''Sooty's Amazing Adventures'' is a short-lived animated spin off series of the popular

puppet show Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the ...

''. In this incarnation of the famous bear, he is a full bodied

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

free from the puppeteer's hand.

Setting and location

The gang live in the Fanshawe Theatre in an unknown English coastal town. The four embark on their adventures through a trapdoor located on the theatre's main stage which would take them to various places and times. However more often than not the trapdoor fails to send them to their desired location.

Main Characters

Sooty - A quiet and smart bear who is the undisputed leader of the gang. Sooty is the only character in the show that does not talk (yet sometimes makes a rattling noise when he either nods or shakes his head). And being a mute bear finds communication difficult but often gets what he is trying to say across to the rest of the cast. He wears a pair of bright red dungarees with two white buttons. And usually saves his friends with his trusty

magic wand A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which c ...

which he is only permitted to use once per adventure.

Sweep Sweep or swept may refer to: Cleaning * Sweep, the action of using a brush to clean * Chimney sweep, a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys * Street sweeper, a person's occupation, or a machine that cleans streets * Swept quartz, a cleani ...

(voiced by

Rob Rackstraw Robert Rackstraw (born 31 October 1965) is a British voice actor who has worked in various animated films, television shows and video games. Career Rackstraw has an extensive voiceover career over 20 years. He voiced the main villain Pew in ' ...

) - Now being able to speak with a rather groany sort of voice rather than the 'squeak' he is so well known for. Sweep is not the brainiest of the bunch and often thinks of nothing else than food which often involves 'sausages'. A rather cowardly canine, he never usually hangs around when danger is near. He wears green and blue dungarees and a red collar. Soo (voiced by

Susie Blake Susie Blake (born 19 April 1950) is an English television, radio and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the snobbish TV announcer in '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' and Bev Unwin in ''Coronation Street'', which she played ...

) - A young girl

panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white animal coat, coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is ...

with an attitude who does not stand for any of the mischief the other two usually get themselves into. Soo could be seen as the sensible one who whips the others into some kind of organisation. She wears a blue dress and a light blue sash with a yellow flower on it and a white nappy. Little Cousin Scampi (voiced by

Jimmy Hibbert James Christian Hibbert is an English actor and writer. He is best known for his voice work with the animation studio Cosgrove Hall Films. Early life James Christian Hibbert was born as the eldest of three children of author Christopher Hibbe ...

) - The smallest and youngest of the gang, and Sooty's little cousin too. If mischief has been aroused, it is most probably this little bear who has orchestrated it. Little Cousin Scampi appears in a schoolboy outfit.

Other Characters

Katarina (voiced by

) - A well spoken Persian cat who does not believe any of the gang's adventures down the trapdoor. She wears a pink velvet coat and a pink fedora with a feather on the top. Captain Fogbound (voiced by

) - A ginger cat who pilots a hot air balloon and is courting Katarina. He wears an aviator hat, a dark green leather coat and a pair of brown gloves. Cousin McScampi (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert) - Scampi's Scottish cousin, who is even worse at bagpipe playing than Scampi is, and wants to find the Loch Ness Monster. The Aliens (voiced by

and Jimmy Hibbert) - Two aliens from the planet Alpha Romeo who become friends with the gang after Sooty saves their spaceship from crashing into the theatre. Morris the Mouse (voiced by

) - A male mouse who lives in the skirting boards of the attic that Sooty and the gang live in. He formerly lived behind the skirting boards of the stage, where he had hibernated since the Victorian era, and woke up because he was hungry for some cheese. He is normally very shy, but he sometimes comes along on the gang's adventures. Morris is not to be confused with the field mouse character with the same name from ''

Muffin The Mule Muffin the Mule is a puppet character in a British 1946-1955 television programme for children. The puppet had been made in 1933 for Hogarth Puppets. The original TV programmes featuring the animal character himself were presented by Annette M ...

''. Sir Ray Fanshawe (voiced by Rob Rackstraw) - The former owner of the Fanshawe Theatre, who was buried alive underneath a mountain of sausages. He wears a purple fedora with a feather on the top, a Shakespearean ruff, and a purple Elizabethan shirt. Captain Neecap (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert) - A villainous Frenchman who owns both a submarine and a drilling machine. He is often hatching schemes to kidnap Sooty and the gang.

Rumoured destruction of master recordings and Archival status

In 2014,

Richard Cadell Richard Cadell (born 23 March 1969) is a British illusionist, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter, best known for being the in-vision presenter and the hand of puppet Sooty since succeeding Matthew Corbett in 1998. He is a Gold Star Member of th ...

claimed in an interview that when he acquired the rights to Sooty from

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

in 2008, he received much archived Sooty material in the process. Said materials included the master tapes to the Sooty's Amazing Adventures series, which he destroyed out of personal distaste for the series. Cadell has since been approached by many other outside sources with the idea, and also attempt, of producing an animated CGI version of Sooty, but he does not want such a series to be made. However, it is just a myth, and the entire series still exists in the ITV Archive, even though ITV themselves do not currently own the rights to the series. The

BFI National Archive The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...

also hold four episodes of the series recorded from their original broadcasts on VHS, and there were two commercial VHS releases of the series in 1997 and 1999.

Episodes of the series

Series 1

Series 2

References

{{Sooty 1997 British television series debuts 1998 British television series endings 1990s British children's television series 1990s British animated television series British children's animated fantasy television series ITV children's television shows Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Meridian Broadcasting English-language television shows Television series by Cosgrove Hall Films Sooty British television spin-offs Animated television series about bears