''Puddle Lane'' (or ''Tales from Puddle Lane'') is a 1980s English

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 scho ...

children's

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

programme written by Rick Vanes with animated stories written by Sheila K. McCullagh, author of '' Tim and the Hidden People''. A long series of early readers based on the stories was produced by

Ladybird Books Ladybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books. It is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary o ...

, also under the title Puddle Lane.

TV programme

The programme was made by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

for ITV and ran on from 1985 (as a replacement for the then-recently discontinued series '' Mooncat & Co.'') until 1989. The main characters were the Magician (played by

Neil Innes Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the M ...

, who also composed music for the programme), and a Spell Dragon named Toby (voiced by Richard Robinson); the Magician told Toby stories by moving his finger around in a puddle (when using the interior set) and a bird bath (when using the exterior set) and producing images. He also had a cauldron inside and water barrel outside, both of which could talk. The stories he told were presented as animations, narrated by Kate Lee (who also played a minor character, Aunt Flo). The Magician lived in a large house at the end of Puddle Lane, hence the name of the programme. In an interview in 2014, Neil Innes recalled his involvement with ''Puddle Lane'':

Transmission guide

*Series 1: 26 editions from 3 October 1985 – 1 May 1986 *Series 2: 26 editions from 16 October 1986 – 23 April 1987 *Series 3: 24 editions from 29 October 1987 – 21 April 1988 *Series 4: 26 editions from 6 October 1988 – 13 April 1989

Books

A series of 54 books (plus two standalone volumes) was produced for Puddle Lane, published by

. The texts, based on the animated stories, were written by Sheila McCullagh. Illustrations for the books were provided by several different artists (

Tony Morris Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

, Gavin Rowe and others). There were five sets of books (with a different cover colour for each set), the first set (Stage 1) being the easiest to read and the last set (Stage 5) being the hardest. Since they were intended for children who are learning to read, the books with lower reading stages would present the text in two versions: the left page contained the full version, to be read aloud by the parent, while the right page contained a simplified version for the child. The books are currently out of print.

Miscellany

Other Puddle Lane merchandise included audio tapes supplied for the books,

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In t ...

s, dominoes, picture word cards, and several educational products: ''The Magician's Activity Book'', ''The Griffle's Activity Book'' and ''Puddle Lane Fun Frieze''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Puddle Lane at Little Gems
General information, screenshots, complete list of episodes, title music sample available for download 1985 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series British children's books British children's animated anthology television series British children's animated fantasy television series Fictional populated places in England ITV children's television shows Series of children's books British preschool education television series British television shows based on children's books British television shows featuring puppetry 1980s preschool education television series Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Yorkshire Television Television series set in the 19th century English-language television shows Animated preschool education television series