"Terry Hall (ventriloquist) Terence ""Terry"" Hall (20 November 1926 – 3 April 2007) was an English ventriloquist. He appeared regularly on television with his puppet, Lenny the Lion, whose catchphrase was ""Aw, don't embawass me!"" Hall is credited with having been one of the first ventriloquists to use a non-human puppet. Hall was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, where his parents ran a working men's club. He was educated at St Patrick's School in Oldham and at De La Salle College in Pendleton, Salford. Hall initially worked as a ventriloquist with a boy dummy, named Mickey Finn, and won a talent"
"Ray Alan Ray Alan (18 September 1930 – 24 May 2010) was an English ventriloquist and television entertainer from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the puppet ""Lord Charles"" and later also with the puppets ""Tich"" and ""Quackers"". Lord Charles was the first puppet to have his own personal microphone, which was first fitted by Sound professional Douglas Oakley whilst working with Lord Charles at Thames TV, and became a regular feature thereafter. Born in Greenwich, London, Alan was educated at Morden Terrace School, Lewisham. Alan was introduced to the world of entertainment at a young"
"to have survived as recordings. Whirligig (TV series) Whirligig is a BBC television programme for children broadcast from 1950 until 1956. It was the first children's programme to be broadcast live from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, at 5:00 pm on alternate Saturdays. Humphrey Lestocq was one of the presenters and the stooge of the obnoxious puppet Mr. Turnip, voiced by Peter Hawkins. Lestocq's catchphrase was ""Goody, Goody Gumdrops"" and Mr. Turnip's was ""Lawky, Lawky, Lum"". The series took the form of individual serials such as ""In Search Of The Shadow"", ""Stranger From Space"" and ""The Highwayman's Bargain"". None of"
"frequent appearance at the side of the screen during unrelated sketches, saying: ""I am neither in this sketch nor not in it, but somewhere in-between"". This running gag was used when Ashdown's extramarital affair was revealed, and his puppet commented that ""I didn't touch her on the left leg, or the right leg, but somewhere in-between."" Former liberal MP Cyril Smith also made a few appearances depicted as morbidly obese. Former Prime Ministers Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home were depicted as living in a highly restrictive retirement home named Exchequers, where they were frequently abused by"
"Rod Hull Rodney Stephen ""Rod"" Hull (13 August 1935 – 17 March 1999) was an English comedian, best known as a popular entertainer on British television in the 1970s and 1980s. He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute, highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian flightless emu bird. Hull was born in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England in 1935. He attended Delemark Road School and the County Technical School, Sheerness. After national service with the RAF, he qualified as an electrician. He married his first wife Sandra in 1958; they had two daughters, Deborah and Danielle. His first"
"that some of his catch phrases (""Overdey!"", ""Hey group!"", ""Scratch glass, turn blue"", ""Stay sick, climb walls"", ""Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy!"", ""Holy Parma"", ""Amrap"" and Froggy's ""Hiya gang, hiya hiya hiya!"") are still widely recognized among the children of the 1970s. An interesting side element is that the aforementioned rubber toy referred to simply as ""Froggy"" (and much abused by the Ghoul) was a toy dating from 1948 by a company named Rempel and featured often in comedic skits on the 1955 television show ""Andy's Gang"" where he was named Froggy the Gremlin. The Ghoul's oft-uttered catch phrases ""Hiya,"
"Basil Brush Basil Brush is a fictional anthropomorphic fox, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts and comic strips. The character has featured on children's television from the 1960s to the present day. A mischievous character and a raconteur, Basil Brush is best known for his catchphrase ""Ha Ha Ha Ha! Boom! Boom!"", used after something he finds funny, and also for speaking in a ""posh"" accent and manner, referring to himself as a ""fella"". The character claims to dislike"
"Archie Andrews (puppet) Archie Andrews was a ventriloquist's dummy used by ventriloquist Peter Brough in radio and television shows in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps the most popular show in its radio format was called ""Educating Archie"". Regularly attracting over 15 million listeners. Archie was invariably dressed in a broad-striped blazer, and addressed the ventriloquist as ""Brough"". The television scripts were written by Marty Feldman and Ronald Chesney. The radio show attracted up to 15 million listeners and had a children's fan club that at one time had 250,000 members. Among future stars who appeared on the"
