''Potamus Park'' is a British

pre-school A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

television programme that ran on

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

between 1995 and 1999, and on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

in the United States in 2005. The show centred on a small family of

hippopotamuses The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...

, Herbie, Hippy, Hazel and Hinkley, this show was sponsored by Hippo Fromage Frais and was filmed at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...

in Iver Heath, England.

Characters

Characters featured included Ticker, (a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

,) Got To Guess, (a blue creature that used

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

to communicate) and Mindy and Mo (two

Mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

s who live in a water

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

and use a

bucket A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical Cylinder (geometry), cylinder or Truncation (geometry), truncated Cone (geometry), cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle (grip), handle called ...

as a

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...

whenever the hippopotamuses need help). Every episode was introduced by three anthropomorphic

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s, who would explain whatever is to come or what may have been happening in the episode.

Series 1 - (1996)

# Pleased To Meet You (By Paul Cole) - 3 January 1996 # How Does Your Garden Grow? (By Paul Cole) - 10 January 1996 # Litter Bug (By Paul Cole) - 17 January 1996 # Over The Counter (By Paul Cole) - 24 January 1996 # Recipe For Success (By Paul Cole) - 31 January # Do It Yourself (By Paul Cole) 7 - February 1996 # Too Hot For Hippos (By Paul Cole 14 - February 1996 # Happy Hippos (By Paul Cole) 21 - February 1996 # Crazy Golf (By Paul Endacott) 28 - February 1996 # Name That Tune (By Paul Cole) 6 - March 1996 # This Is Where We Live (By Paul Cole) 10 - September 1996 # Gone Fishing (By Paul Cole) 17 - September 1996 # Spring Clean (By Paul Cole) 24 - September 1996 # Let's Pretend (By Paul Cole 1 - October 1996 # Picture This (By Paul Cole) 8 - October 1996 # Hungry Hippos (By Wayne Jackman) 15 - October 1996 # I Spy (By Nigel Crowle) 22 - October 1996 # Keep Fit (By Paul Cole) 29 - October 1996 # Nothing Doing (By Peter Corey) 5 - November 1996 # You Must Be Joking (By Peter Corey) 12 - November 1996 # Secrets (By Wayne Jackman) 19 - November 1996 # Nice To Be Nice (By Paul Cole) 26 - November 1996 # Got To Guess Goes Missing (By Wayne Jackman) 3 - December 1996 # Ticker Takes Off (By David Treloar) 10 - December 1996 # The Show Must Go On (By Peter Corey) 17 - December 1996

Series 2 - (1997)

# Invitations To The Dance (By Paul Cole) - 7 January 1997 #Episode 002 (By Paul Cole) - 14 January 1997 #Episode 003 (Bu Paul Cole) - 21 January 1997 # Dressing Up 28 - January (By Paul Cole) - 28 January 1997 # Things That Go Bump In The Night (By Chris Noulton) 4 - February 1997 # Every Mole Has His Day (By Chris Noulton) 11 - February 1997 # Lonely Bird (By John Lee) 18 - February 1997 # I Talk To The Trees (By Paul Cole) 25 - February 1997 # Buried Treasure (By Paul Cole) 4 - March 1997 # Bedtime Story (By Paul Cole) 11 - March 1997 # Mums Day Off (By Paul Cole) 11 - September 1997 # Home Again (By Paul Cole) 18 - September 1997 # Bookworm (By Paul Cole) 25 - September 1997 # Where Shall We Go (By Paul Cole) 2 - October 1997 # Turn and Turn About (By Paul Cole) 9 - October 1997 # If At First (By Paul Cole) 16 - October 1997 # Bits and Bobs (By Paul Cole) 23 - October 1997 # We Have No Bananas (By Paul Cole) 30 - October 1997 # Abracadabra (By Paul Cole) 6 - November 1997 # Wash Day Blues (By Paul Cole) 13 - November 1997 # If Only (By Paul Cole) 20 - November 1997 # Doctor Doctor (By John Lee) 27 - November 1997

Series 3 - (1998)

# Do You Best (By John Lee) 6 - January 1998 # Hip Hippo Ray Day (By Paul Cole) 8 - January 1998 # Different (By Nigel Plaskitt) 13 - January 1998 # Ticker Tells All (By Paul Cole) 15 - January 1998 # Early One Morning (By Paul Cole) 20 - January 1998 # Table Manners (By Paul Cole) 22 - January 1998 # Episode 007 (By Paul Cole) 27 - January 1998 # Episode 008 (By Paul Cole) 29 - January 1998 # Episode 009 ((By Paul Cole) 7 - April 1998 # Episode 010 (By Paul Cole) 9 - April 1998 # Episode 011 (By Paul Cole) 14 - April 1998 # Episode 012 (By Paul Cole) 16 - April 1998 # Episode 013 (By Paul Cole) 21 - April 1998 # Episode 014 (By Paul Cole) 23 - April 1998 # Episode 015 (By Paul Cole) 11 - April 1998 # Episode 016 (By Paul Cole) 1 - May 1998

Series 4 - (1998)

# Episode 001 (By Paul Cole) 25 - May 1998 # Episode 002 (By Paul Cole) 24 - May 1998 # Episode 003 (By Paul Cole) 10 - April 1998 # Episode 004 (By Paul Cole) 11 - May 1998 # Episode 005 (By Paul Cole) 01 - August 1998 # Episode 006 (By Paul Cole) 01 - June 1998 # Episode 007 (By Paul Cole) 22 - June 1998 # Episode 008 (By Paul Cole) 30 - June 1998 # Episode 009 (By Paul Cole) 31 - July 1998 # Episode 010 (By Paul Cole) 31 - October 1998 # Episode 011 (By Paul Cole) 22 - November 1998 # Episode 012 (By Paul Cole) 22 - December 1998

Video Tapes

Various episodes of the series were released on VHS by

Carlton Video ITV Studios is a British multinational television production and distribution company owned by the British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadca ...

in the

Trivia

Carlton Home Video issued many video cassettes in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Although the television series was genuinely well received, ITV decided to cut the series in 1999 due to the rival show

Bananas in Pyjamas ''Bananas in Pyjamas'' is an Australian children's television series that first aired on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since been syndicated in many countries and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the "Pyjamas" in the title was ...

, which received higher ratings. Even though the series ended in 1999,

continued to air the show until January 2000.

References

{{Reflist Treehouse TV original programming YTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming ITV children's television shows 1990s British children's television series 1996 British television series debuts 1999 British television series endings Fictional hippopotamuses Films shot at Pinewood Studios British television shows featuring puppetry Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Central Independent Television Television series produced at Pinewood Studios, English-language television shows British preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series