Friday 8 July 2011

A New Dream Everyday, Huxley Pig...

FilmFair produced many wonderful stop-motions programmes back in the day, a seemingly vast portfolio back in the mid-60's consisting of The Herbs, Paddington Bear, The Wombles, The Gingerbread Man, Hattytown Tales, Astro Farm and many others. And like all of these, Huxley Pig was uniquely funny in premise and characters =)


Huxley Pig began life as a series of picture books by Rodney Peppe (who also created Angelmouse for the BBC), which was about a young pig and his seagull mate Sam letting their imaginations run wild thanks to costume box. And once the stories were brought to television, their daydreams really ran amok, featuring vampire pigs, lisping snakes, giant monster pigs and "rotten rodents".

I utterly adored this series from the many times I recall watching them on my aging VHS videos me Mum used to record for me regularly. Let's say this was part of the fuel that set alight my love for terrible jokes! XD


What makes this series so memorable was the British-ness of it all - the manic slapstick, the groan-worthy jokes and the brilliant voices all provided by versatile actor Martin Jarvis (Fourways Farm, Doctor Who-1965). When shows for kids wasn't all about teaching lessons or morals about everything - it was a chance to just have fun telling a story and enjoying it.

There are a couple of DVD releases already out, but this series demands SO much more. If you check out a sample episode below, you may find yourself agreeing with me...



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