"Emu (puppet) Emu is a puppet emu given to British entertainer Rod Hull in the 1960s while he was presenting a children's breakfast television programme in Australia. Hull adopted the mute puppet for his cabaret act, and took it with him to the United Kingdom when he returned in 1970. The character was given a mischievous and sometimes aggressive onstage persona, attacking celebrity guests (and Hull himself) for comic effect. Hull and Emu also appeared on several episodes of The Hudson Brothers' comedy show in the United States. During the 1970s, Hull and Emu achieved national fame in the UK"
"Barbara Woodhouse Barbara Kathleen Vera Woodhouse (née Blackburn; 9 May 1910 Rathfarnham, Ireland – 9 July 1988, Buckinghamshire, England) was a dog trainer, author, horse trainer and television personality. Her 1980 television series ""Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way"" made her a household name in the UK. Among her catch-phrases were ""walkies"" and ""sit!"", the latter parodied in the 1983 James Bond film ""Octopussy"". She was also known for her ""no bad dogs"" philosophy. Barbara Blackburn was born 9 May 1910 in Rathfarnham, Ireland to an Irish family and grew up in Dublin. When her schoolmaster father died in 1919, her"
"Saveen Saveen (born Albert Edward Langford; 27 May 1914, Southwark, London, England – 14 April 1994, Worcester Park, Surrey, England) was a British ventriloquist who was the first to have a national radio series (""Midday with Daisy May"") on the BBC Light Programme after the Second World War. Among his many puppet characters were the tiny schoolgirl dummy Daisy May, a cockney boy dummy ""Andy the Spiv"" and two dogs (one dummy and one real). He also made frequent appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s. His character ""Daisy May"" is identified as the origin of Royal Navy slang"
"Whirligig (TV series) Whirligig is a BBC television programme for children broadcast from 1950 until 1956. It was the first children's programme to be broadcast live from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, at 5:00 pm on alternate Saturdays. Humphrey Lestocq was one of the presenters and the stooge of the obnoxious puppet Mr. Turnip, voiced by Peter Hawkins. Lestocq's catchphrase was ""Goody, Goody Gumdrops"" and Mr. Turnip's was ""Lawky, Lawky, Lum"". The series took the form of individual serials such as ""In Search Of The Shadow"", ""Stranger From Space"" and ""The Highwayman's Bargain"". None of the 39 episodes are believed"
"popularity as ""Fearless Fosdick"". ""Fearless Fosdick"" proved popular enough to be incorporated into a short-lived television program in the early 1950s. A puppet show based on ""Fosdick"" premiered on NBC-TV on Sunday afternoons, and even made the cover of ""TV Guide"" for the week of October 17, 1952. (The TV show also sparked the permanent switch in the strip from Fosdick's early ""Dick Tracy"" yellow fedora to his later trademark bowler hat, when Capp felt the three-dimensional puppet looked too close for comfort to the genuine article.) Created for television and directed by puppeteer Mary Chase, ""Fearless Fosdick"" was written"
"African American puppet named Jesse B. Weaver (or ""Jumpin' J.B."" to his friends) would star in short host segments, usually involving floating around in a bizarre colorful spiral and randomly screaming. The show also used clips from various Turner-owned films and television series from the 1960s and 1970s for added backdrops and storylines. The show had a quite few minor characters, such as the skeleton puppet Boney Bonerton, voiced by show co-producer Jack Pendarvis. Boney Bonerton would host mini talk shows or game shows, and there would be commercial parodies advertising Boney Bonerton merchandise (i.e. The Boney Bonerton video game"
"Blitz of World War II. Archie was sold at auction in 2005 for £34,000. Archie Andrews (puppet) Archie Andrews was a ventriloquist's dummy used by ventriloquist Peter Brough in radio and television shows in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps the most popular show in its radio format was called ""Educating Archie"". Regularly attracting over 15 million listeners. Archie was invariably dressed in a broad-striped blazer, and addressed the ventriloquist as ""Brough"". The television scripts were written by Marty Feldman and Ronald Chesney. The radio show attracted up to 15 million listeners and had a children's fan club"
"puppets from television in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They are threatened by a Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Loo; Tim eats up a giant hybrid of Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, and the Cookie Monster (from Sesame Street); he and Graeme are challenged to a sword fight by Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men; and Bill is roughly beaten up by The Wombles (a sly nod to the chart rivalry between The Goodies and Mike Batt's Wombles singles). Having vanquished their foes, the Goodies relax... but charging up behind them is a Dougal, the dog from The Magic Roundabout."
