle in that one!
I seem to remember that "Magnet" was the first episode shot, so you were witnessing Pootle's debut performance.
I don't know if I have a favourite episode, but the first airbrush painting I ever did was used in the "Clouds" episode....or was it called "Balloons"? Can't remember if that was one episode or two! It could have been used in both! Whichever....after that, airbrush became a very important technique for me since I used it extensively later on in Pigeon Street and pretty much ever since, (though I now use a less messy computer version). Also in that episode I did some cut-out animation where I made the artwork and manipulated it myself. Ever since then I've stuck to doing artwork only and my long term animation partner Peter Lang has done all the manipulation.

[back to top of page]

CATEGORY: BOD
[available on DVD - click here]

1) Ceejay from South Wales: Question: What is the name of the frog who had the orchestra!!!?? No-one seems to know and it's driving me mad!!
His name was Alberto Frog and he had an Amazing Animal Band. But I had nothing at all to do with that bit of the show! The stories were written by Michael Cole and the illustrations were drawn by his wife Joanne Cole. There wasn't any animation as such. They were still drawings which the camera panned around.

2) Darragh from Dublin, Ireland: Question: Is Bod a boy or a girl?
Bod knows!! I don't actually know for sure myself, though I'd always assumed he was a boy. Maybe it was his bald head? But then he did wear something that looked suspiciously like a dress! Maybe he was refered to somewhere in the programme as being a "he", but if so I can't remember where. Anyway to me he's a boy. Perhaps part of Bod's enigma is that he/she can be whatever you want him/her to be?

3) Vanessa from California: Question: What kind of name is Bod?? Is it short for something like Ichabod??
Another question I can't answer for sure!! I know that Mike wanted him to be an "everyman" (or... er maybe everywoman?). Bod is kind of short for "body"....an every body? A lot of the inspiration for the Bod stories came from Buddist Zen tales that Mike liked a lot, and I often wondered if there was a vague reference to Bodhisattva in the name Bod, ie in Buddist thinking that would mean someone who is motivated by compassion and seeks enlightenment not only for him/herself but for everyone. I never asked Mike this so I don't know for sure. Also finally I think Mike probably wanted a name that came without connotations of other characters. A name that hadn't been used before. I don't think "Trevor" would have had the same ring! Though it would at least clear up the mystery from the previous question! We were asked this very question in a recent interview. See my next answer.......

4) Linda from Dublin, Ireland: Question: Will Bod ever be shown on TV again? I want to get merchandise also, and there's nothing in Ireland and I don't want to buy off the internet!
Don't know the answer to this either! Not much use am I?! The series may be being shown on some channel somewhere right now, but if so I'm not aware of it. I do know that therte has always been talk from time to time of making a new series. So far these talks hve never resulted in anything happening, but you never know.
Me and 2 of Mike and Jo Coles children - Ali and Lo Cole, along with the musician/composer Derek Grifiths were recently interviewed as part of Bod's fortieth anniversary. The interview, along with all of the Bod music and some narration excerpts from several episodes of the series have been released on CD by Trunk Records. You can buy or order the CD online on Amazon or in the shops at outlets like HMV. It's called BOD -Words and Music.

5) John E from derby: Question: Where did the inspiration come from for you to create Bod? And, was Bod female or male?
I didn't create Bod. The TV series was based on a series of books by Michael and Joanne Cole, first published in 1965. By the time I turned up, the BBC had already commissioned the series and a fairly rough pilot animation had been made. This version was never transmitted on TV cos the characters were then re-worked by an animator called Denise Shackell. I worked initially with Denise then later did episodes on my own and later still with another animator called Colin White. This was my first job, straight out of art college. I'd only graduated two weeks before the job came up! Pretty lucky break I think.
If you want more background detail, then you might want to get the CD I mentioned at the end of question 4. As for Bod's sex.....see question 2!

