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Trumpton (1967) is a stop-motion children's television show from the producers of Camberwick Green. First shown on the BBC in the 1960s, It was the second series in the Trumptonshire Trilogy, which comprised Camberwick Green, Trumpton, and Chigley.

Trumpton was narrated by Brian Cant, animation was by Bob Bura, John Hardwick and Pasquale Ferrari. Scripts are by Alison Prince; all other production details were identical to Camberwick Green.

Story and structure

The action takes place in the imaginary town of Trumpton, a short distance from the equally imaginary town of Camberwick Green, the focus of the first series in the Trumptonshire Trilogy. Each episode begins with a shot of Trumpton Town Hall Clock: "Telling the time, steadily, sensibly; never too quickly, never too slowly. Telling the time for Trumpton". The townsfolk then appear going about their daily business: the Mayor, Mr Troop the Town Clerk, Chippy Minton the carpenter and his apprentice son Nibbs, Mrs Cobbit the florist, Miss Lovelace the milliner and her trio of pekingese dogs (Mitzi, Daphne and Lulu), and Mr Platt the clockmaker.

Although all of the characters and settings are new, the style of the programme follows the pattern established by Camberwick Green, in which domestic problems are cheerfully resolved by the end of the show, leaving the last minute or so for the Fire Brigade to become the Fire Brigade Band and play the episode out.

The Fire Brigade is perhaps Trumpton's most-recognised feature. Captain Flack's roll-call was recited in every episode: "Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grub." with the exception of "Cuthbert's Morning Off". in which Cuthbert is omitted. They are continually being called out to attend some emergency or other (in many cases to resolve fairly trivial matters); but to Captain Flack's annoyance, never an actual fire. (The main reason for this was the impossibility of animating fire, water and smoke.) However after "Right men Action Stations", this doesn't stop the Fire Brigade absent mindedly getting out the fire hose and receiving a rebuke from Captain Flack ("No no! Not the hose!").

Episodes

Episode titles were given in the Radio Times, but were not shown on-screen.

1. "The Printer and the Bill Poster" (3 January 1967)
2. "Miss Lovelace and the Mayor's Hat" (10 January 1967)
3. "Mrs Cobbit, the Ice Cream Man and the Branch" (17 January 1967)
4. "Miss Lovelace and the Statue" (24 January 1967)
5. "Mr Platt and the Painter" (31 January 1967)
6. "The Mayor's Birthday" (7 February 1967)
7. "Telephone" (14 February 1967)
8. "The Rag and Bone Man" (21 February 1967)
9. "The Window Cleaner" (28 February 1967)
10. "Cuthbert's Morning Off" (7 March 1967)
11. "The Plumber" (14 March 1967)
12. "Pigeons" (21 March 1967)
13. "The Greenhouse" (28 March 1967)

Remastered versions

As with Camberwick Green, the original masters seemed to be lost; surviving versions often suffered from technical flaws. A digitally restored DVD of the series was released in April 2006 and the restored version currently airs on Noggin and Nick Jr Classics. Although there are noticeable improvements, a number of episodes still exhibited a "rubber picture" effect, with the image constantly "stretching" in and out from the centre of the screen. It is thought that this effect, caused by warping of the original film, would have been too expensive to fix. On these episodes the problem was lessened slightly by cutting in unaffected common sequences from other episodes, such as the Trumpton Clock at the start, numerous fire station and fire engine sequences, and the final "band show" at the end.

However in 2011 BBC Studios and Post Production digitally restored all 39 episodes of The Trumptonshire Trilogy (Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley) after William Mollett, son-in-law of the creator Gordon Murray, found some footage buried deep in an attic. He then approached the BBC to see if they could track down the missing 40‐year‐old original footage. They eventually traced it in the BBC broadcast archive (now in Perivale, West London), but it soon became very clear that its age meant that restoration would be a painstaking task. Gordon and William enlisted the expertise of BBC Studios and Post Production, which cleaned, scanned and digitally restored the film footage frame by frame.

Appearances in popular culture

• In 1987 a sketch named "Trumpton Raid" appeared in Alas Smith and Jones series four. Smith is a news reader on the telephone to Jones (as "Mike Airey" Live from Trumpton) reporting on an early morning American Raid by F-111 aircraft on Trumpton.

• In the UK in the early 1990s there were several dance music tracks based on children's TV programmes or short educational films. The Prodigy released the track "Charly" in 1991 which was then promptly followed in 1992 by "Sesame's Treet" by the Smart E's and "A Trip To Trumpton" by Urban Hype which was based on the original Trumpton music by Freddie Phillips with heavy use of Trumpton samples.

• At the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe, Phill Jupitus and Brian Cant presented Trumptonshire Tales. The format consisted of Jupitus interviewing Cant and introducing clips from the series.

• In 2009 Chippy Minton appeared in the "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley" music video, he appears at the end of the video and is told that they've just finished. Miss Lovelace and Windy Miller also appear in the video.

• In their explanation of the fiscal multiplier, More or Less used the Trumpton economy as a model. Notably, Officer Dibble was laid off due to the financial crisis.

VHS and DVD releases

In 1984, 17 years after the broadcasts on BBC in 1967. Longman Video released the first four episodes on Video as part of its Children's Treasury collection.

later in 1989 the BBC released a video with the last three episodes (including ep13 The Greenhouse as the first episode, ep11 The Plumber as the second episode and ep12 Pigeons as last episode).

then in 1996–1997 Telstar Home Entertainment as part of its 'Star Kids' range released two videos.

References

Notes

1. In the episode "Cuthbert's Morning Off", Cuthbert is omitted from the roll call because he is on leave. A respectful gap is therefore left between the names Barney McGrew and Dibble; this is the only episode in which Barney McGrew acknowledges his name in the roll call. The events of the episode require the Fire Brigade to find Cuthbert for his aunt.

Citations

1. "Trumpton characters, songs & trivia", Trumptonshire Web http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumptmp.htm, retrieved 23 June 2012 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
2. "The Radio 4 Gordon Murray Interview", Trumptonshire Web http://www.t-web.co.uk/trump_gm.htm, retrieved 18 November 2007 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. ^ "Trumptonshire Episode Guide", Trumptonshire Web http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumpepg.htm, retrieved 23 June 2012 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. Patrick Kingsley "How we made: Alison Prince and Brian Cant on Trumpton", The Guardian, 20 February 2012
5. "Breathing new life into the Trumptonshire Trilogy", BBC Studios and Post Production http://www.bbcstudiosandpostproduction.com/trumptonshire/restoring_trumptonshire_trilogy.html, retrieved 23 June 2012 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• The Trumptonshire Trilogy
• Urban Hype: A Trip To Trumpton
• Trumpton at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com

• 1967 British television programme debuts
• 1967 British television programme endings
• BBC children's television programmes
• British animated television series
• Fictional populated places in England
• Stop-motion animated television series