Flashback Friday - Puddle Lane

Puddle Lane

We are into Puddle Lane in a BIGGGG way at the moment this week.


From not being interested in the books at all Ben now wants one every night, when we have time I look on youtube and we watch the episode of the story we have just read.


Puddle Lane started life as a TV series in the late1980s before develoing into a series of 5 staged books.
It was about the life of the residents (human and animal) of Puddle Lane where they lived.


TV Series

The programme was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV and ran from 1985 until 1989. The main characters were the Magician (played by Neil Innes), and a Spell Dragon named Toby. The Magician told Toby stories by moving his finger around in a puddle or a bird bath and producing images. The other live character that sometimes appeared was Aunt Flo (who voiced the animated stories).

There were 2 other main characters, a cauldron inside and water barrel outside, both of which could talk and had moving eyes. Mr. Hooter the Owl and Snodgrass the snake would also make an appearance every so often.

Some characters, such as the Griffle were portrayed by the sight of animated ears or a tail.

Books

Following the success of the TV programme Sheila K McCullagh, who wrote the stories for the TV program, decided to write 54 reading Programme Books.

Five sets of books were produced, the first set, blue, being the easiest to read (Reading Programme Stage 1) working your way up to Stage 5 (red). 

The idea is for the adult to read the longer story on the left hand side of the page and for the child to read the words or sentence under the pictures.

I loved this series growing up and am proud to say, after hunting book shops, ebay and car boot sales,  we own the WHOLE set of individual reader books, as well as the big Puddle Lane story book and the Christmas special.

Yes, there's a few missing (including the Christmas one) as I can't find them at the moment.

Do you remember Puddle Lane?  Do you have another idea for a #flashbackfriday that I could feature?  Let me know.