[back to top of page]

CATEGORY: OTHER

1) Susie from Newcastle Upon Tyne: Question: I am currently studying animation at university, and was wondering if you had any tips on how to become big in the world of television.
Big question that! I only wish I knew the answer! The world of TV is very different today to what it was when I started back in 1973. I got a lucky break with BOD that I don't think could happen now. In fact the last 3 years or so have seen many more changes, like an increase in the number of channels etc. You might think that would increase the amount of animation being produced but its not always done in this country and the budgets are even tighter than they used to be in many cases.
I could ramble on about this subject for far longer than I have space to do here. I suppose the only advice I can give is to simply get a job working for an animation company as soon as you can. That's a pretty obvious statement but its the only way to get the experience you need to progress and you need to be in the middle of things, so that you can take advantage of any lucky opportunities that might arise. Animation can be a very solitary pastime and you can easily get marginalised. Your first job may not pay too well but it will be a gateway to hopefully better things!
Meanwhile, build up a portfolio/showreel and use your time at uni to find your own unique animation voice. That's a trickier thing to do when you have a TV company setting you deadlines etc. Try to be different!

2) From 80sCartoons: What’s your favourite cartoon on TV these days?
I don't get to watch much children's TV really! I like Peppa Pig on channel 5. Its British and actually made here rather than say, in India. I like Sponge Bob and obviously the Simpsons. I also like Charlie and Lola which is again based in the UK. Oh .....and Bonny, Banana and Mo which was a series we did recently for CBeebies, shown in the programme Tikkabilla. But then perhaps I shouldn't be naming my own stuff!

3) From 80sCartoons: What did you watch when you when young?
Black and white "Watch with Mother" stuff like Bill and Ben, and the Wooden Tops!! They weren't great....they weren't even animation, since they were shot in real time using string puppets....but they were engrossing for me at 5 years old. There was also "Twizzle", "Torchy", "Supercar", "Fireball XL5" and "Four Feather Falls" they were precursers of Thunderbirds and also done with string puppets.
But the big animation influences for me came when I was older, but still at school. Stuff like "Magic Roundabout" and "Crystal Tips and Alistair" (that was a series using the Cut-Out animation technique that I later adopted myself). Anything by Bob Godfery or Richard Williams. Probably the most influential thing for me was the Beatles feature film Yellow Submarine.

4) From 80sCartoons: Do you have any children of your own? If so, do you show them Pigeon Street, Bod or the Flumps??
I've got 3 children, all pretty much grown up now and all girls. Two of them are twins so not only did they watch Pigeon Street, but they were in it....Polly and Molly! Actually that's not their names and in fact they weren't born when I did Pigeon Street. I only had one daughter then, so Polly and Molly must have been a premonition! They saw all my films when they were younger, it was the cheapest form of entertainment!

5) Natalie M from England: Question: I really want to find Rub a Dub-Dub, can I find a tape or DVD anywhere for my daughter?
A friend of mine recently came across a VHS in a charity shop! Ebay might be worth a try. But otherwise it's no longer on the market. It was sold in the Early Learning Centre for years but alas no longer. Perhaps I should try to do something about it.

[back to top of page]

Mark Mason
Animator of the Raggy Dolls
FEB 2004

1. Christopher asked..
I am a HUGE fan of the raggy dolls! How did you get the ideas of raggy dolls? A nd also can you give me Neil Innes email address? thank you!!
The Raggy Dolls concept was by Melvyn Jacobson, I was the animator and animation director.
The key members of the production team would throw ideas into the air, and Neil Innes would home in on some of them and write the scripts. I'm not sure of Neil's email address. Type him into Google to find his site, and email from there.

2. Phillip asked...
Hi, Mark! I used to watch the Raggy Dolls when it was on. So, are you pleased with the success of the Raggy Dolls?
Very pleased, though it seems like such a long tme ago. It's great to hear from people like yourself who watched the show and still remember it fondly. I was recently asked to design a new Raggy Doll for Portsmouth University's rag week. They still owe me a T-shirt! It's such a shame that no-one is rerunning the series.