"was explained in a sketch that Thatcher used it to control Major, standing behind Thatcher in the crowd of sycophantic cabinet members, eager to repeat whatever the Thatcher puppet screeched). The Opposition (Labour Party) politicians included: Arthur Scargill, who was a member of the Labour Party until 1997, appeared as head of the National Union of Mineworkers, and was portrayed as a big-nosed egotist who was ignorant about mining. In 1994, a puppet of Tony Blair made his appearance. He was originally a public school boy, wearing grey shorts, blazer and cap. His catchphrase was ""I'M THE LEADER"" in reference"
"(sometimes with a baby), Queen of Hearts, King of Hearts, Knave of Hearts, Cook, Fish & Frog Footman. Other rarities are SM Hank, Mr Turnip, Sarah Swede, Colonel Beetroot from the television programme ""Whirligig"", the SS Bookworm family – Professor, Julia and Billy; SL Lettuce Leefe, SL Harris Tweed, SL Bull (1963 range), SL Cow (1963 range), SL Fox (1963 range), SM Huntsman, SM Villain, SM Harlequin and the very rare SL Tortoise (1963 range). The boxes the puppets were packed in usually denote the time period that the puppets were made. However the toys can be found in erroneous"
"he modelled, it is reported, on that of Terry-Thomas. He also operated the puppet, although the only moving part of it was the mouth. As well as Basil Brush, he provided the voice for another well-known television puppet, the dog ""Fred Barker"". Basil Brush, who had made his first on-screen appearance in 1963, returned to star in his own show over a period between 1968 and the 1980s. Although Basil Brush was once ubiquitous in Britain and many countries of the Commonwealth, Owen maintained his anonymity throughout the height of the puppet's prominence during the 1970s, never giving television interviews"
"Bluebottle (character) Bluebottle is a comedy character from ""The Goon Show"", a 1950s British comedy radio show. The character was created and performed by Peter Sellers. Bluebottle is an adenoidal squeaky-voiced Boy Scout from East Finchley (the same neighborhood of London where Peter Sellers grew up). He was noted for reading his own stage directions out loud, and was always greeted with a deliberate round of applause from the audience (""Enter Bluebottle wearing string and cardboard pyjamas. Waits for audience applause. Not a sausage."") As was common with ""Goon Show"" characters, Sellers' Bluebottle was paired with a Spike Milligan character,"
"method of inducing audience laughter. Also used to effect was announcer Douglas Smith's stuffy BBC vocal style. Smith would be cast as a car, an inflatable life raft, a shark, a lion, a river boat, a gun, a volcano, and in the fourth series, in the ""Bona Prince Charlie"" sketch, as England, and even more improbably, in the ""Round The World"" sketch, as the world (""... and it'll take Mr Williams more than 80 days to get around ""me""!""). These roles would require such inane phrases as ""snap snap"", ""rumble rumble"", ""roar roar snarl slaver"", or ""chug chug futt"", preceded"
"Billy Bean and His Funny Machine Billy Bean and His Funny Machine was a UK children’s TV series which was broadcast by the BBC in 1954. It featured a puppet called Billy Bean who operated a large fantastic machine that could produce anything he drew on the ""cartoonorator"". Many mistakes were made with humorous results. Peter Hawkins who went on to make a career in children’s puppet TV was the voice of Billy Bean. Based upon Chuck Luchsinger's American children's show ""Jolly Gene & His Fun Machine"", like Jolly Gene, Billy Bean also ran a train and was dressed as"
"the show then aired at 11:30. This continued until 5 February 2015. After the 2 week half term. The show did not return and was replaced by The Slammer. Within time, ""Bear Behaving Badly"" became one of CBBC's most popular programmes. Nev became so popular he has even been made into a cuddly toy and various other merchandise. In 2005, the Nev the Bear talking toy hit the shops. The large toy said a number of catchphrases including ""Fwightened"" and ""No no no no"". A complaint was made against the toy with regard to the word ""Quick"", by an individual"
"Who"" story titled ""The Idiot's Lantern"". Ann Hogarth Margaret Ann Gildart Jackson (19 July 1910 – 9 April 1993) better known as Ann Hogarth (married name Margaret Ann Gildart Bussell) was a leading British puppeteer. She, her husband and ""Hogarth Puppets"" toured the world. She is best known for her puppet Muffin the Mule, which was one of the first stars of early BBC televeision in the 1940s and 1950s. She and her husband created a large collection of puppets Hogarth was born to Olive Mary (née Howle) and William Gildart Jackson who had been a school teacher. She was"
"meaning the show now had three leprechaun puppets. More often than not though, it would be Mr Sage with either Mr Onion or Shamrock as his sidekick rather than all three together. In addition to the leprechauns, the series also saw the introduction of a new puppet rat called 'Renoir'. The character did not speak, instead he communicated by squeaking and was puppeteered by Lee Brooks (who would later go on to puppeteer ""Nev The Bear""). A new comedy duo called ""Supergirly"" were also introduced from January 2000 to fill the gap left by 'Ben, Gez and Rich' who had"
