Talk:The Wombles

message: Steeleye span were not always the band, perhaps that should be clearer. All sorts of people filled in including well known musicians from bands like 10cc. A TV history program actually revealed that the smell issue was a big one. They only had one set of womble costumes and at times they smelt so bad they had an extra hotel room booked to keep them in.
This (TV history program) is available (as of September 27, 2010) on YouTube as Roobarb's Look At 1974, part 6 of 6. I'm not aware of a 10CC connection with the Wombles, though I wouldn't put it past Godley and/or Creme. Chris Spedding and Clem Cattini were regulars (as Wellington and Bungo respectively). Tim and Andy Renton and Robin LeMesurier also donned the costumes, the former two most likely for the Wombles TV appearances in Germany and the 1974 US promotional tour - might even have appeared on Captain Kangaroo. LeMesurier was kicked out of the "band" after being arrested for possession of pot following a Wombles appearance on Clapham Common.  
Wearing a Womble costume made out of fake fur would be hot enough on its own, but the chubbiness of the characters required the insertion of partially inflated beach balls which would have held in the heat, especially under TV studio lighting. 
I think the Steeleye Span story probably happened in December 1975, as that seems to be the only time Steeleye Span and the Wombles would have both been appearing on TOTP (promoting "All Around My Hat" and "Let's Womble To The Party Tonight" respectively) but I'm not keen to put that in unless someone can confirm my suspicion first. Bonalaw 12:33, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: Have removed the rubbish about womble sightings in Eastbourne.  Is this a wind-up, or was an actor in a suit seen?  Not really relevant. Tpacw (talk) 16:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sightings 

message: I hate to admit this, but I've still got my old cassettes of Wombes music from when I was a kid... and there's no way Minuetto Allegretto is 9/8. 12/8 or 6/8, maybe, but not 9/8.[[User:Grutness|Grutness talk ] 12:51, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  9/8? 

message: Where is it?--Hraefen Talk 22:01, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Picture?

message: Sadly not mentioned anywhere: how tall is a Womble?
In the old TV series, the Wombles had a door made of a car door. I seem to remeber that a Womble could comfortably use that door, indicating that a Womble should be around 1 meter tall. If the car door was a real car door, and not from a car model (toy car).
In the books it's mentioned that the Silver Womble (the Womble's car) is propelled by a clockwork. However, a typical clockwork which one might find in the junk might have a serious problem when used for automotive transport of a few Wombles (with the size of a small children).
Apart from the question of the size of the "real" Wombles, what was the size of the Womble stop motion puppets used in the TV series? Were they 1:1 scale models of real Wombles? --Klaws 09:02, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: In the movie they were described as "four feet tall, fat and furry". 59.167.55.160 (talk) 12:00, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Wombles were certainly shorter than humans, but I don't think they could have been diminutive for a number of reasons. For one thing Bulgaria is capable of holding up a copy of the Times (which was a broadsheet in those days). Also I'm pretty sure the Silver Womble was not clockwork. (As I remember it ran on alcohol, which Tobermory distilled from nettle juice.) Also in the Wandering Wombles Orinoco and Tomsk managed to get from London to Loch Ness in 2 days, which would have been very difficult if their motor schooter had been toy-sized. Also Tomsk was able to masquerade as one of the guards at Buckingham Palace, wearing a bearskin.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.12.62.183 (talk) 12:48, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dimensions (size) of a Womble 

message: The Wombles didn't recycle, they reused.  This is made clear from the lyrics to the Wombles Theme ...making good use of the things that they find. Timdownie 19:43, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Recycling? 

message: It' a bit much to say 'The Wombles are fictional characters' in the postmodern 21st Century, isn't it?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwlegg (talk • contribs) 16:04, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fictional? 

