Preview- Trumpton: The Complete Series (Bluray)

Image: Fabulous Films

Here is the clock, The Trumpton clock, Telling the time…steadily, sensibly; never too quickly, never too slowly…Telling the time for Trumpton. So take a trip to Trumpton and join Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub and the rest of the Trumpton townsfolk in Gordon Murray’s timeless animation classic. Enjoy all 13 original episodes once again, fully restored from the original film negatives by Fabulous Films.

Set in the town of Trumpton, each episode opens with the town hall clock and ends with the fire brigade band playing. Every show tells the story of one of the townsfolk such as Miss Lovelace the milliner, Mrs Cobbit the flower seller and Raggy Dan the rag and bone man.

This iconic British animation, narrated by Brian Cant was originally broadcast in 1967 and was aired regularly by the BBC until 1985. Trumpton comes second in the Trumptonshire trilogy, comprising of Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley.

Freddie Phillips composed the music for all three of the Trumptonshire series. Phillips was a very accomplished musician who also worked on many films (including Michael Powell’s controversial Peeping Tom). Phillips was known for his experimental attitude towards creating the sounds he wanted, including the use of an early multitrack recording system, reverb, and adjustment of tape speed to create different effects.

The most famous line from Trumptonshire – the fireman’s roll call originally only had one Pugh but Phillips suggested adding another to give it a “musical foot” making Pugh and Pugh twins. This caused many playground debates on whether it was Hugh and Pugh or Hugh and Hugh or Pughpugh.

Due to the difficulties of depicting flames, smoke and water in stop-motion animation scriptwriter Alison Prince got paid £15 per episode to write 13 stories about a fire brigade that never went anywhere near a fire.

The figures were about 6in tall, their heads were made of ping-pong balls and their clothes of foam latex. Gordon Murray didn’t want them nor the sets to decay so burned them on a bonfire in his back garden in the 1980s. The only figure to survive was a soldier boy that his daughter gave to a friend for a present.

Extras: Exclusive interview with creator Gordon Murray, filmed on his 90^th Birthday in May 2011. Creating Trumptonshire Featurette. Photo Gallery.

You can pre-order HERE.