"Muffin the Mule Muffin the Mule is a puppet character in British television programmes for children. The puppet had been made in 1933 for Hogarth Puppets. The original TV programmes featuring the character were presented by Annette Mills, sister of John Mills, and broadcast live by the BBC from their studios at Alexandra Palace from 1946 to 1952. Mills and the puppet continued with programmes that were broadcast until 1955, when Mills died. The series then transferred to ITV in 1956 and 1957. A modern animated version of Muffin appeared on BBC2 in 2005. The original mule puppet was created"
"the Monkey, Maurice and Doris the Mice, Oswald the Ostrich, Sally the Sea-lion, Peter Pup the dog, Poppy the Parrot, Mr. Peregrine Esquire the penguin, and Prudence and Primrose Kitten. Willie the Worm and Zebbie the Zebra. A separate series of 15-minute episodes, ""Muffin the Mule"", was broadcast from 1952, with his signature tune ""We want Muffin"". Muffin became a television star, and a wide range of spin-off merchandise was made using the Muffin character, including books, records, games and toys. A die-cast movable puppet was produced by Lesney Products, ""the first toy to be marketed under licence as a"
"Arthur Worsley Arthur Wilkinson Worsley (16 October 1920 – 14 July 2001) was a ventriloquist who appeared regularly on British television from the 1950s to the 1970s. His act with dummy Charlie Brown had Charlie do all the talking, while Worsley himself remained ""silent"". He was born at Failsworth, near Manchester, Lancashire. At the age of eight he saw a ventriloquist for the first time which gave him the ambition to become a ventriloquist himself. Worsley made his first stage appearance aged 11 at the Casino, Rusholme, Manchester, billed as the """"World's Youngest Ventriloquist"""". His London debut took place four"
"Sweep (puppet) Sweep is a British puppet and TV character popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and other countries. Sweep is a grey glove puppet dog with long black ears who joined ""The Sooty Show"" in 1957, as a friend to fellow puppet Sooty. His general dim-witted behaviour and penchant for bones and sausages has made him an endearing, entertaining character that children still love to this day. Probably his most unusual characteristic is his method of communication. It consists of a loud high pitched squeak that gains its inflection from normal speech and its rhythm from"
"who lived upstairs, Irish sidekick Liam (played by Michael Byers), and Anil, a crazy café owner and inept cook. Several celebrities made cameo appearances on the show. These included Eamonn Holmes and Ainsley Harriott. The original shows were recorded before a studio audience, comprising mainly children, but the new programme used a post-production laughter track instead of an audience. Interspersed with the main programme, there are now various animated shorts in which Basil and/or another character is seen making jokes. The more recent puppet looks different from the original 1960s/1970s puppet in a number of aspects and, apart from being"
"save people money on their insurance. This was to which he responded with his famous catchphrase: ""oh yes!"". The catchphrase is believed to be an impersonation of Potter the Janitor (played by Deryck Guyler) from the 1970s television series ""Please Sir!"". Churchill was voiced by Bob Mortimer. Older adverts had Mortimer's voice responding to questions, posed by his comedy partner Vic Reeves. In April 2005, however, Reeves was removed from the adverts, after he was convicted of drink driving. In 2004, a Churchill hot air balloon was unveiled, and was the United Kingdom’s largest special shaped hot air balloon. It"
"Ann Hogarth Margaret Ann Gildart Jackson (19 July 1910 – 9 April 1993) better known as Ann Hogarth (married name Margaret Ann Gildart Bussell) was a leading British puppeteer. She, her husband and ""Hogarth Puppets"" toured the world. She is best known for her puppet Muffin the Mule, which was one of the first stars of early BBC televeision in the 1940s and 1950s. She and her husband created a large collection of puppets Hogarth was born to Olive Mary (née Howle) and William Gildart Jackson who had been a school teacher. She was born the fourth of five children"
"puppet special of ""The Weakest Link"" hosted by Anne Robinson and broadcast on BBC One, but was eliminated in the fourth round of play, and as hinted in his post-elimination interview, he has a crush on both Soo and host Anne Robinson. In 2004, a soft plush Nev was released, but was only available in a few stores. In 2005, a talking Nev was released, speaking a number of catch phrases including ""Fwightened"" and ""No no no no"". A complaint was made against the toy with regard to the word ""Quick"", by an individual who believed she had heard a"