The Wombles is a stop motion animated British television series made in 1973–1975, and also a second animated series for children based on the characters created by Elisabeth Beresford transmitted in 1997 and 1998. The Wombles had remained popular with children into the 1980s. [1] After FilmFair was acquired by the Canadian company Cinar Films in 1996, a new series of episodes was made, with a number of new Womble characters. In the UK, the series was purchased by ITV. [2]
A stop-motion animated series of five-minute episodes was made between 1973 and 1975, [3] along with two half-hour specials. Narration and all Womble voices for these were provided by Bernard Cribbins.
Further animated episodes, using new animation models and sets, were made by Cinar/Filmfair in 1998–1999. [4] These were ten minutes long and had several Canadian actors provide the voices. Background music was adapted from the Wombles' records along with new compositions.
A new television series of The Wombles was announced in 2013. Richard Desmond snapped up the rights to the new TV series which would have consisted of 26 episodes each 11 minutes in length. The new series was set to be made using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and was due to air in 2015 on Channel 5. As of 2022 no further development on the series has confirmed other than its animated shorts on social media. [5] [6] [7]
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
01 | "The Ghost of Wimbledon Common" | 5 March 1997 | |
Bungo and Tomsk think they've seen a ghost. | |||
02 | "Orinoco the Magnificent" | 12 March 1997 | |
Orinoco becomes convinced he can do magic when a new arrival turns up. | |||
03 | "Tomsk to the Rescue" | 19 March 1997 | |
Tomsk saves Shansi Tarzan-style. | |||
04 | "Madame Cholet's Day Off" | 26 March 1997 | |
Madame Cholet is driven out of the Burrow after a bad day. | |||
05 | "Shansi's Surprise" | 2 April 1997 | |
A surprise party is planned for Shansi. | |||
06 | "Beautiful Boating Weather" | 9 April 1997 | |
The young Wombles go boating, but Stepney is scared of water. | |||
07 | "Camping and Cloudberries" | 16 April 1997 | |
Bungo believes there's a dragon on the prowl when the young Wombles go camping. | |||
08 | "Any Womble for Tennis?" | 23 April 1997 | |
Orinoco, Alderney and Shansi accidentally cause a scene at Wimbledon. | |||
09 | "Out of This Earth" | 30 April 1997 | |
After hearing the story of the Womble pirate One-Eyed Jamaica, Stepney goes treasure-hunting. | |||
10 | "MacWomble Is Coming" | 7 May 1997 | |
Cairngorm MacWomble the Terrible visits the Wimbledon Burrow. | |||
11 | "Spring into Action" | 14 May 1997 | |
12 | "Hola Obidos" | 26 May 1997 | |
13 | "Welcome Back Bungo" | 28 May 1997 |
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
01 | "Car Trouble" | 6 January 1998 | |
Great Uncle Bulgaria goes on a wild ride in the Buggy - with no brakes. | |||
02 | "Deep Space Wombles" | 13 January 1998 | |
Bungo and Tomsk go for a flight in a spaceship invented by Wellington and become convinced they've landed on the Moon. | |||
03 | "Orinoco's Sick Day" | 20 January 1998 | |
Orinoco pretends to be sick to get out of work, but soon regrets it. | |||
04 | "Wild News Chase" | 29 January 1998 | |
There's a lot of jobs to be done after a terrible storm, but Tobermory leaves Tomsk in charge. | |||
05 | "MacWomble the Charming" | 10 February 1998 | |
MacWomble tries to convince Madame Cholet to help him sort out his Highland burrow. | |||
06 | "Rainy Daze" | 17 February 1998 | |
Tobermory starts behaving strangely after getting knocked on the head. | |||
07 | "Great Cake Mystery" | 23 February 1998 | |
Orinoco is falsely accused of stealing, so he and Shansi try to crack the case. | |||
08 | "Bigfoot Womble" | 3 March 1998 | |
Bungo becomes convinced that a mythical 'Bigfoot Womble' is roaming Wimbledon Common. | |||
09 | "Chaos on the Common" | 10 March 1998 | |
Wellington upgrades Stepney's barrow into a 'Wellivac', but it goes out of control. | |||
10 | "Weather Or Not" | 17 March 1998 | |
Everyone is hoping for rain. | |||
11 | "Trouble at the Thames" | 24 March 1998 | |
Stepney calls Tobermory and Wellington for help when a water pipe bursts at the Thames burrow. | |||
12 | "Great Womble Explorer" | 31 March 1998 | |
Great Uncle Bulgaria tells the young Wombles about his childhood adventures with the Womble explorer Livingstone. | |||
13 | "Womble Winterland" | 7 April 1998 | |
Snow on Wimbledon Common brings both fun and trouble. |
No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
01 | "New Year! New You!" | 6 October 1998 | |
The young Wombles make New Year resolutions, but don't stick to them very well. | |||
02 | "Alderney's Big Break" | 7 October 1998 | |
Alderney refuses to let a broken leg stop her helping with spring-cleaning. | |||
03 | "The Thingummawotsit" | 8 October 1998 | |
The young Wombles find numerous uses (and names) for a yoyo. | |||
04 | "The Sleep Wombler" | 9 October 1998 | |
A mysterious 'Phantom' is clearing up all the rubbish on the Common. | |||
05 | "A Life in the Day Of Madame Cholet" | 12 October 1998 | |
06 | "Wom-TV" | 13 October 1998 | |
07 | "Star Struck" | 14 October 1998 | |
08 | "Practically Joking" | 15 October 1998 | |
09 | "Tomsk's Pen Pal" | 16 October 1998 | |
Tomsk becomes pen pals with a young Canadian Womble. | |||
10 | "What's a Womble" | 19 October 1998 | |
Bungo pretends to have amnesia. | |||
11 | "Queen for a Day" | 20 October 1998 | |
Alderney gets to be Queen of Wimbledon, but her royal demands get out of hand. | |||
12 | "The Womble Races" | 21 October 1998 | |
13 | "The Womble Times" | 22 October 1998 | |
14 | "Fancy! Fancy Dress" | 23 October 1998 | |
15 | "Time Travelling Tomsk" | 26 October 1998 | |
Tomsk turns the tables on Bungo and Stepney when they trick him into thinking he's time-travelling. | |||
16 | "Bungo Bingo" | 27 October 1998 | |
Bungo hosts a bingo game, but won't listen when the others try to point out problems. | |||
17 | "The Thames Burrow Adventure" | 28 October 1998 | |
18 | "The Wombles of Our Discontent" | 29 October 1998 | |
19 | "Riddle Me This" | 30 October 1998 | |
20 | "Unlucky Me" | 2 November 1998 | |
21 | "Nanny Alexandria Comes to Stay" | 3 November 1998 | |
22 | "The Unwelcome Womble" | 4 November 1998 | |
23 | "Shansi's Spider" | 5 November 1998 | |
Shansi trusts Tomsk to look after her pet spider Lucky, but Lucky escapes. | |||
24 | "Anchors Aweigh" | 6 November 1998 | |
25 | "Womble Inventor of the Year" | 9 November 1998 | |
26 | "A Visit to the Highland Burrow" | 10 November 1998 |