Flower Pot Men

''Flower Pot Men'' is a British programme for young children produced by BBC Television. It was first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years. A reboot of the show called ''Bill and Ben'' was produced in 2001.

This 2001 reboot/remake, was first initiated by Mark Lovick, a producer/director from Sydney, Australia, in the 1990s, with Laurence Harbottle, legal trustee of the Freda Linstrom Estate, London. However, this arrangement was curtailed, before the copyright expired.

Original series

The original programme was part of a BBC children's television series titled ''Watch with Mother'', featuring a different programme each weekday, most of them involving string puppets. The ''Flower Pot Men'' was the story of Bill and Ben, two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. The characters were devised by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird in the 1950s. The puppeteers were Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson. The voices and other noises were produced by Peter Hawkins, Gladys Whitred, and Julia Williams who was the voice of Little Weed. The narration in all of the 1950s original episodes was by Maria Bird.

The plot changed little over the run and always took place in a garden, behind a potting shed. A third character, Little Weed, of indeterminate species resembling either a sunflower or a dandelion with a smiling face, was shown growing between two large flowerpots. The three were also sometimes visited by a tortoise called Slowcoach and, in one particular episode, the trio met a faintly mysterious character made out of potatoes, Dan the potato man. Typically, while the "man who worked in the garden" would be away having his dinner, the two Flower Pot Men, Bill and Ben, would emerge from their pots. After a minor adventure, a slight mishap would occur, for which someone would then take the blame: "Which of these two flowerpot men, was it Bill or was it Ben?" the narrator would trill in a quavering soprano; the culprit would then confess, before the gardener's footsteps would be heard coming up the garden path; the Flower Pot Men then would vanish into their pots and the "Goodbye" screen would appear. The final punch-line was, "..and I think the little house knew something about it; don't you?".

The Flower Pot Men spoke their own, highly inflected version of English, called Oddle Poddle, invented by prolific voice artist Peter Hawkins (who later provided speech for ''Captain Pugwash'' and the daleks in ''Doctor Who''). "Ickle-kickle", for instance, was an icicle and Ben would say "Flobabdob!". At the end of each adventure, they would say bye-bye to each other and to the Little Weed – "Babap, Ickle Weed!" – to which the Weed would inevitably reply, with tremulous cadence, "Weeeeeeeeeeed!". This language, as with the ''Teletubbies'' series in 1997, was criticised for hindering children from learning proper English.

Due to the series being made on film and repeated regularly for years following its conclusion, all episodes are believed to survive intact, with none missing from the BBC Archives.

2001 Series

On 4 January 2001, a new series in colour named ''Bill and Ben'' began on CBBC on BBC Two, this time involving stop-motion animation, 35mm film style and full colour, and made by Cosgrove Hall Films with a team of ten animators.Bill and Ben
. ''www.bcdb.com'', 13 April 2012 This show features the voices of John Thomson (who also serves as the narrator), Jimmy Hibbert, and Eve Karpf. The series aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTEjr and formerly aired on CBeebies in 2002–2011.

Many additions were implemented:
* A mean female rosebush with two talking buds in the neighbour's garden named Rose.
* A mischievous female prickly plant named Thistle.
* A female magpie named Pry, obsessed by shiny treasure, often just every bottle cap.
* A male hedgehog named Boo.
* Slowcoach the Tortoise remains in the series, with few changes to his characteristics. He gets angry at Bill & Ben for ruining his things, but mostly, for messing around.
* A male frog named Tad.
* A female squirrel named Scamper.
* A male baby squirrel named Scuff. He is Scamper's baby nephew.
* A female spider named Whimsy.
* A male earthworm named Whoops.
* A male talking tomato named Ketchup.
* Another male tortoise called Lightning. He is Slowcoach's brother.
* Bill and Ben's voice tones have switched; Bill now has the deep-toned voice, while Ben now has the high-toned voice.
* Weed no longer just says her name; she speaks conventional English, playing an "earth mother" role to Bill and Ben and often assisting them.
* The "man who worked in the garden"

Comics

The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine ''Robin''.

Episodes

''Flower Pot Men'' (1952–1953)

#"Seeds" (18 December 1952)
#"Musical Vegetables" (25 December 1952)
#"Cabbages" (1 January 1953)
#"The Potato Man" (8 January 1953)
#"Tiny Men" (15 January 1953)
# "Stickmen" (22 January 1953)
# "Shavings Men" (29 January 1953)
# "Stilts" (5 February 1953)
# "Steamroller" (12 February 1953)
# "Scarecrow" (19 February 1953)
# "Slowcoach Flies" (26 February 1953)
# "Mud Pies" (5 March 1953)
# "Bath in Hat" (12 March 1953)
# "Babies" (19 March 1953)
# "Babies Grow Up" (26 March 1953)
#"Live Chicks" (2 April 1953)
# "Icicles" (9 April 1953)
# "Boot Race" (16 April 1953)
# "Acrobats" (22 April 1953)
# "Bellows" (29 April 1953)
# "Water Lilies" (6 May 1953)
# "Turnip Faces" (13 May 1953)
# "Umbrella" (20 May 1953)
# "Fairy Queen" (27 May 1953)
# "Weathercock" (3 June 1953)
# "Flying Boots" (10 June 1953)

''Bill and Ben'' series 1 (2001–2002)

''Bill and Ben'' series 2 (2001–2002)

UK VHS and DVD releases

Confusion with other characters

The programme is unrelated to another set of characters called Bill and Ben, which have been confused with the ''Flower Pot Men,'' including in the initial versions of two obituaries of retired headteacher Hilda Brabban, published in ''The Independent'' and BBC's in-house magazine '' Ariel'' respectively, and also in '' Bills'', a 2004 episode of the BBC panel show '' QI'' hosted by Stephen Fry. All three sources later corrected their statements. Brabban sold three stories about a Bill and Ben to the BBC in the 1950's; but other than their names, they bore no resemblance to the Flower Pot Men. Brabban's stories were broadcast on the radio programme ''Listen with Mother'' in 1951; the Bill and Ben of the Flower Pot Men were first seen on the television programme ''Watch with Mother'' in 1952. Both programmes were produced by Freda Lingstrom. During her later life Brabban suffered a stroke and later maintained she did invent the characters used in the BBC series; this prompted lawyers, acting on behalf of the estate of the show's creator, Freda Lingstrom, to threaten Brabban with litigation if she appeared on television to propagate this claim.

References

External links

*

Toonhound on the Flowerpot Men


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{{Watch with Mother

1952 British television series debuts
2002 British television series endings
1950s British children's television series
2000s British children's television series
BBC children's television shows
British comedy puppets
British preschool education television series
British television series revived after cancellation
British television shows featuring puppetry
English-language television shows
Television shows adapted into comics
Television series by Cosgrove Hall Films
Television series by BBC Studios
British stop-motion animated television series