For children of the 1950s and 1960s (and I am one of the them! Ed), along with ‘The Woodentops’ and ‘Bill and Ben’, ‘Andy Pandy’ in the ‘Watch with Mother’ series was a must see for those of us young enough not to know any better.
The opening titles of ‘Andy Pandy’ were blocks which turned to reveal the title one letter at a time.
11 July marks 70 years since this classic British children’s television series was premiered. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. A revival of the show was made in 2002.
Initially the programmes were transmitted live, but it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. Twenty-six episodes of fifteen minutes duration were filmed on 16mm, and were produced around 1952; they were repeated continuously until 1969. In 1970, thirteen new episodes were made in colour with Vera McKechnie as narrator.
A marionette who lived in a picnic basket, Andy was later joined by the imaginatively named Teddy, a teddy bear, and Looby Loo, a rag doll, who would come to life when Andy and Teddy were not around. Looby Loo would sing the song Here we go Looby Loo. All three lived in the same picnic basket. Each episode ended with a variation on the song: “Time to go home, Time to go home, Andy is waving goodbye.”
It is claimed that the design for the character was based on Paul Atterbury, the then young son of the show’s puppeteer Audrey Atterbury.
https://galleryoldham.org.uk/andy-pandy-things-we-miss-or-dont-miss/
Join the discussion
0 people are already talking about this, why not let us know what you think?