Bumper Films

Bumper Films was a Stop Motion animation company formed in 1982 by animation specialists Ian Frampton and John Walker. All of Bumper Films' projects were commissioned by the Welsh TV Channel, S4C. Even though the company was based in the West of England, in the seaside town of Weston-Super Mare to be precise. It was agreed that all of Bumper Films' animation would premier on S4C first, in the Welsh language. Then BBC, ITV or Channel 4 would air an English Version shortly afterwards.

The Channel of S4C itself was created in 1982. The first TV Channel to use the Welsh language. The channel's biggest success came from their animated series, "SuperTed" created by Mike Young. "SuperTed" aired in 1982 on S4C and the English version aired a year lated on the BBC. It was a huge financial success and even made it to the United States, where it aired on the Disney Channel. Mike Young became an executive producer at S4C. Thanks to Superted's success, S4C were keen to produce more children's animation.

Bumper Films' first project, "Rocky Hollow" was written by Bill Clout and Nona Hooper. It's unclear at this time whether they had created the idea of the series. Producer and Puppet Designer, Ian Frampton actually composed the show's music with Nigel Hess.

Rocky Hollow first appeared on S4C in 1983, in Welsh, of course. Under the name "Deri Deg". It later appeared briefly on ITV around 1984/85. In Welsh, the show was narrated by Dillwyn Owen. For the English version, the series was narrated by well known English actor, Peter Sallis.

Sallis was most famous for playing Nervous Norman Clegg in the long running BBC sitcom, "Last of the Summer Wine". He also provided the voice of Wallace in "Wallace and Gromit" and Ratty in Cosgrove Hall's TV Series of "The Wind in the Willows".

Rocky Hollow was about a group of small human type people who live in a woodland area. Characters include pompous Mr Oak who is an elderly, posh gentleman who wears a Mayor's type hat. Elegant Miss Mertle who wears refined feminine hats, Sycamore who is a ditzy young adult, who always gets into scrapes and a cheeky young boy called Acorn who wizzes around on his skateboard and sometimes plays tricks. It is often wondered if Acorn partly inspired the character of Norman Price, as both characters have very similar characteristics. There's the handyman, Conker, and the only non human character, Rosie. Rosie is an anthropomorphic Welsh pigeon, who brings the other characters their mail. She wears spectacles, a purple beret and yellow wellingtons.

Rocky Hollow wasn't a massive success. It had 3 VHS releases during the 1980s, but it wasn't screened on TV much and it's never had an official DVD release. It is the least remembered show from all of Bumper Films' catalogue.

Around 1985 time, two retired firefighters from Kent, England (Dave Gingell and Dave Jones) were trying to get their idea of a "kids animation about a fireman" commissioned.

For a few years, they had been selling homemade rubber figurines of a fireman character they'd created to children at public events and a lot had been sold.

Dave Jones' daughter had named the fireman character as "Sam".

Both David's thought Sam had the potential of becoming a children's TV star as Postman Pat (who had been around for four years at the time) had been a huge financial success.

Dave Gingell and Dave Jones finally managed to get themselves a meeting at S4C with Mike Young to discuss the potential of "Fireman Sam".

Mike wasn't too sure at first, but they persisted and it was finally agreed that "Fireman Sam" would be developed using "stop motion animation".

The biggest selling point for *"Fireman Sam",* apart from children loving fire engines, was that it could provide education and life saving safety tips in a gentle way, which made it stand out from similar shows like *Postman Pat.*

Mike contacted a comic book artist from Cardiff called Rob Lee. Rob had been working for "The Beano" for a number of years, writing and illustrating strips of Dennis the Menace.

Rob was hired to develop Fireman Sam as a fully fleshed character. Rob basically created everything but Sam's name. He designed all of the characters and it's setting. He based many of Pontypandy's characters on other famous fictional characters and even some on his own family.

Station Officer Steele and Elvis Cridlington were heavily inspired by the characters of Captain Mainwaring and Private Pike from the popular BBC sitcom, "Dad's Army".

Dilys Price was a homage to the popular "Coronation Street" character, Hilda Ogden. Dilys' son, Naughty Norman was inspired by Dennis the Menace and apparently, café owner Bella Lasagne was inspired by Rob's own Mother in Law.

