At last, Grotbags wins an award for her services to witchery! She's on the receiving end of a "Batty", and on top of that, her Auntie Kipplewick pops round for a visit.
This episode (no idea of the original air date, by the way - can you help?) is an excellent opportunity to see Carol Lee Scott acting in relatively ordinary costume and without her green make-up. In fact, Grotbags isn't in this one a great deal at all, with Auntie Kipplewick stealing the limelight.
Now's probably as good a time as any to give a shout out to a couple of the puppeteers and voice actors on the show. Colin the Bat is played by Francis Wright, who was perhaps most famously The Head on Art Attack. (Now I've told you that, you can hear it clearly, can't you?) He was also in You and Me, Spitting Image, and Sooty. Doris the Dodo, meanwhile, was the work of Richard Coombs, who was also part of the Spitting Image team. His other recognisable roles include CITV's Scally the Dog and Gilbert the Alien from Get Fresh. I gather that Francis and Richard filled all non-human roles on the programme, but I'm willing to be corrected on that.
This recording comes courtesy of Jason - many, many thanks to him!
(Please remember that this is an off-air VHS recording, so don't go expecting 1080p HD quality. I'm fairly certain that this video isn't commercially available, and I've uploaded it for its historic interest only. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.)
30 май 2013
