''Wanderly Wagon'' is an Irish

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 ...

which aired on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

from Saturday 30 September 1967Hourihane, Anne Marie
''Sunday Tribune''
11 August 2002. until 1982.

Plot

''Wanderly Wagon'' followed human and

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 ...

characters as they travelled around Ireland visiting interesting locations, rescuing Princesses and generally doing good. The original premise of the show expanded to follow the characters to magical lands of

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by C ...

, and into

outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...

. The Wagon could fly, and using

chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

effects, the Wagon was shown hovering in mid-air, landing in various magical lands, and even traveling underwater.

Characters

* ''Rory'' - originally the lead character. Played by stage actor Bill Golding. Golding left the series in its middle years. * ''O'Brien'' - a bumbler played by

Eugene Lambert Eugene Lambert (1928 – 22 February 2010) was an Irish puppeteer and actor from County Sligo. He was owner of the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown, County Dublin. He was noted for co-starring as O'Brien in the RTÉ television series ''W ...

, who was also the puppeteer and

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...

for some of the animal characters. Other voices were provided by puppeteer members of the Lambert family. * ''Godmother'' - a sensible mother-figure played by Nora O'Mahoney. * ''Judge'' - a dog. He was the voice of reason and good sense, a moral conscience to the rest of them (he also starred in television road safety advertisements). To this day, Judge is held in great affection by people who remember him - many of whom can still sing his song, "I Am the Flying Dog" * '' Fortycoats'' - a gruff, bearded character in a costume made of ragged swatches of many different materials, he owned a flying sweetshop. An occasional character who later had an eponymous spin-off show. Originally played by Bill Golding and later by Fran Dempsey. * ''Mr Crow'' - a

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

who lived in a

cuckoo clock A cuckoo clock is, typically, a pendulum clock that strikes the hours with a sound like a common cuckoo call and has an automated cuckoo bird that moves with each note. Some move their wings and open and close their beaks while leaning forwards ...

. Crow was a sarcastic fellow with a cutting sense of humour. * ''Foxy'' - a

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

who lived in a barrel on the side of the wagon and spoke with an American gangster style accent. * ''Doctor Astro'' - a recurring villain played by

Frank Kelly Francis Kelly (28 December 1938 – 28 February 2016) was an Irish actor, singer and writer, whose career covered television, radio, theatre, music, screenwriting and film. He is best remembered for playing Father Jack Hackett in the Channel ...

* ''Sneaky Snake'' - Doctor Astro's sidekick, also voiced by Frank Kelly * ''Maeve the Witch'' - a mischievous witch, whose attempts at villainy always ended in failure * ''moon mice'' - four mice who lived in the attic. * ''squirrels'' - two squirrels played by Miriam Lambert.

Production

Don Lennox and Eugene Lambert came up with the idea of ''Wanderly Wagon'' along with Jim O'Hare. O'Hare was recalling a recent family holiday spent on a horse drawn caravan in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. Lennox became the first producer of ''Wanderly Wagon'' and O'Hare designed the wagon and the show's costumes. In the early years of the show, each episode was recorded live, and as such there was no editing. If there was a mistake, it would either have to be left in or the whole episode would have to begin shooting again from the start. In addition, boom mics were not in use and each actor had to be fitted with a hidden microphone on a trailing wire, which restricted movement around the set. Various episodes were written by

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, '' Night in Tunisia'', won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academy ...

Carolyn Swift Carolyn is a female given name, a variant of Caroline. Other spellings include Karolyn, Carolyne, Carolynn or Carolynne. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles. List of Notable People *Carolyn Bennett (born 1950), Canadian pol ...

Pat Ingoldsby Pat Ingoldsby (born 25 August 1942 in Malahide, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish poet and TV presenter. He has hosted children's TV shows, written plays for the stage and for radio, published books of short stories and been a newspaper columnist. ...

Martin Duffy Martin Bernard Duffy (18 May 1967 – 18 December 2022) was an English musician who originally played keyboards with Felt and most famously with Primal Scream. Career Duffy was born in Birmingham and grew up in Rednal in the south of the city ...

and

, who also played several characters on the show. The series developed a tradition of transmitting a

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

show from a Dublin children's hospital every year. The original Wanderly Wagon used in the making of the show is on display at Tinahely Farm Shop in County Wicklow. The smaller replica of the Wanderly Wagon used when filming the opening scenes of Wanderly Wagon is on display in

The Little Museum of Dublin The Little Museum of Dublin is a local history museum situated at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, Ireland. The museum is located in an 18th-century Georgian townhouse owned by Dublin City Council. Collection As a local history museum for the city of ...

on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin.

Spin-offs

The character of Fortycoats was given his own show, Fortycoats & Co., played by Fran Dempsey. In the show Fortycoats is accompanied by two companions; Sofar Sogood (played by Conal Kearney), a prim goody two shoes character, and Slightly Bonkers (played by

Virginia Cole Virginia Cole (c. 19478 November 2018), was an Irish actress who appeared in several of Ireland's iconic tv shows and films. Biography Cole was seventeen when her acting career began in earnest with the part of Concepta Feeney in Tolka Row. Fro ...

), a naive schoolgirl. They travelled in the Flying Tuck Shop doing good, and battling the evil Whilomena the Whirligig Witch and The Pickarooney.

References

External links