Andy Pandy Backgound Facts

The original 1950-52 series

The original version of Andy Pandy premiered on BBC TV in 1950, on either 11 July or 20 June, as part of the For the Children strand (later Watch with Mother). A marionette who lived in a picnic basket, Andy was later joined by Teddy, a teddy bear, and Looby Loo, a rag doll, who would appear when Andy and Teddy weren't around. All three lived in the same picnic basket.

Initially the programmes were transmitted live. Then it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. Twenty-six fifteen-minute episodes were filmed on 16mm, they were repeated continuously until 1970.

It is claimed that the design for the character was based on Paul Atterbury, the then young son of puppeteer Audrey Atterbury.

A comic-strip version was published in The Robin.

The 1970 series

By 1970 the black and white films were almost worn out and so 13 new episodes were filmed in colour and transmitted from 5 January 1970.

The 2002 series

Another set of 52 episodes were made in 2002, now using the stop-motion technique instead of string puppeteering. The original nursery and garden were expanded to an entire village, with Andy, Teddy and Looby Loo now owning individual houses, and four new characters were introduced: Missy Hissy, a snake, Tiffo, a dog, Bilbo, a sailor, and Orbie, a yellow-and-blue ball. Whereas the emphasis of the original series was on music and movement, the emphasis of the 2002 series was on making and doing.

For more information see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Pandy