3. Karen asked...
I grew up with the Raggy Dolls, and collected all the dolls. My favourite was by far Dotty. Who was your favourite and why? Ta!
I think my favourites are Back-to-Front and Lucy because they were fun characters to animate. BtF was a puzzle at times to draw- walking one way and looking another, and Lucy could dismember herself which had a lot of comic potential. My least favourite was Hi-Fi and his striped trousers.(Also see 4a)

4. Chris asked....
a) Was it fun animating the episodes?
Most of the time. The animation crew on the show were great fun to work with, but the work was sometimes very hard due to tight schedules. At one stage I was having very bad nightmares about Hi-Fi.

b) What did you think when the Raggy Dolls got a 'new look'?
As I designed the new look, I liked it very much. Yorkshire TV wanted to up the quality from the marker pen style to something cleaner, cuter and fresher. The viewing figures rocketed as a result.

c) How long did it take you to become an animator?
I started 19 years ago. You never stop learning.

d) What other interests do you have?
I like silent movies, and recently saved an 80 year old cinema in my home town from being demolished.

e) Who is your favourite Raggy Doll and why?
See 3 above.

f) Did you get along well with Neil Innes? What did you think of his narrations?
Neil was great. We did't meet very often, but he's a lovely chap. He had the hardest job of all: writing all the scripts, doing all the voices and all the music; all brilliantly.

g) What do you do nowadays?
I continue to animate and illustrate. Take a look at my website at www.markmasonanimation.co.uk. Angelmouse, The Forgotten Toys, William's Wish Wellingtons, Philbert the Frog are some of the shows I've animated, but also TV commercials for Haribo, The York Dungeons and Park Hampers.

h) What was your favourite episode to do?
The Raggy Doll Disco and The Puppet Show.

i) If you've ever looked at an early Raggy Dolls episode, then another episode with their brighter look, did you think your work has really improved during those years?
I worked on the 64 brighter shows, so I suppose I'm biased. But you should strive for your work to always improve.

j) Would you like to see a Raggy Dolls DVD?
Yes, certainly. I've not seen most of the shows for nearly 14 years.

k) Is there any chance of a Raggy Dolls 'reincarnation'?
I really don't know. I'd love to work on a new incarnation of the show, but I don't hold the rights to the series.

l) What advice would you give to any young wannabe animators/artists?
Draw, draw,and draw. Don't copy other people's work, think up your own characters and ideas. Don't expect to get rich, only do it if it really makes you happy.

m) What happens in the last ever R.D episode?
I'm sorry, I really can't remember. Maybe they launch the reject bin into the sea and sail off into the sunset.

n) How were the Raggy Dolls created?
Traditional 2D animation. Script written, storyboard drawn, layouts and backgrounds drawn, the animation was drawn on paper, then inked onto transparent cels, painted by hand, shot under a rostrum camera onto 16mm film, edited, sound effects added.

5. Zyk0tiK asked...
Do you think that today's Children's TV shows are as good as the Children's TV Shows from the 80s?
Yes, some of them are. Some aren't. The Animated Batman was great. I like House of Mouse, Animaniacs, Odd Parents(?), Ren and Stimpy and Spongebob Squarepants. I do also like Angelmouse, William's Wish Wellingtons and Philbert the Frog.I'm currently working on a brand new pre-school series of Muffin the Mule (out next year) and three 1.5min episodes of a fun project by a friend of mine called Sausage and Mash for Nickelodian.

6. Nikki asked...
I can see how Princess would of been a princess doll if she had not somehow got horrible straw hair and a patchwork skirt but what I'm always confused about is what was sad sack supposed to be?
Sad Sack was a "one off" prototype doll. His backstory was that he proved too expensive to mass produce because of his size, and so only one was made and swiftly thrown into the reject bin.

7. Cabe asked...
they say that there is a Raggy doll in all of us, which character would you say you most identify with? (I would definitely be a HiFi :) )
I designed a new RaggyDoll who appeared in 3 or 4 episodes called Raggymuffin. He was a wandering, traveller doll who'd lost his owner and decided to spend his life taking in new sights and experiences. I think I most identify with that.

