''Huxley Pig'' is a British

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 ...

animated

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

based on a series of

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

s authored by

Rodney Peppé Rodney Darrell Peppé (24 June 1934 – 27 October 2022) was a British author and illustrator in the children's fiction and crafts genres. He was the author and illustrator of more than 80 children's books, publishing his first children's book ...

. The series was produced by

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 anima ...

for Central TV, with narration by Martin Jarvis. 26 episodes aired from 1989 through 1990.

General theme

The main character, Huxley Pig, was always dreaming of adventure, exciting professions and encounters. At the start of each episode Huxley would be in his bedroom talking to Sam the squawking seagull and wondering about something. He would open his big suitcase of dress-up clothes, try something on and say, "Hmmm, I wonder". The picture would fade and be taken away into his daydreams for the rest of the story. In the dream, Sam the Seagull would be able to speak, in a

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...

accent, and there were many other varied characters such as: * Vile Vincent, the vampire pig-butler * Horace, a hamster and something of a con artist * Cuddles, a fanged green beast * Sidney, a snake with a lisp * The Ringmaster, the ringmaster pig who runs the

Circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

* Ethel, Gloria and Myrtle, The 3 Girls * Lady Agatha Porker, The Lady who lives at the Hall * The Zoo Keeper, the zoo keeper pig who only appeared in Huxley Pig at the restaurant The adventures took Huxley and the gang to many places, as long as there was food nearby. Food was close to Huxley's heart. Upon the conclusion of the daydream, Huxley would return to reality and find a memento from the story had mysteriously returned with him.

Episodes

Series overview

Series 1 (1989)

Series 2 (1990)

Home releases

So far, two DVDs of the series have been released in Region 2. ''Huxley Pig At The Circus''
Contains the following episodes: # The Circus # Haunted House # Desert Island # The Beach # The Clown ''Something's Cooking''
Contains the following episodes: # Something Cooking, Huxley Pig # Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster # Huxley Pig Goes Flying # Huxley Pig Goes Camping # Huxley Pig and the Abominable Snowpig

UK VHS releases

Since their broadcast on ITV in 1989, episodes of the first series were released on three videos by Tempo Video except for "Huxley Pig Goes Camping" that went as part of the ''Video Treats for Toddlers'' compilation tape released by Collins Video in 1990 along with ''

Babar Babar ( ur, ), also variously spelled as Baber, Babur, and Babor is a male given name of Pashto, and Persian language, Persian origin, and a popular male given name in Pakistan. It is generally taken in reference to the Persian language, Persian ...

'', ''

The Adventures of Parsley ''The Adventures of Parsley'' is a 32-episode children's television series animated in stop motion. Produced by FilmFair, ''The Adventures of Parsley'' was a spin-off of ''The Herbs''. Its opening credits featured either Parsley the lion roarin ...

'' and ''

The Care Bears Care Bears are multi-colored bears, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings. In 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears. The characters headlined their own televisi ...

''. On 11 February 1991. Tempo Kids Club (distributed by Abbey Home Entertainment) released a single video with two episodes from Series 1 of ''Huxley Pig'' which were "Huxley Pig Goes Camping" and "Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster" (Cat. No. 9).
NOTE: An extended version of this video was released with an extra episode which is ''"Huxley Pig the Hairdresser"'' from Season 2 of ''Huxley Pig'' which was broadcast on ITV in 1990. In about July 1991, Tempo Pre-School (distributed by Abbey Home Entertainment) released a bumper video with four episodes from the second series of ''Huxley Pig'' which were previously broadcast on ITV in 1990 along with two previously released episodes from the first ''Huxley Pig'' series In Autumn 1991, a single ''Huxley Pig'' video was released and exclusively sold and distributed under license from Abbey Home Entertainment by

Entertainment UK Entertainment UK Limited (EUK) was a retail supply and distribution company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Woolworths Group. The company, and Woolworths plc, entered administration with Deloitte on 26 November 2008. EUK claimed to have had a t ...

