Gordon Murray (3 May 1921 – 30 June 2016) was a British television producer and

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

. He created and wrote some of the most repeated children's television programmes ever seen in Britain. ''

Camberwick Green ''Camberwick Green'' is a British children's television series that ran from January to March 1966 on BBC1, featuring stop motion puppets. ''Camberwick Green'' is the first in the ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, which also includes ''Trumpton'' and ...

'', ''

Trumpton ''Trumpton'' is a British stop-motion children's television series from the producers of ''Camberwick Green''. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was the second series in the Trumptonshire, ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy, which com ...

'', and ''

Chigley ''Chigley'' (1969) is the third and final stop-motion children's television series in Gordon Murray's ''Trumptonshire'' trilogy. Production details are identical to ''Camberwick Green''. As in ''Camberwick Green'' and ''Trumpton'', the action c ...

'', collectively known as the ''Trumptonshire Trilogy,'' were all made by the company he founded.

Early life and television career

Murray was educated at

Emanuel School Emanuel School is an independent, co-educational day school in Battersea, south-west London. The school was founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I and occupies a 12-acre (4.9 ha) site close to Clapham Junction ra ...

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Murray was always interested in puppets, as a child he made puppets and used to give little shows to friends and family at home. Speaking in 1999 he said, "I have been interested in puppets ever since I was a child. My enthusiasm was greatly stimulated, I remember, by a visit to the

Victoria Palace The Victoria Palace () is a government building on the large Victory Square () in Bucharest, housing the Prime Minister of Romania and his cabinet. The Victory Palace was designed in 1937 to house the Foreign Ministry, and nearly complete in 19 ...

when I was about eight to see Delvain's Marionettes on the variety bill. Later, of course, I avidly read the Whanslaw books." On leaving school, he worked as a journalist and also joined the Territorial Army. He enlisted in the

London Scottish Regiment The London Scottish was a reserve infantry regiment then a company of the British Army. In its final incarnation it was A (The London Scottish) Company, the London Regiment until, on 1 April 2022, soldiers in the company transferred to foo ...

in 1939 and was later commissioned into the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

. He saw action at the

D-Day landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

, landing on

Gold Beach Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was lo ...

. After being

demobbed Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and milita ...

at the end of the Second World War, he worked in

repertory theatre A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing ...

, where he met ballet dancer Enid Martin, whom he later married. They had two daughters. In 1950, Murray set up his own puppet company, Murray's Marionettes. Following an invitation to

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Trumptonshire years

Crouch End Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8). It has been described by the BBC as one of "a new breed of urban villag ...

Here he made ''The Trumptonshire Trilogy'': ''

'' which broadcast in 1966 (the first children's programme in colour on the BBC), ''

'' in 1967 and ''

'' in 1969. (Murray had originally named 'Camberwick Green' 'Candlewick Green', but then found the name had been misspelled on the contract: however, he did not mind, as he liked the new title and was in need of money, so he simply signed the contract). Murray would create the vehicles, puppets and scripts to the studio and Bura and Hardwick would animate them. Realising that the string-based marionettes used previously would look old-fashioned, he looked to Eastern Europe for the

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animation technique he would use. One far-sighted contribution by Bura and Hardwick was their insistence on shooting ''Camberwick Green'' in both monochrome and colour. Only ''Chigley'' first went out after BBC 1 adopted broadcasting in colour, but their decision meant that the programmes were broadcast regularly for longer than might otherwise have been the case. Following ''Chigley,'' in 1969 it was six years before Murray had a new series on television, a stop-motion remake of ''The Rubovian Legends'' called just ''Rubovia''. His next work was ''Skip and Fuffy'', which was broadcast within ''

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop ''Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'', more commonly known simply as ''Swap Shop'', is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1976 to 27 March 1982. It was ground-breaking in many ways: by broadcasting on Saturday mornin ...

'' in 1978; his final series, ''The Gublins'', was broadcast in 1979.

After television

After retiring from animation, he produced and self-marketed more than thirty-four different limited-edition miniature books under the Silver Thimble Books imprint. Bound entirely by hand they contained miniature watercolour paintings, special embroidered covers and bindings, and slip cases. A complete set of these books is held in the Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books in the library of the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. In the 1980s, he burnt all the remaining puppets and sets, except for one soldier from ''Camberwick Green'' that escaped the fire. It was given by his eldest daughter to a friend who kept it in a shoe box. It was later auctioned by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

in May 2003 but failed to meet the reserve price. A 2009 poll by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

television ranked ''Trumpton'' as the 22nd most popular children's television show. Murray's work was later revived, in a series of television adverts for Porridge Oats, and also in adverts for bread in 1988. His puppets were used most recently in the cult BBC drama ''

Life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ...

'', in a scene where the character Sam Tyler is hallucinating. In January 2012, all 39 original episodes of the Trumptonshire trilogy were digitally restored after Murray found some boxes of original footage of the series in his attic at home and handed them over to the BBC for restoration. His wife Enid having predeceased him, Murray died on 30 June 2016, at the age of 95.

Selected filmography

* ''

Captain Pugwash ''Captain Pugwash'' is a fictional pirate in a series of British children's comic strips and books created by John Ryan. The character's adventures were adapted into a TV series, using cardboard cut-outs filmed in live-action (the first series ...

'' – 1957 * ''

A Rubovian Legend ''A Rubovian Legend'' is a British children's television series created by Gordon Murray. It centers around a fictional kingdom ruled by King Rufus XIV and Queen Caroline, assisted by Albert Weatherspoon and the Lord Chamberlain. Premise The sh ...

'' – 1958 * '' Sketch Club'' – 1958 * ''

'' – 1966 * ''

'' – 1967 * ''

'' – 1969 * ''

Rubovia ''A Rubovian Legend'' is a British children's television series created by Gordon Murray. It centers around a fictional kingdom ruled by King Rufus XIV and Queen Caroline, assisted by Albert Weatherspoon and the Lord Chamberlain. Premise The sho ...

'' – 1976 * '' The Gublins'' – 1979

References

External links

Realm of Rubovia: The Official Gordon Murray Rubovian Legends website
* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Gordon 1921 births 2016 deaths Military personnel from London English people of Scottish descent British animators British children's writers British puppeteers British television producers British animated film directors British animated film producers People educated at Emanuel School London Scottish soldiers British Army personnel of World War II Royal Corps of Signals officers