The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley

CLASSIC BBC KID'S ANIMATION DEVISED & WRITTEN BY MICHAEL BOND

HERE..... are a set of 8 postcards printed by Arthur Dixon for the Beeb in 1969.

These are actually numbers 1 to 8 of a larger set.With numbers 9 to 26 (inclusive) featuring Camberwick Green.And numbers 27 to 31 (inclusive) reserved for good old Basil Brush.

I've included a scan of the flipside of one of them at the bottom of the page,and there's no recognition of any the other cards in the series.So presumably they weren't catalogued collectively as something like "BBC Children's Favourites"

I'm pretty sure they were all specially staged stills rather than lifted directly from the broadcast footage.Either shot at the time of filming for general marketing purposes,or later just for these cards.Or,rather,I know that's definitely the case with the Camberwick and Basil examples,and short of carefully trawling through all The Herbs footage (again) I think the same applies there too.

There are 18 for Camberwick,8 for The Herbs and only 5 for Basil.With Camberwick having a lot more characters to draw on of course,which also means they're more effective because they're generally 'busier" as a result.

Sad to say that some of The Herbs ones are actually a bit dull by comparison.With the Tarragon and Parsley solo efforts suffering from too much incidental background and not enough subject -although they got it right with Sage.

And quite who you'd send a postcard of Belladonna to is another matter entirely.   The mother-in-law perhaps   ?

The Basil Brush ones are a bit harder to comment on because I've only seen 2 of them -a simple full length shot and one where he's driving a car.

And I'm not entirely sure why these 3 series were chosen over and above the other BBC kids' shows of the period.Apart from the fact that they're all puppet based.

But if you're looking to start collecting a few bits and pieces from any of the series then some glossy stills are really hard to beat. And you can still get hold of pristine,unused exampes for around a pound a piece,which has to be a steal.

Ref. L6/8394  Series No. BBC 1 " Belladonna "

Ref. L6/8396  Series No. BBC 3 " Signor Solidago "

Ref. L6/8397  Series No. BBC 4 " Constable Knapweed and Dill "

Ref. L6/8398  Series No. BBC 5  " Lady Rosemary, Dill, Sage, Bayleaf, and Parsley "

Ref. L6/8399  Series No. BBC 6  " Sage "  ( flame-grilled brolly courtesy of Tarragon )

Ref. L6/8400  Series No. BBC 7  " Lady Rosemary, Constable Knapweed, Sir Basil and Belladona "

Ref. L6/8401  Series No. BBC 8  " Parsley "

To finish off, just a typical flipside of one of them. ( price of a 1st class stamp in 1969  ? )

24 Anywhere Terrace

Nostalgiaville

Ref. L6/8395  Series No. BBC 2 " Tarragon "