Flower Pot Men facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Flower Pot Men
Still from original BBC series, with Little Weed centre
Created by	Freda Lingstrom
Starring	Peter Hawkins John Thomson Jimmy Hibbert Eve Karpf
Narrated by	Maria Bird (1952 version) John Thomson
Opening theme	Bill and Ben Theme (2001)
Ending theme	Bill and Ben Theme (different version; 2001)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	78
Production
Producer(s)	Francis Vose
Running time	14–16 minutes (Watch with Mother) 10 minutes (reboot)
Production company(s)	Original series BBC 2001 reboot Cosgrove Hall Films BBC Worldwide Ben Productions LLC
Release
Original network	BBC Television Service CBeebies
Original release	15:45, 12 December 1952 (1952-12-12T15:45) – 4 September 2002 (2002-09-04)

Flower Pot Men was a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years. A reboot of the show called Bill and Ben was produced in 2001.

Original series

Originally, the programme was part of a BBC children's television series titled Watch with Mother, featuring a different programme each weekday, most of them involving string puppets. The Flower Pot Men was the story of Bill and Ben, two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. The characters were devised by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird in the 1950s. These characters should not be confused for another set of Bill and Ben characters featured on Lingstrom's earlier radio show Listen with Mother, initially broadcast in 1950. Rights to the stories were later sold to Ben Productions, successfully transferring the radio programme to television. The puppeteers were Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson. The voices and other noises were produced by Peter Hawkins, Gladys Whitred and Julia Williams. The narration in all episodes was done by Maria Bird.

The plot changed little in each episode and always took place in a garden, behind a potting shed. A third character, Little Weed, of indeterminate species resembling either a sunflower or a dandelion with a smiling face, was shown growing between two large flowerpots. The three were also sometimes visited by a tortoise called Slowcoach and, in one particular episode, the trio met a faintly mysterious character made out of potatoes, Dan the potato man. Typically, while the "man who worked in the garden" would be away eating lunch, the two Flower Pot Men, Bill and Ben, would emerge from their pots. After a minor adventure, a slight mishap would occur, for which someone would then take the blame: "Which of these two flower pot men, was it Bill or was it Ben?" the narrator would trill in a quavering soprano; the culprit would then confess, before the gardener's footsteps would be heard coming up the garden path; the Flower Pot Men then would vanish into their pots and the "Goodbye" screen would appear. The final punch-line was, "..and I think the little house knew something about it; don't you?".

The Flower Pot Men spoke their own, highly inflected version of English, called Oddle Poddle, invented by prolific voice artist Peter Hawkins (who also provided speech for the daleks in Doctor Who and Captain Pugwash). "Ickle-kickle", for instance, was an icicle and Ben would say "Flobabdob!". At the end of each adventure, they would say bye-bye to each other and to the Little Weed – "Babap, Ickle Weed!" – to which the Weed would inevitably reply, with tremulous cadence, "Weeeeeeeeeeed!". This language, like that of the Teletubbies' in 1997, was criticised for hindering children from learning proper English.

2001 reboot

On 4 January 2001, a reboot named Bill and Ben began on CBBC on BBC Two, this time involving stop-motion animation, 35mm film style and full colour, and made by Cosgrove Hall Films with a team of ten animators. This reboot features the voices of John Thomson (who also serves as the narrator), Jimmy Hibbert, and Eve Karpf. The series aired in Ireland on RTEjr and formerly aired on CBeebies in 2002–2008.

Many additions were implemented:

• A mean female rosebush with two talking buds in the neighbour's garden named Rose.
• A mischievous female prickly plant named Thistle.
• A female magpie named Pry, obsessed by shiny treasure, often just every bottle cap.
• A male hedgehog named Boo.
• A tortoise named Slowcoach remains in the series, with few changes to his characteristics. He gets angry at Bill & Ben for ruining his things, but mostly, for messing around.
• A male frog named Tad.
• A female squirrel named Scamper.
• A male baby squirrel named Scuff. He is Scamper's baby nephew.
• A female spider named Whimsy.
• A male earthworm named Whoops.
• A male talking tomato named Ketchup.
• Another male tortoise called Lightning. He is Slowcoach's brother.
• Bill and Ben's voice tones have switched; Bill now has the deep-toned voice, while Ben now has the high-toned voice.
• Weed no longer just says her name; she speaks normal English, playing an "earth mother" role to Bill and Ben and often assisting them.

Comics

The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.

Episodes

Flower Pot Men (1952–1953)

1. "Seeds" (18 December 1952)
2. "Musical Vegetables" (25 December 1952)
3. "Cabbages" (1 January 1953)
4. "The Potato Man" (8 January 1953)
5. "Tiny Men" (15 January 1953)
6. "Stickmen" (22 January 1953)
7. "Shavings Men" (29 January 1953)
8. "Stilts" (5 February 1953)
9. "Steamroller" (12 February 1953)
10. "Scarecrow" (19 February 1953)
11. "Slowcoach Flies" (26 February 1953)
12. "Mud Pies" (5 March 1953)
13. "Bath in Hat" (12 March 1953)
14. "Babies" (19 March 1953)
15. "Babies Grow Up" (26 March 1953)
16. "Live Chicks" (2 April 1953)
17. "Icicles" (9 April 1953)
18. "Boot Race" (16 April 1953)
19. "Acrobats" (22 April 1953)
20. "Bellows" (29 April 1953)
21. "Water Lilies" (6 May 1953)
22. "Turnip Faces" (13 May 1953)
23. "Umbrella" (20 May 1953)
24. "Fairy Queen" (27 May 1953)
25. "Weathercock" (3 June 1953)
26. "Flying Boots" (10 June 1953)

Bill and Ben series 1 (2001–2002)

Bill and Ben series 2 (2001–2002)