Camberwick Green

Each and every episode of the old childrens show Camberwick Green would begin with the opening shot of a music box and the line “Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?” Then the lid would open and out would rise the central character of the particular episode to begin the program with a brief chat with Brian Cant (The Narator) before the action would begin.

Are you ready to “watch with mother”? The series was aired originally in 1966 as part of the watch with mother slot on BBC TV aimed at small children, each of the 13 episodes lasting 15 minutes.

Camberwick Green was a small village in Trumptonshire, close to the towns of Trumpton and Chigley. It’s green was boarded by a number of shops such as the post office, the fishmongers and the bakers. Around the village you would find Jonathon Bell’s Farm where he used all of the new advances in modern farming, Colley’s Mill where Windy Miller would drink his Cider and Pippin Fort where the soldiers were garrisoned.

The plots for series were all very simple everyday activities, replacing spilt milk, getting rid of some bees, recovering a broken down truck and so on, the only really fantasy part of the series was everyone whistling for wind to get the sails of Windy Miller’s windmill turning. These episodes were originally shown from January to March of 1966.

Each program would end with a brief chat with the lead character once more before they slowly disappeared back into the music box while a clown turns the closing credits.

 The models for the characters were originally built by the producer and brains behind the series of shows, Gordon Murray, he created all of the original models with ping pong balls for heads with foam bodies. These were later modified with wire by the animators Bob Bura and John Hardwick so that the models could be posed for the stop frame animation.

 

Each of the main characters within the show would be introduced with their own song of which there were around 50 songs produced for the whole Camberwick Green series including Trumpton and Chigley. In all there were around 70 named characters within the series.

 

The main characters within Camberwick Green were;

 

Windy Miller, the cider swigging owner of Colley’s mill who always managed to walk between the sails of the mill without once getting hit.

 

Peter the postman, who would empty all of the postboxes and deliver the mail around town.

 

Mr Crocket, who owned the garage and the breakdown truck.

 

Dr.Mopp, wearing his top hat and driving an old vintage car, the doctor can distinguish easily between measles and red paint spots.

 

Jonathon Bell, the local farmer driving his forklift.

 

Captain Snort of Pippin Fort, who along with Sgt.Major Grout and the six soldiers would be ready to jump in their truck to go rescue anyone in distress.

 

The Murphy family, the local bakers.

 

Roger Varley, the chimney sweep on his motorcycle with sidecar.

 

PC McGarry (Number 452), who travels by bike. But I think too short nowadays to be a police officer.

 

Mr Dagenham, the salesman in his sportscar.

 

Mr Carraway, the fishmonger who likes to fish in the stream at the bottom of his garden.

 

Mrs Honeyman, the town gossip with her baby.

 

Thomas Tripp, the local milkman and dairy owner.

 

 

The original models and the sets were destroyed by their owner Gordon Murray when he burnt them all on a large bonfire, a great loss in my mind!

The Camberwick Green episodes were originally aired between January and March of 1966 on BBC TV, they were as follows;

1. Peter The Postman

2. Windy Miller

3. Mr. Crockett, the Garage Man

4. Dr Mopp

5. Farmer Jonathon 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

These are now available remastered on DVD.

The writing for the series was on the whole by Alison Prince, with input from Gordon Murray and Freddie Philips

 

Freddie Philips was the composer, he created all of the music, around 50 songs, and all of the sound effects for things like the sails of Windy Miller’s windmill (a sound I can still remember today 40 years on.)

 

Animation was by Bob Bura and John Hardwick, ably assisted by Pasquale Ferrari, George Debouch, Colin Larage, and LenPalace.

 

The sets were created by Andrew and Margaret Brownfoot in the living room of their home in Harrow Hill.

 

The narrator, who was recorded from a “broom cupboard” in the producers home was Brian Cant, who went on to do many more years of work on “Play school” and “play away.” Brian Cant provided all of the voices of the characters and sang all of the songs.

 

The creator and producer was Gordon Murray, without whom this wonderful series would never have existed!

 Camberwick Green was filmed using models and a process of animation known as “stop motion”, basically the models are posed and one frame of film is taken. Each model is then moved a fraction more and the next frame of the film taken, thus giving the illusion of continuous movement when the film is viewed.

 

This “stop motion” animation was the trademark of the main animators of this series, Bob Bura and John Hardwick. They adapted Gordon Murray’s original models of the characters with wire so that they could be posed and they could film each scene in it’s entirity without any form of editing as in filming today.

 

It would take around a whole week to shoot one reel of film, around 2 and a half minutes of film, so each episode took about 4 weeks to film. Some sequences of film being re-used in different episodes to make things easier and quicker.

Because of the style of filming, the writters were told to avoid the need for water or fire as these would be too difficult to replicate using this process, however in the episode where windy Miller and Pc McGarry get rid of the bees actual smoke is used, but none of the characters actually move at all during this scene.

 

One of the other peculiarities of the filming of this series of programs is when the characters speak, none of them have mouths! Unless it is the Sgt.Major shouting, otherwise the characters wave their arms to indicate who is speaking!