Pipkins

Pipkins (originally Inigo Pipkin) is a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov, Octavia and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981. Pipkins was one of the first children's programmes on British TV where the characters had regional accents: Pig had a Birmingham accent; Topov the monkey was a Cockney; Octavia the ostrich had a French accent; Pigeon had an Upper class English accent; Mrs Penguin had a Geordie accent; Uncle Hare had a West Country English accent; Sophie the cat had a non-regional English accent; and Moony the Badger had a Northern Ireland accent. Origins In 1972, the ITV network expanded its daytime broadcasting hours and the Independent Broadcasting Authority commissioned four of the main ITV companies to each provide a series of interest to pre-schoolers, as an alternative to the successful US import Sesame Street. From this commission Thames Television came up with Rainbow, Yorkshire with Mister Trimble, Granada with Hickory House, while ATV's contribution would be Inigo Pipkin. Inigo Pipkin was first shown on New Year's Day 1973. When the show started, the main character was an elderly puppet maker called Inigo Pipkin (hence the original title), played by George Woodbridge. The puppets were his creations, and over the course of the first series, viewers saw Inigo bring to life Hartley Hare and the Tortoise (a.k.a. George) played by Nigel Plaskitt; and Topov the monkey, Pig and Octavia the ostrich, all played by Heather Tobias.