The Wombles

he Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Wombles were created by author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. The characters later became nationally famous in the mid 1970s as a result of a popular BBC children's television show using stop motion animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became major hits in the British music charts.

Their motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish." This "green" message was a reflection of the ecology movement of the 1970s. Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus on the life of the burrow in Wimbledon Common in London, England.

Beresford developed the characters around members of her family, and named them after places the family had associations with:

* Great Uncle Bulgaria - the Wombles' leader, was based on Beresford's father-in-law
* Tobermory - an engineer, was based on Beresford's brother, a skilled inventor, and named after the capital of the Isle of Mull
* Orinoco - a shirker who loved sleep and food, was styled on Beresford's teenage son and named after the River Orinoco
* Bungo - over-enthusiastic and bossy named after Bungo Province
* Tomsk - an athletic Womble with a rather low IQ named after Tomsk in Russia..
* Wellington - scientifically inclined, named after her nephew's school
* Madame Cholet - a cook, was styled on Beresford's mother

Later character names for the film and second TV series developed in the same manner:

* Cousin Cairngorm McWomble the Terrible - named after the Cairngorms, a mountain range in Scotland
* Alderney - Madame Cholet's assistant, was named after Alderney in the Channel Islands where Beresford lived at the time of the second television series
* Shansi - often paired with Alderney, as Bungo was with Orinoco
* Miss Adelaide - schoolmistress
* Stepney - East Ender with dreadlocks
* Obidos named after Óbidos, Pará

In the first book, Bungo was the youngest and least experienced of the team, and the story is mostly viewed through his eyes. Afterwards Wellington (who was not introduced until the second book) took over the role of "new boy". Alderney and Adelaide appeared in the earlier books but were not included in the original 1970s TV series. Alderney was re-introduced in the later TV shows produced in the 1990s (the Channel Island of Alderney was actually Elisabeth Beresford's home at the time), along with Stepney (who appeared in none of the earlier versions).

For more inforamtion please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wombles