The Herbs titles and credits

ON THIS PAGE.....We have a look at the opening and closing title sequences for both shows.

The Herbs and The Adventures of Parsley

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

The Herbs opening title sequence.

The opening shot is a simple caption (right)accompanied by the theme tune.

A fairly inocuous instrumental,which continues as we get the next shot of 2 stone cherubs -Pic 1

The one on the right slowly rotates round to reveal a label covering his modesty with "The

Herbs" written on it. -Pic 2

And,as if to set the slightly mischevious tone of the whole series,it flies off,hits the garden wall and

falls to the ground (3)

Quickly burying itself and re-emerging as a plant label with the particular plant concerned (4)

And the first herb we always see is,of course,Parsley.

Fade the music and cue the first words of narrator Gordon Rollings..............

And the script for this bit always varied from episode to episode,in order to set the scene for what you were about to see.With only the herbs relevant to that particular story popping up from the ground.Always written obliquely enough to hook you in without completely giving the game away.And a very useful narrative device when there was a lot to cram in to just 15 minutes.

Anyhow,here's the script for the very first episode ever aired.

And,as such,it's obviously one of the most general as it needs to set up the whole series and not just a single episode.

The Herbs Closing Title Sequence.

Privileged visitors to the Herbs World we may,but all guests are eventually shown the door and every episode ends with Parsley waving us goodbye and the gate closing.

We then cut to a simple series of credit captions that are pinned on to it. Job done !

But when are closing titles any more interesting than that ? There's no story to set up,no attention to grab -They're all after the event and always seem slightly apologetic.

But what they do serve to highlight here is just how small a team there was for this production.

Incredible really.And if animation man-hours were translated into numbers of crew,these types of programmes would have credits longer than your average James Bond film.But they're not,so they're all the more noteworthy for that.

Strangely,the captions themselves aren't actually the greatest quality.The writing,whilst obviously readable,isn't the biggest and nor is it particularly pin sharp even on the tidied up dvd footage.

So all in all there's not too much to be gained by me including a photo of each one.Only the writing changes from one to another and they're only stills anyway.So I've only included the last of the 7,just to show what all the others look like - ie.seen one,seen them all.

But that would leave the production team uncredited here.So I've mocked up a little scrolling presentation,which I reckon actually shows them off to slightly better effect,even if I do say so myself.And the very least the guys deserve is a looped credit imho.Anyhow,presentation aside,no liberties are taken with the details.They mirror exactly what appears on the caption cards and are listed in exactly the same order.

All the actual credit captions are exactly like this last one ie.a still photo of a note pinned to the door.

Well,there's really not too much to say about these.

The programmes were only five minutes long as opposed to fifteen for The Herbs.So time wasted on opening and closing sequences obviously meant even less time to put across some sort of meaningful storyline.

Fortunately,The Herbs had been so popular that the assumption was made that you pretty much knew what was coming. So all we get is a shot of Parsley in a take on the famous MGM film ident (above),& 2 written captions. He does a bit of roaring and looks around a bit accompanied by an inocuous little tune.Then the 1st caption rapidly approaches to the sound of a creeky door closing.And P makes a hasty retreat accompanied by cartoon-like crash-bang-wallop noises as he hits the deck sight unseen.(Btw,Dill does takes his place for some episodes)

I think it's probably fair to say that never,even in the history of sequels,has so much been presumed by so few on behalf of so many.

But even if you hadn't seen any of the originals,you'd have soon picked up what was going on.Because the emphasis had shifted much more toward Parsley and Dill as a comic duo,and the herbal references had largely been put to one side. Which was just as well really as the titles only lasted about 15 seconds.

Now,admittedly,there ain't a whole lot you can do in 15 seconds,but I'm not sure they'd get away with anything quite so aesthetically sparse these days.And when you compare it to the rich colours and textures of the actual set design it does seem odd that they didn't at least dress the caption surround up a bit -particularly as it was multi-use,stock footage.But then again,I can enjoy a kit kat without musing over the wrapper design I suppose (unless I ran a website about kit kat's of course ! ) Anyhow,this is all we got.......

The Adventures of Parsley Closing Title Sequence

Ok,we're almost there and in the possibly unlikely event you've stuck with it since the top,I salute you.

And as it's been quite a long page I won't keep you long with this last bit.

In fact,probably about the same amount of time these end credits were on screen-approximately 7 seconds. Yes,seven. ie.one more than 6 and one less than 8.

No time to mess around then.So everyone is simply credited anonymously via the production company and that's that. Thankyou and good night...............and we thought the opening sequence was brief lol !

Now,for the record,it was indeed the same team as for The Herbs,and most people watching obviously wouldn't care anyhow. But if you were one of them (or their mum),I reckon you'd have a right to be pretty cheesed off.

All that hard work and not even a name check.

In the States they can whizz a whole telephone directory past you in 7 seconds never mind the paltry Filmfair crew. Admittedly you can't read any of them but never mind -at least you're up there.Although you'd have to take it on trust that you were I suppose.

But maybe they were slightly more pragmatic and professional about it than that.

Anyhow,they'll always get due credit on this site of course.And consider it done.

"Do you know what a herb is ?

(cue pics 4 & 5 -with each herb emerging rapidly from beneath the soil to a 'ping' sound as Gordon names them.)

Parsley is a herb.Basil is a herb too.So is Rosemary.

There are hundreds & hundreds of different kinds.Big ones,small ones.Nice ones,& ones which aren't quite so nice.

Sage is a herb,and so is Bayleaf.

Long ago,people believed herbs had some kind of magic power.Some people believe it still.

I know a secret herb garden behind that door, (pic 6) where all sorts of strange things happen.

I have to say a magic word, 'H e r b i d a c i o u s'. (Cue door magically opening and in we go)

There. It's very quiet and peaceful. Mind you,it isn't always like this.

Take the case of Parsley's Tail.........." And we're into the story.

Pic 5 shows the different collection of Herbs you were shown,depending on the episode in question.

And in "the Birthday Party",they actually needed 2 pics ( 7 AND 8 ) Because it's the only one where all the characters appear together in the same episode,as Gordon explains........

"It isn't often we get the chance to see all the Herbs together.Only on very special occasions like today........."

Oh,and if anyone's counting,he can help out there too-"19 if you count Mr.& Mrs Onion and all the Chives seperately "

Pic 6 was always the last shot however,no matter what the episode.And "herbidacious" always the key to opening it.