Windy Miller

Windy Miller lived at Colley’s Mill, just outside of Camberwick Green in Trumptonshire, quite near to the town of Trumpton and the village of Chigley. The fictitious setting for the animated childrens series of the same names.

Windy was one of the main characters, in both the series Camberwick Green and Chigley, never making an appearance in Trumpton.

Many of the episodes featured this unassuming fellow, but was he a good role model for the children I hear you ask? In one episode he falls asleep after drinking too much Cider! Not such a good example for the youngsters, and what about health and safety, he is always seen walking through the blades of his windmill to enter through the front door in front of which the sails of the mill pass at quite a pace, thankfully and quite frankly, miraculously Windy Miller manages to escape certain death every time!

But, the programs were a huge success with the children, being broadcast for several years in color on the BBC. Many of us older children can still recognise and mimic the sounds of the blades on Windy’s windmill and can remember the postman’s sack of mail getting caught up and spinning away out of reach.

 

Windy is in the very first episode of Camberwick green along with the postman, and has to stop the sails of the windmill to rescue the postman’s sack.

 

In the very next episode, Windy is once again back in the frame, getting drunk and sleeping and then having to solicit the soldiers help in whistling for the wind.

 

In the third episode, Windy wins a race against a truck on his trycicle.

 

Windy returns in the 5^th episode, agreeing to sell his free range eggs to the locals while farmer bell sells bulk!

 

In the 7^th episode we discover that windy can’t bake cakes but can milk a cow!

 

The next episode sees Windy feeling the sweep’s collar (for luck) and helping to fill milk churns with water.

 

Next Windy saves the day at the cake shop by spraying smoke on the bees to subdue them (the only piece of continuous filming rather than stop frame, which is why no one moves when the smoke is sprayed.)

 

In episode 10, Windy Miller gets lifted by a helicopter when trying to replace the sails back on his windmill, all to do with a mistaken hand gesture!

 

In episode 11, Windy Miller displays his kindness and artistic skills giving the fishmonger a model of his father’s boat.

 

In 12, they make use of Windy’s extensive baking facilities (I thought he couldn’t bake I hear you ask..)

 

In the Chigley series windy appears in the episode “Apples Galore” where he turns the apples into Cider (I think a theme could be developing here.) Also in this episode the Trumpton Fire Brigade put in an apperance, “Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb!”

 

Windy also made an appearance as the lead for a series of adverts for quaker oats.

 Windy Miller made his TV comeback in 2005, 37 years after his last telivised role (apart from a very brief cameo role to advertise kids tv). He was chossen to front a series of adverts to promote Quaker Oats porridge breakfast cereal.

The adverts were produced in the same manner as the original Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley programs were made, using "stop motion" animation.

Unfortuanatly Brian Cant didn't do the voice overs for the adverts and they used a guy called Charlie Higson. The reason that Brian Cant was not used was that he "did not sound like Brian Cant", he tried out but they wanted it to sound like the original and he no longer sounded the same!

There were 4 adverts created, with some new characters;

Supergrain, which featured a new lady, "the jogger".

Windy's Day Off, with Molly the Barmaid

Complaint with PC McGarry

and finally;

Uncle Guber, with ..... Uncle Guber!

 

The writing for Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley was by Alison Prince, with the creator and producer Gordon Murray adding along with Freddie Philips

Freddie Philips was the composer, he was resposible for all of the music, around fifty songs, and  the sound effects for everything like the sails of Windy Miller’s windmill (a sound I can still remember after more than forty years.)

The Stop Motion Animation was by Bob Bura and John Hardwick, with help from their crew; Pasquale Ferrari, George Debouch, Colin Larage, and LenPalace.

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

The narrator, who was recorded without wearing shoes in a “broom cupboard” in Gordon Murray's home was Brian Cant, He went on to do many more years of work on “Play school” and “play away.” Brian Cant provided all of the voices of all of the characters and sang all of the memorable songs.

The creator and producer was Gordon Murray, without whom none of this wonderful series would ever have existed!

 

Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley were filmed using models and a process of animation known as “stop motion”, basically the models are positioned and one frame of film is filmed. Each character is then moved a fraction more and the next frame of the film taken, thus giving the illusion of continuous movement.

This “stop motion” animation was the trademark of the main animators of this series, Bob Bura and John Hardwick. They took 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 two and a half minutes of film, so each episode took about four weeks to film. Some sequences of film having to being re-used in different episodes to help make things easier and quicker.

The writters were told to avoid the need for water or fire as these would be too difficult to replicate with this process. If you watch  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.

When the characters speak, they do not have a mouth! Unless it is the Sgt.Major shouting, otherwise the characters wave their arms around to indicate who is speaking!