''Edward and Friends'' is a children's TV series in

claymation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

from

FilmFair FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated cartoons, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, clay animat ...

that aired on British, New Zealand and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

television in 1987–1989. Each episode was 5-minutes in length and was based on LEGO's successful 1980s Fabuland theme. 28 episodes were produced. Edward Elephant was the main character in the show and the episodes were centred on him and his many friends including Bonnie Bunny and Max Mouse. It was Lego's first foray into animation and television in general.

Bernard Cribbins Bernard Joseph Cribbins (29 December 1928 – 27 July 2022) was an English actor and singer whose career spanned over seven decades. During the 1960s, Cribbins became known in the UK for his successful novelty records " The Hole in the Groun ...

provided the

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...

for the show, written by Michael Cole with music by Mike Batt.

List of characters

Video releases

Two VHS videocassettes of ''Edward and Friends'' were published by Screen Legends/Pickwick Video, which together comprised eighteen episodes. Between the episodes on VHS and back-to-back TV episodes, short segments were placed featuring Edward Elephant performing different tricks and one or two of his friends pushing apart the black screen. A significant number of episodes were not released on VHS, including "Christmas in Fabuland", "Edward and the Big Balloon", "Catherine's Cake", "The Great Race", "The Snowfall", "The Clock Tower", "Clive is Taller", "Edward and the Statue", "The Expedition", and the Earth Day special "A Trust to Nature".

Episodes

Books

In addition, there were also a series of seven books published by Ladybird Books Inc. The books have the same title as the TV series episodes and used still photos from the TV show. Each book contains 2 stories except ''Christmas in Fabuland'', which, however, contains storylines from two episodes. The list of books available were: * ''Lionel's Party/Edward and the Camera'' , * ''Edward gets the Hiccups/Wilfred's Treasure'' , * ''Edward joins the band/Clive's Kite'' , * ''Lionel's Car/Edward to the rescue'' , * ''Edward tries to help/Boris gets a scooter'' , * ''Edward and the big balloon/A robot for Max'' , * ''Christmas in Fabuland'' .

Credits

* Voices:

Royce Mills Anthony Royce Mills (12 May 1942 – 21 May 2019) was an English television, stage and film actor. He attended Eastbourne College, then studied fine art for five years and qualified as a theatre designer before attending the Guildhall School w ...

Bill Pertwee William Desmond Anthony Pertwee, (21 July 1926 – 27 May 2013) was a British comedy actor. He played the role of Chief ARP Warden Hodges in the sitcom '' Dad's Army''. Early life Pertwee was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, on 21 July 192 ...

Sheila Steafel Sheila Frances Steafel (26 May 1935 – 23 August 2019) was a British actress, who was born in Johannesburg, but lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom. Life and career Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, trained at the Webber Dougla ...

* Written by: Michael Cole * Music by: Mike Batt * Technical design: Gordon Tait * Models: Heather Boucher, Pauline London, Dave Witts * Edited by: Rob Dunbar * Executive producer: Graham Clutterbuck * Produced by: Barrie Edwards * Animated & directed by: Jo Pullen, Martin Pullen, Jeff Newitt

References

External links

*
''Edward and Friends''
at Toonhound {{FilmFair 1987 British television series debuts 1987 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series Animated television series about elephants British children's animated television shows English-language television shows British stop-motion animated television series Television series by FilmFair Television series by DHX Media 1980s British animated television series TVNZ 1 original programming Lego television series