The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley
CLASSIC BBC KID'S ANIMATION DEVISED & WRITTEN BY MICHAEL BOND
ON THIS PAGE.....Here's a BBC info-mmercial celebrating 50 years of their kids tv output.
They cram a lot in,although there are some notable exceptions (Clangers dropped !)
But hey.It's only 3 minutes long,so clearly something had to give-and at least it wasn't The Herbs.
PLUS at the bottom of the page I've added 4 original BBC publicity stills.
The only really new Herbs material shot since the end of the series was for the Mayo/Ruscoe videos.
But Parsley and Dill did make a fleeting appearance in a BBC info-mmercial made in 1998.
Called "Future Generations",it was produced to celebrate 50 years of BBC children's output.And was first aired in full during that year's "Children In Need" telethon,and repeated in varying lengths thereafter.
It featured a young child actor,5 yr old Scott Chisholm,dressed in school uniform & taking a tour through the archives.
The clever bit was that he was seen walking through the original sets,standing right next to their stars and even doing the odd bit of interaction with them.But mainly he talked directly to camera about the Beeb's contribution to kids tv as he went from one series to another.
It's 3 minutes long and is split fairly evenly between animated and live action series.And each threw up its own restrictions and problems.
With the animated content,it was decided to create some new sequences to enable a bit more interaction than clearly would otherwise have been possible.And the major set piece was to be a visit to Camberwick Grn
Trumpton and Chigley.Which was fine,except that creator Gordon Murray had disposed of all the
original models and sets some years previous.So everything had to be recreated from scratch.
And it's to the Beeb's credit that they not only bothered to do it but actually made a darn good
job of it too.But be in no doubt that Pugh,Pugh,Barney McGrew,Windy Miller,Mrs Cobbit,
Lord Belborough and chums are indeed all body-double imposters !
Trumps fans may be surprised to see Chigley get a mention at all frankly,as it's usually the one
that's forgotten about -until you notice that Lord B's train provides a rather covenient link into
the Magic Roundabout bit. And then you can almost picture the wry smiles at the production meeting as it suddenly became conveniently memorable !
And obviously with so many series to acknowledge,that sort of linkage was used to try and fit as many in as possible. So,for example,at the beginning we see all the early black and white favourites like Andy Pandy and The Woodentops clustered around a suitably b & w Scott.And later on he's walking down Mr.Benn's Festive Road with Crystal Tipps and Alistair walking past,Mary Mungo and Midge looking out of a window and Roobarb and Custard up a tree.
Simple but effective.
And the Herbs ? Well not too much to report really.He gets dropped off at the gate courtesy of Noddy (see top pic) and walks through the garden with Parsley and Dill in attendance.There's no verbal interaction,and they're not the original models.Although you'd be hard-pressed to know,apart from the fact that Dill seems to have had a perm unless my eyes decieve me ! But it's definitely specially shot footage,and here's a still of the rather prosaic setting for the filming ie.a table top in a darkened room.
The main problem regarding the live action series was that they were obviously a fait accompli.
.............. or were they ? ! Hmmm..........Well,yes and no.
Because they actually took the riskier route of using human body doubles to get Scott in amongst these clips.
So take a look at the famous Blue Peter scene with the incontinent elephant,(aka "Loo Loo") Check out the shot taken from behind the slop-fest,and you'll see the backs of a stand-in John Noakes & friends.
And as Scott then walks behind John Craven (the real one),there's a background shot of keeper and elephant skating by -again not the originals.It's actually done very cleverly and you do have to think about it to realise that it really couldn't have been them. A really nice and highly effective touch,as indeed is Scott's passing comment to Craven......."nice shirt !"
Cheeky little monkey ! Mind you,he did wear some corkers,and doubtless thought he looked equally as good in his Swapshop knitwear.All of which only goes to prove that age is no guarantor of wisdom.Although he wasn't quite so loud during his 'Countryfile' days,was he ?
56 k USERS
1 ) It requires RealPlayer and if you don't have it,a link to their site should appear below.
2 ) It's the full 3 minute version,and not just The Herbs bit.
So it includes both animated and live action ( human ) series,and very little Herbs ( All as discussed above )
3) GOOD NEWS: It's a very quick loading version.
NOT SUCH GOOD NEWS: It's effectively just a series of poorish quality stills. But you do still get the full commentary and soundtrack and it does the job well enough.( well, just about )
BROADBAND USERS
I've got a much higher quality version HERE (you won't be leaving the site btw). Again, you do need RealPlayer though.
Where's Scott now ?
A bit of a spooky way of putting it really,considering he'll have only just reached secondary school age !
Anyhow,he's still in the biz judging by this link so it'll be interesting to see if he keeps at it and whether he
can make the transition.........and if so,doing what exactly ? Mind you,adolesence was far more of an obstacle
to someone like Aled Jones if you think about it,and he seems to have done ok.
I do hope he's enjoyed what he's done so far though,and not been pushed.
You don't need the Beeb to tell you that your childhood's a very precious time. But something like this little film
doesn't half drive it home. Sigh.
Hopefully,he'll look back on it all quite fondly,once he gets over the inevitable teen phase of wishing he'd never
done it. In which case,it's probably best if no-one tells him about this page when he hits puberty !
Anyhow,all in all a really nice piece of work.
Ok,it's self-congratulatory.Yes we do pay for it all and,yes,we do indeed "make it what it is "
But like any big organisation the Beeb's always a soft target for a good kicking.And as I reckon they more than delivered for kids of my generation,I'm perfectly happy to raise a glass to them in thanks -cherryade,naturally.
Sherbert fountain anyone ? No ? Oh,ok.Well here's the footage.......
Your new DG speaks..."See ya.I'm off to ITV"
These last offerings are nothing to do with the above,apart from the fact that it's also promotional material.
They're Herbs publicity stills issued by the Beeb to coincide with the original transmissions.
They're in black and white,which is rather fitting seeing as The Herbs were originally transmitted in good old monochrome. And the collector's among you will no doubt spot that colour versions of the last 2 formed part of the eponymous BBC postcard series.
But the really nice thing about them is the clarity of detail they show -even allowing for a little quality loss transferring them from actual photo to online image.
Look out for things like the stitching detail on Sir Basil's jacket and the tissue paper (?) crest at the very top of Sage's head.Which really gives a much better appreciation of the work that went into them and how far removed they are from the illusional world of CGI.
And with such detail comes a slightly long load time for 56k users.
But worth it though,and I'll end by thanking Tony Clark for taking the time to send them in and share them with us.