Rob even incorporated some quirky and humourous elements into the series, for e.g. -

* Fireman Sam has a hobby of inventing his own gadgets, usually to help with household chores and such. Some of these inventions work really well and others either self combust or revolt.
* Dilys Price can be quite rude and she is very nosy
* Elvis Cridlington is passionate about singing and cooking, though his cooking is absolutely awful and he's easily distracted.
* Trevor Evans is an auxiliary fireman who is afraid of heights.
* Station Officer Steele is very self important.
* Norman plays practical jokes on the other characters etc.

In 1986, Rob Lee had written and illustrated a handful of storybooks based on *Fireman Sam* and his friends which were published by *"Little Owl Superstars".* Even an annual was produced by *"World Publishing"* in late 1986 for the year, 1987. This was all before *"Fireman Sam"* had even aired on television.

S4C Producer and Newsreader, Nia Ceidiog was hired to write the scripts for Fireman Sam in English and Welsh. The Welsh version was called Sam Tân. She wrote every episode of Fireman Sam whilst it was being produced by Bumper Films.

She remembers it as an exciting time when the series first appeared on S4C and BBC One network in November 1987. It was also a time before computers so she wrote the scripts by hand and entrusted them to the postal service. "We wrote 26 episodes of Fireman Sam. It was a great time for children’s TV in Wales," says Nia. *Nia actually wrote 33 episodes of Fireman Sam altogether.*

"Rob wrote the story lines, we discussed them and I wrote them out in long hand at home in Cardiff on A4 paper before getting them typed up and posting them off to John Walker and Ian Frampton at Bumper." "It was a long process". "Ian used Rob’s drawings to make the models and John directed filming." Nia could not write anything unless it worked in both languages so the stories depended on both Welsh and English to work and Sam had a strong identity in both languages from the start. "It is quite a craft to make a script feel indigenous with mouth movements based on two languages," Nia explains. Like Rob she was convinced a strong Welsh identity and setting would be a strong selling point.

"I remember sitting in the meeting where the BBC wanted it set in inner city Birmingham and to have a mix of ethnicity and all sorts," Nia recalls. "We felt strongly it was important it had a Welsh feel and we got that. I like to think Pontypandy is everybody's village and reflects that". "In terms of international appeal all villages and communities have people who know each other and have characters that are recognizable". "But first of all, Fireman Sam is a hero, and children love fire engines and heroes". To this day Nia, who runs Cardiff-based production company "Ceidiog", and others involved at the start, say Sam is a fantastic calling card, recognised the world over.

Welsh Musicians, Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson were hired to create the music for Fireman Sam. The famous theme tune they composed is still regarded as on the best television theme tunes that was ever created. The melody of the tune is based upon the sound of a fire engine siren, with the verses alternating between notes one fifth apart. Robin Lyons, who was a script writer on "SuperTed" wrote the lyrics for the English theme song. Roseanne Reeves wrote the lyrics for the Welsh theme.

Swansea born singer, Maldwyn Pope sang the theme song in both English and Welsh. He was payed a one off installment of £250 (around £780 in today's money.)

The theme tune that was used in the TV opening was 1 minute and 5 seconds in length, however, a 3 minute and 25 seconds single version of the theme tune (In both English and Welsh with extended lyrics) was released on BBC Vinyl in 1988.

All of this musical talent returned to work on Joshua Jones in 1991, except for Robin Lyons.

Fireman Sam/ Sam Tân ran for three series in total. The second series in 1990 saw the introduction of a female firefighter, Penny Morris.

*"Sam Tân"* was narrated by Welsh actor, Gareth Lewis. He provided all the voices for the characters too.

For the English version, *Fireman Sam,* the narration and voices were provided by popular English actor, John Alderton.

Although Alderton wasn't Welsh, he provided a realistic Welsh accent.

Before working on *Fireman Sam*, John Alderton was most famous for his role as "Mr Bernard Hedges" in the 1970's UK sitcom, *"Please Sir!"*

He also appeared in many shows with his wife, Pauline Collins.

He appeared as the chauffeur called "Thomas in *"Upstairs, Downstairs".* *(The character of Thomas incidentally had a Welsh accent.)* Whilst his wife played a maid called Sarah.

They also played a couple in a BBC Drama called *"Forever Green"* and they both narrated the animated *"Little Miss"* series in 1983.

*"Fireman Sam"* turned out to be Bumper Films' longest and most successful production, earning millions in merchandise sales. A vast quantity of VHS tapes, books, audio cassettes, magazines, clothing and toys were produced from 1986 til the early 2000's.

