"Here is a box, a musical
box, wound up and ready to play..."
So started the first episode of Camberwick Green, the
classic children's animated series, brought to us by
Gordon Murray and Co. Following the success of this series
in 1966, he then went on to give us two more classics
in the shape of Trumpton and then Chigley.
At the start of every episode a musical box would play
and out of the rotating top would pop the "secret" of
that particular episode. The secret would always be the
main character of the story that was about to begin and
had children rapt right from the outset.
The series was about these people, the jobs they did
and the small but vital part each played in a friendly,
tight-knit rural community. The single most remembered
character from the series has to be Windy Miller, a wheeler-dealer
who appeared to have his hand into everything.
Every time Farmer Bell couldn't sell his eggs to any
of the shops in Trumpton it was because Windy Miller
had undercut him by flogging off his cheap home-made
ones. When the dairy smashed all it's milk bottles by
accident it bought cheap milk from Windy bloody Miller.
He even had a special arrangement with the army at Pippin
Fort
Even though there were only 36 episodes made, Camberwick
Green remains one of the most popular children's programs
ever made by the BBC. Originally, the series was an expensive
gamble for creator Gordon Murray, whose pilot film was
finally accepted by the BBC.
All the scripts were written by Gordon Murray (Alison
Prince co-wrote Trumpton) and the songs by Gordon Murray
and Freddie Phillips. Bob Bura and John Hardwick handled
the animation.
Developed as Candlewick Green, when Murray's BBC contract
arrived he was only too happy to hurriedly sign even
though it erroneously referred to the title of Camberwick
Green, which obviously stuck. |
