''Michael Bentine's Potty Time'' was a British children's show, written by and starring

Michael Bentine Michael Bentine, (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922General Register Office for England and Wales – Birth Register for the March Quarter of 1922, Watford Registration District, Reference 3a 1478, listed as "Michael J. Bentin", mother ...

, and directed and produced by

Leon Thau Leon Thau (8 April 1926 in Palestine – 16 May 2010 in Dorset, United Kingdom)"Leon Th ...

for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

. It ran from 1973 to 1980. Bentine had introduced The Potties on a BBC show ''Michael Bentine Time'' a year earlier.''Radio Times'' 15 Sept - 8 Dec 1972 The episodes consisted largely of bearded

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

s (called "Potties"), comically re-enacting famous historical situations. The Potties' faces were always obscured by facial hair, with only their noses protruding. They were operated from beneath and had two distinct sizes - approximately two feet (60 cm) and one foot (30 cm) tall. All of the Potty characters were designed by Bentine, who also provided all of their voices. Their operators were from The Barry Smith Theatre of Puppets. The title 'Potty Time' is a humorous

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

also referring to the toilet training of infants - a 'potty' being slang for a child's

chamber pot A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. Names and etymology "Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...

. In 2001, it was voted into 71st place in

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 ...

's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows poll. In the 1970s and early 80s it was broadcast in Australia on Channel 7. The series was also broadcast in New Zealand first on

South Pacific Television South Pacific Television (SPTV) was a television channel in New Zealand, which operated between 1976 and 1980. History The channel, then known as TV2, first went to air on 30 June 1975. It was the second national government television channel ...

and later on Television One.

Other Media

Several Region 2

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

s of the three series have been released by Network Releasing. This was also a title of a comic strip run in ''

Look-in ''Look-in'' was a children's magazine centred on ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior ''TVTimes''". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994.Arthur Ranson Arthur James Ranson (born 1939) is an English comic book illustrator, known for his work on ''Look-in'', '' Anderson: Psi Division'', '' Button Man'' and '' Mazeworld''. His work on Cassandra Anderson has been called "photo-realistic". Early lif ...

.Comic Art Fans
/ref>

References

External links

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Television shows produced by Thames Television 1973 British television series debuts 1980 British television series endings 1970s British children's television series British children's comedy television series British television shows featuring puppetry {{UK-kids-tv-prog-stub