Shortly after *Fireman Sam'*s Second Series, Bumper Films began work on a new production, "*Joshua Jones*".

Rob Lee created the concept of *Joshua Jones* back in 1989. The show revolved around a kind hearted and resourceful man in his mid twenties called Joshua. He was a Romani and owned his own narrow boat callled *"The Delilah",* which he uses to deliver cargo and messages around the fictional town of "*Grimspool*" and the *"Clearwater Canal"*. He has a friendly grey terrier dog called *'Fairport'*.

Joshua has many helpful friends including *The Karia Family* *(who's ancestors were originally from India),* Hungarian farmer, *Joe Laski* and *Daphne Peacock* the Scottish Vet.

He works with the lazy and clumsy *Spanner Wilkins* who provides a lot of comedic moments in the series. *Josh* and *Spanner's* boss is the selfish and tight-fisted *Wilton Cashmore*. Wilton has a young daughter called *Fiona* who is a stark contrast to her father in personality.

Rob created the basic elements for *Joshua Jones,* but English children's author Bob Wilson (author of the *'Stanley Bagshaw'* books) was hired to develop the series further and write the scripts.

Nia Ceidiog (who had written all of the Fireman Sam episodes in English and Welsh) translated all of Bob's scripts for the Welsh Version.

The shots for the pilot episode of *Joshua Jones* called "Paperwork" began being filmed during 1989 between Series 2 (1 in Welsh) and 3 (2 in Welsh) of *Fireman Sam* in 1988 and 1990, where it contained the first shot of Joshua, Ravi and Fairport on the Delilah to see Spanner after decorating Sharon's catering van before he takes her out on a picnic, if that's when Sharon's cafe was seen looking like new earlier on, the first shot of Wilton Cashmore's daughter, Fiona is when she looks after a gerbil at Daphne Peacock's veterinary clinic (which would later be reused as Penny Morris' cottage in the 'Deep Trouble' episode of *Fireman Sam*) before a phone call from Mr Laski comes to Daphne to let a duck with something tangled round its leg before both Fiona and Daphne sort it out, the first shot of Wilton Cashmore, being introduced as Mr Biggot's right-hand man, not being able to get a sales report from Mr Biggot until he puts the antenna on his phone down in disgust and rummages through his files, while the first shot of Mrs Karia is vacuuming in his untidy office and wondering what to do with the papers until Wilton suggests he throws them out just as the Delilah sails by and Josh greets 'lovely day' to Mr Cashmore, who is so very cross by telling Josh that they paying him shift rubbish and not run a pleasure cruise. Long time later, a strong wind suddenly comes, the rubbish that Spanner and Sharon have left behind gets blown away, some of Wilton Cashmore's paper gets blown away and Josh loses some of his rubbish as well. In the end everything turns out all right, except that Sharon's cafe has become a magnet to a load of rubbish.

Early designed versions of the lock cottage, Admirable Karia, Joe Laski and Trojan the horse along with Ravi's bike and Joe's tractor were only featured in the intro shots for *Joshua Jones* which was made sometime either at the end of 1989 or during 1990 after the pilot episode "Paperwork".

Also, after the pilot episode "Paperwork", the eleven other episodes of *Joshua Jones* that were from "Horseplay" to "The Silver Key" began being filmed sometime in 1991 after Series 3 (2 in Welsh) of *Fireman Sam* in 1990, to which the characters in that show has differently designed faces for each episode.

Almost everyone who worked on *"Fireman Sam"* returned for "*Joshua Jones"*, except for voice actors Alderton and Lewis and Robin Lyons who had written the *Fireman Sam* theme's lyrics.

Roseanne Reeves (who had written the lyrics for *Sam Tân*) did provide the lyrics for *Joshua Jones'* theme in Welsh.

However, the composers, Heneghan and Lawson provided the English lyrics to the theme song.

Well known English actors, George Layton and Barbara Flynn, were hired to voice Joshua and his friends.

George has appeared on many popular British TV shows since the 1970s, including *'Doctor in the House', 'Minder", 'Robin's Nest'* and he also narrated the Children's BBC show *'Pigeon Street'* prior to *Joshua Jones*. In 2012, he took part in '*Celebrity Masterchef'.*

Barbara Flynn is also very recognisable. She appeared as the Milk Lady in *'Open All Hours'*. She also appeared in many popular 80's TV Dramas including '*The Beiderbecke Affair'* and *'A Very Peculiar Practice'*. More recently, she is starring in the BBC drama, '*Beyond Paradise*'.

