Andy Pandy

Andy Pandy is a 50’s children’s TV puppet show, which surprised me as I though it had been made in the 70’s. I was wrong.

The first show was produced on 20th June 1950 in Black and White.  It was a show that was created especially for pre-school children.  It appeared in the BBC’s ‘Watch With Mother’ schedule every Tuesday.

Andy Pandy was a clown puppet and he initially performed alone, but eventually  he was joined by two friends – Teddy and Looby Lou. 

Andy Pandy was so popular, that he became one of the most repeated Children’s TV programmes in television history. 

Andy Pandy was the first of several successful television characters created by Freda Lingstrom, who was Head of the Children’s’ Television Department of the BBC between 1951 and 1956.

Maria Bird composed the music and also wrote the scripts for the programme with Freda. The first puppeteer for the programme was Audry Atterbury, who was later joined by Molly Gibson.

Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Lou were all silent stars. The programmes were  narrated by Vera Mckechnie and the songs were sung by Gladys Whitred.

A total of 26 episodes were made, each lasting 15 minutes. The characters were all puppets and the crew details can be found here.  In the 1970’s, Andy Pandy was remade in colour in the Abbey Road Studios.

It seems that TV Companies have been looking to the past for inspiration, because Cosgrove Hall Productions has resurrected Andy Pandy.  They have  made a number of new programmes to thrill children all over again (lets just hope they see some of the originals too).

In 1998 Andy Pandy puppets appeared in a ‘Watch with Mother Exhibition’ at Dudley in the West Midlands. 

Each episode began with –  

Andy Pandy is coming to play, la, la-la, la, la-la, Andy Pandy’s here today, la, la-la, la-la.  and ended with – Time to stop play, just for today, Andy and Teddy must now go away. Time to stop play, just for today Andy is waving goodbye.., goodbye.., goodbye.