Ltd (in its "Starvision" and "Funhouse" range of children's videos) with three single episodes (one debuted episode from Season 2 which is "Huxley Pig Goes Fishing", one previously released episode from Season 2 which is "Huxley Pig In Space" and one previously released episode from Season 1 which is "Huxley Pig at the Restaurant").

Production staff

; Director of Animation : Martin Pullen ; Producer : Jo Pullen ; Executive Producers : Barrie Edwards,

David Yates David Yates (born 8 October 1963) is an English film director, producer and screenwriter, who has directed feature films, short films, and television productions. He is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter (film se ...

Lewis Rudd Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohea ...

; Music :

Herbert Chappell Herbert Reginald Chappell (18 March 1934 – 20 October 2019) was a British conductor, composer and film-maker, best known for his television scores. Education and early career Born in Bristol, Herbert Chappell's first musical training was as a ch ...

; Animators : John Gilluley ; Camera Assistant : Paul Street ; Model Makers :

Alan Murphy Alan Murphy (18 November 1953 – 19 October 1989) was a British rock session guitarist, best remembered for his collaborations with Kate Bush and Go West. In 1988, he joined the jazz-funk band Level 42 as a full-time band member, and played wi ...

; Costumes :

Lizzie Agnew Lizzie or Lizzy is a nickname for Elizabeth or Elisabet, often given as an independent name in the United States, especially in the late 19th century. Lizzie can also be the shortened version of Lizeth, Lissette or Lizette. People * Elizabeth I ...

Mark Hall

Brian Cosgrove Brian Joseph Cosgrove OBE (born 6 April 1934) is an English animator, designer, director, producer and sculptor, best known as the creator of the animated children shows '' Danger Mouse'' and '' Count Duckula''. In 2012 he won the BAFTA Spec ...

; Puppet Makers :

Justin Exley Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Ro ...

Pauline London Pauline may refer to: Religion *An adjective referring to St Paul the Apostle or a follower of his doctrines *An adjective referring to St Paul of Thebes, also called St Paul the First Hermit *An adjective referring to the Paulines, various reli ...

; Production Manager :

Kath Swain Kath or KATH may refer to: * Kath (city), the historical capital of Khwarezm * Kath (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * KATH-TV, the NBC TV station in Juneau, Alaska * KATH (AM) KATH (910 kHz) is a ...

; Editors :

Andi Sloss Andi or ANDI may refer to: People and fictional characters * Andy (given name), including people and fictional characters with the name Andi * Andi people, an ethnic group of Dagestan, Russia Places * Andi, Guizhou, a town in Jinsha County, Gu ...

Robert Dunbar Robert Dunbar (December 13, 1812 – September 18, 1890) was a mechanical engineer. He designed the first steam-powered grain elevator in the world and the majority of the first grain elevators in Buffalo, New York City, and Canada. Early l ...

; Assistant Editor :

Jackie Cockie Jackie or Jacky may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackie (given name), a list of people and fictional characters named Jackie or Jacky ** Jackie, current ring name of female professional wrestler Jacqueline Moore ** Jackie Lee (I ...

; Voices : Martin Jarvis

Music

Finnish

Songs in the Finnish dub were sung by the actors of YLE Import re-using the De Angelis's music but with new Finnish lyrics. In the Finnish dub some scenes are cut, which includes musical numbers in some episodes.

Spinoffs

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

was released by

Alternative Software Alternative Software is a British software developer and publisher founded in 1985. From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, the company published well over a hundred games, primarily for the 8-bit computer formats in the budget (£1.99 to £3.99) ...

in 1990 for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

and

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

and in 1991 for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

References

External links

* {{Pigs 1980s British children's television series 1990s British children's television series 1989 British television series debuts 1990 British television series endings British children's animated adventure television series English-language television shows Animated television series about pigs ITV children's television shows Nick Jr. original programming British stop-motion animated television series Television series by FilmFair Television series by DHX Media British television shows based on children's books Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Central Independent Television 1980s British animated television series 1990s British animated television series