For the Welsh version, the voices were provided by Elfred Dafis and Elliw Haf.

Unfortunately, *Joshua Jones* wasn't a commercial success. Between 1992 and 1993, 18 storybooks, 3 UK VHS Tapes (2 English, 1 Welsh) and an audio cassette were released, but after 1993, no more merchandise was produced, except for three video releases in Australia in 1995.

The producers thought *"Joshua Jones"* was overshadowed by the success of "*Rosie and Jim*", another children's show set on a canal boat.

However, *Joshua Jones* was a very different show and aimed at slightly older children. The BBC would repeat the series at awkward times aswell, when children would be at school.

A lot of profits were lost and Bumper Films suffered greatly. It was inevitable that the company had to return to their biggest success to recover any profit and in 1994, a third series (fourth in English) of *Fireman Sam* was produced.

*Joshua Jones* has never been released on DVD in the UK and was last repeated on British Television in 1998. However, in 2005, the show did get a DVD release in Australia.

After Fireman Sam's fourth series (third in Welsh), Bumper Films began on their final new production, "Starhill Ponies", in co-production with Mike Young Productions in North America.

Maria Jones created the basic development for *Starhill Ponies* in 1995. The show involved a young girl named Beatrice Anastasia Zenobia 'Baz' Watkins who was best friends with three wild ponies called Dylan, Molly and Scruffy and lived on a pony farm in the seaside town of Starhill with her parents, Will and Kath.

Other characters were Baz's best friend Thomas, Baz's pet cat Ethel, Jim the care taker and handyman with a similar likeness to Joe Laski from *Joshua Jones*, the half-wit beach shop owner, Ambrose Higgins and snobby old Mrs. Horace Morris. Two new characters were added to Series 2 of *Starhill Ponies* which were Nick the blacksmith and Lottie the mobile shop owner.

The snobbish landlady Mrs. Horace Morris (known by her initials as H.M.), who hates ponies, was modeled after Queen Elizabeth II and her snobbiness can also be a reminiscence of Miss Violet Blush from Cosgrove Hall's *Fetch the Vet*, Little Miss Splendid from the *Mr Men and Little Miss* franchise, Hyacinth Bucket from BBC's *Keeping Up Appearances*, Margot Leadbetter from BBC's *The Good Life* and Mrs. Richards in the "Communication Problems" episode of BBC's *Fawlty Towers* as well as herself being the female equivalent of Wilton Cashmore from *Joshua Jones* and Station Officer Steele from *Fireman Sam*.

British comedians Josie Lawrence and Andrew Sachs provided the voices for the Starhill Ponies characters.

Andrew is best known for being a hapless Spanish waiter and hotel worker, Manuel on the greatest BBC comedy show *Fawlty Towers* and was also narrator of the children's BBC series *William's Wish Wellingtons*, voice actor on FilmFair's *The Gingerbread Man* and two children's TV shows with his daughter, Kate which were *Wiggly Park* and The Forgotten Toys*.*

Almost everyone who worked on *"Fireman Sam"* returned for *"Starhill Ponies"*, except for voice actors Alderton and Lewis, main co-creator/co-writer Rob Lee, Ben Henegan and Ian Lawson who had composed the *Fireman Sam* theme, Robin Lyons who wrote its lyrics and Maldwyn Pope who sang them.

The first nine episodes in Series 1 of *Starhill Ponies*, which were from "Birthday Tea" to "Surfin' Sea Horse" were filmed during November and December 1998, before they were actually broadcasted on BBC1 from 7th April to 2nd June 1999. Then the last four episodes in Series 1 of *Starhill Ponies* that were from "High Tea, High Jinks" to "Bugged" were filmed during January and February 1999, before they were actually broadcasted on BBC1 from 14th July to 11th August 1999.

All thirteen episodes in Series 2 of *Starhill Ponies* were filmed during January to February 2002, before they were broadcasted on S4C in Autumn 2002, after Bumper Films had finally closed down on February 2002.

Unfortunately, *Starhill Ponies* also wasn't a commercial success. On 4th May 1999, one video and four books were by BBC Worldwide Ltd. In 2001, one video was released by Just Entertainment Group and finally in 2006, three DVDs of the show were released.