message: I could have sworn there was a regular member of the Wimbledon Wombles called Tomsk. I think he was the handyman. Plutonium27 (talk) 20:54, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tomsk 

message: I have recently updated The Wombles (band) and created Wombling Free and Wombling Songs. Would there be any merit in a genetic Wombles infobox for the bottom of any article related to the Wombles? McWomble (talk) 08:41, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wombles Infobox 

message: Would wombles really be the oldest animals?  A quick search on google proves this wrong - a clam was found to be over 400 years old, and was classed as an animal according to the articles. Tpacw (talk) 16:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Age 

message: Were the Wombles constantly mentioned by Alice in the Vicar of Dibley? I think so... but I'm not sure (I'm american!).
Any brits who can answer my question? Intothewoods29 (talk) 23:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vicar of Dibley 

message: Removed this from the In Popular Culture Section
:In the works of author D.C. White, the character of Captain Doobie (who, much like Warren Ellis's The Captain, is not really the Captain of anything) estimates that one horsepower is equivalent to 1072.8 womblepower.
As far as I can tell via Google, Captain Doobie only exists in one person's blog entries (presumably the aforementioned Mr/Ms White), so is not really notable enough to include here, and the reference to Warren Ellis is completely off-topic.
If I'm wrong about the notability, perhaps someone would care to create a Captain Doobie or D. C. White page?  Rojomoke (talk) 13:57, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Popular Culture Trimmed 

message: One fan site implies that Orinoco's favourite food was not actually cloud berries but daisy buns: see http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Acerise.f2s.com+%22daisy+buns%22
Anyone (re)watched enough episodes to be able to comment definitively?
Ozaru (talk) 22:01, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Daisy buns? 

message: There appears to be some confusion over the origin of the name of the Womble named 'Wellington'. Is the origin Wellington in New Zealand or Wellington in Somerset? The previous link was to Wellington in NZ but I noticed the text claim that the origin was Wellington School in Somerset, so I changed the internal linking to route to Wellington School. Now it has been edited back to link to Wellington in NZ, but the editor has not removed the reference to Wellington School in Somerset.
Dubmill (talk) 15:30, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wellington 

message: Re-rated as C-class. Cdhaptomos talk–contribs 10:43, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Rating

message: Removed overlinking, as well as "easter egg" links - ie when sentence talks about "Great Uncle Orinoco" then links from that should not go to "orinocco river".. however if it says "great uncle orinocco .... named after the river orinocco" then obviously a link to the geographic article is correct from the second use of the word.
Some of the origins of the names need to be shown.
Also please don't revert edits that attempt to correct errors such as these, when the reverts reintroduce the same errors eg this edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wombles&action=historysubmit&diff=433917896&oldid=433909875 reintroduces overlinking as well as reintroducing "easter egg" links which could be original research.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lorelorn (talk • contribs) 20:57, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Links

message: The entry claims that Beresford had the inspiration for the Wombles on Boxing Day (26 December) 1968 - yet the first book was published in 1968. Turning the job round in under a week seems unlikely... CulturalSnow (talk) 23:15, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, there is a conflict in the references here. The ref following the Boxing Day event from the Telegraph ( describes the trip to the Common, but does not say 1968 for the trip. It also conflicts with  another reference in the article by saying the first book was published in 1970, while the BBC ref  says the first book was 1968. FlowerpotmaN·(t) 23:35, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Had to check but 1968 is definitely the year for the first book and is multiply referenced in the Beresford article; as the Telegraph source doesn't say 1968 anyway - saying "In the mid-1960s" , it's just a matter of tweaking the sentence "In 1968, Elisabeth Beresford took her young children..." to remove the specific year. FlowerpotmaN·(t) 23:54, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: And I have done just that FlowerpotmaN·(t) 23:59, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: 1968?

message: Named after Botany Bay?
(Can't believe I'm typing on a talk page about a Wombles article.}
All best to all,
Notreallydavid (talk) 16:56, 2 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cousin Botany 

message: This article describes Madame Cholet as "a very kind-hearted but short-tempered womble". It has been a long time since I last saw The Wombles, but I do not remember Madame Cholet being short-tempered. Vorbee (talk) 17:43, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Madame Cholet

message: The article refers to the charming mispronunciation of Wimbledon Common, but surely there's a connection with Dorset slang wamble, to wander? Hardy uses it in his The Dynasts. Shtove 20:22, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of the name