Toytown

For other uses, see Toytown (disambiguation).
Larry was the "little guy who always came out on top" [1]

Toytown[2] was a BBC radio series for children, broadcast for Children's Hour on the Home Service. The plays were based on a set of puppets created by S. G. Hulme Beaman, who also wrote the stories for the series.[3] The first Toytown plays were broadcast in 1929, and the pool of stories was re-used until the end of Children's Hour. There were 31 plays in all. During the 1970s, most of the plays were adapted as short films which were broadcast on ITV.[4]

The series starred Larry the Lamb,[5] the central character, and his clever sidekick, Dennis the Dachshund. In each story a misunderstanding, often arising from a device created by the inventor, Mr. Inventor, occurs which involves Ernest the Policeman, the disgruntled Mr Growser the Grocer[6] and the Mayor.

During the early-1950s series on BBC Children's Hour, Larry the Lamb was always played (at least when broadcast from London) by Derek McCulloch, Dennis at various times by Norman Shelley, Ernest Jay and Preston Lockwood, the Mayor by Franklyn Bellamy and Felix Felton, Ernest the Policeman by Arthur Wynn, Peter Claughton and Stephen Jack and the Inventor usually by Ivan Samson.

The opening music was "The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" by Leon Jessel.

The first radio performances were as follows:

Stories from Toytown

A puppet show called Stories from Toytown Featuring Larry the Lamb was first broadcast on ITV between 1972 and 1974. Twenty-six of Hulme Beaman's stories were adapted for television by his friend Hendrik Baker.[7]

  1. Toytown Goes West
  2. The Tale of Captain Brass the Pirate
  3. The Extraordinary Affair of Ernest the Policeman
  4. The Disgraceful Business at Mrs Goose's
  5. Golf (Toytown Rules)
  6. The Arkville Dragon
  7. The Tale of the Inventor
  8. The Tale of the Magician
  9. The Theatre Royal
  10. The Toytown Treasure
  11. Tea for Two
  12. Mr Noah's Holiday
  13. The Toytown Mystery
  14. A Portrait of the Mayor
  15. Pistols for Two
  16. How the Wireless Came to Toytown
  17. The Brave Deed of Ernest the Policeman
  18. The Tale of Ernest the Policeman
  19. The Showing Up of Larry the Lamb
  20. Larry the Plumber
  21. The Mayor's Sea Voyage
  22. Dreadful Doings in Ark Street
  23. The Great Toytown War
  24. Mr Growser Moves
  25. Mr Mayor
  26. Dirty Work at the Dog & Whistle

See also

The Noddy stories, (written from 1949 to 1963) for children by author Enid Blyton also take place in a location called Toytown.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Hartley, Ian. Goodnight Children ... Everywhere. (New York, Hippocrene: 1993) ISBN 0-88254-892-1
  2. ↑ Further information about the series
  3. ↑ Other examples of his work
  4. ↑ See examples of 1970s annuals
  5. ↑ Brief characterisation
  6. ↑ Reference to Mr Grouser and the BBC approved spelling of his name.
  7. ↑ Stories from Toytown Featuring Larry the Lamb at Toonhound
  8. ↑ "Noddy's back in (Toy) town as creator's granddaughter pens a new adventure to mark 60th birthday". Mail Online. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
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