8. Gaz asked...
Is that Paul McCartney I hear singing the theme tune to Raggy Dolls??? It sounds just like him?? Help!
Neil Innes sings the title song, which he also wrote. See also 4f.

Mark added...
Many thanks for all the questions. I hope I've answered them to your satisfaction.
It's so nice to know that all the work I and the Raggy Doll crew did over the years is so fondly remembered.

[back to top of page]

Terry Brain
Co-creator of The Trap Door and Stoppit and Tidyup

Q1. Apart from Trap Door and Stoppit and Tidyup, have you been invloved with any other cartoon productions?
Since Stoppit & Tidyup we've manly done commercials and title sequences.

Q2. What exactly was your job while working on
a. Trap Door
b. Stoppit and Tidyup
Director, Writer & Animator! (As were all three of us)

Q3. How many other people were involved with making
a. Trap Door
b. Stoppit and Tidyup
Two others.

Q4. Which did you enjoy making most, and why?
Trap Door, because we were left alone for two years to do fourty episodes! Alot of fun, but alot of late nights.

Q5. How long did one episode take to make for
a. Trap Door
b. Stoppit and Tidyup
Trap Door: Two weeks to write, build & shoot Stoppit & Tidyup: About 10 days to write and shoot.

Q6. Was the success of these cartoons a surprise?
Yes, because you can only do what you think is funny & hope that other people find it funny!

Q7. Which were/are your favourite characters?
Berk, Boni, Drutt & the big sponge!

Q8. Do you have a favourite episode of
a. Trap Door
b. Stoppit and Tidyup
Trap Door: 'Bye Bye Berk', when Berk resigns Stoppit & Tidyup: 'Clean your Teeth', where it starts snowing in the middle of sumer for no reason.

Q9. Are there any original Trap Door models left? If yes, where are they?
There's only two models remaining! Drutt is on our mantelpiece (sitting in Boni's trolley) & Boni now lives at Aardman animations on Steve Box's desk! (Steve worked on the Trap Door too)

Q10. Are there any original Stoppit and Tidyup animation cells or drawings left? If yes, where are they?
Yes, they are in CMTB's old studio.

Q11. Who thought up all the Trap Door monsters? Which did you think of?
Myself & Steve Box mainly.

Q12. Did you ever have a concept of what the Thing Upstairs looked like?
No, we made it up as we went along! There are various clues i.e. He flies, He has more than one eye which can be taken out and cleaned, he has more than one mouth, etc... You can see part of him in a lightning flash in one episode!

Q13. a.Who, or what, made Drutt's noises??
b. Who or what made the noises for the characters Tidyup and Stoppit?
Trap Door: Drutts noises were made by our editor who came in from the pub and made lots of farty/squeaky sounds & then we played them backwards.
Stoppit & Tidyup: Me!

Q14. Do you still watch Trap Door or Stoppit and Tidyup?
Only when other people watch it.

Q15. Is there any aspect of either cartoon that you think could have been done better?
I quite like it the way it is but if we had more money we could of made it better.

Q16. Willie Rushton did an amazing job with the voices - did he enjoy it?
Yes he did! We had a great time together. He was such fun to work with.

Q17. In Edinburgh recently I saw a guy, aged early 20's, with a leather jacket that had the Trap Door logo painted on the back - how does that make you feel?
Chuffed!

Q18. Are you still aware of all the devoted fans that are still out there, and probably reading this?!
Not really, but it's nice to know!

Q19. If you could say one thing to all your fans, what would it be?
Thanks very much!!!

Q20. What are you invloved with now - any Trap Door or Stoppit and Tidyup recreations??
No recreations at the moment, but we may have a 'Trap Door' type series in the next year or two. At the moment I'm working on Aardman animations new feature film called 'Chicken Run' which should be out in the cinemas next June!

[back to top of page]