Sweep is a British

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or 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 or strings to move ...

and television character popular in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and other countries. Sweep is a grey glove puppet dog with long black ears who joined ''

The Sooty Show ''The Sooty Show'' is a British children's television series, created by Harry Corbett, and produced for the BBC from 1955 to 1967, and then for ITV from 1968 until 1992. The show, part of the ''Sooty'' franchise, focuses on the mischievous a ...

'' in 1957, as a friend to fellow puppet

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 ...

. He is a smart dog but chooses to be dim-witted with a penchant for

bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, a ...

and

sausages A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. W ...

. Sweep is notable for his method of communication which consists of a loud high-pitched squeak that gains its inflection from normal speech and its rhythm from the syllables in each word. The rest of the cast, namely Soo and the presenter, could understand Sweep perfectly, and would (albeit indirectly) translate for the viewer. The sound of Sweep's voice was achieved using a

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

reed. Versions of the puppet later sold as toys had an integral squeaker connected to an air bulb that was squeezed by hand. Sweep's family first appeared on the Sooty Show in an episode called ''Sweep's Family''. He has his mother and father, a twin brother Swoop, two cousins Swipe and Swap and another seven brothers in the litter (all of whom look exactly like him, except that they each wear different coloured collars to tell each other apart). However Swipe and Swap are stated to be Sweep's brothers in the Sooty & Co. episode ''Sweep's Family'' and the Sooty Heights episode ''the Hounds of Music''.

Voice actors

* Leslie Corbett -

* Brian Sandford -

, Sooty & Co., Sooty Heights,

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 ' ...

- Sooty's Amazing Adventures * Francis Wright -

References

Television characters introduced in 1957 Fictional dogs British comedy puppets Sooty {{Puppet-stub