Hector's House facts for kids

Hector's House (called La Maison de Toutou in France) was a popular French children's TV show. It used special glove puppets to tell its stories. The show first aired in France on October 27, 1966. It had seven series and a total of 78 episodes!

Later, the show was translated into English and shown on BBC One in the UK starting September 9, 1968. It was repeated many times throughout the 1970s. Each episode was short, only 5 minutes long. It often played just before 6 PM, right when children's programs usually ended for the day.

Georges Croses wrote and performed the show. Other puppeteers, Agnès Vannier and Georges Tournaire, helped bring the characters to life. The puppets were about 60 centimeters (about 2 feet) tall and acted on a garden set. The English version followed the French stories very closely.

Meet the Characters of Hector's House

The show features three main characters who live in or visit Hector's lovely garden.

Hector the Dog

Hector is a friendly dog, though sometimes a bit proud. He lives in a house with a beautiful garden. He loves gardening and fixing things, and his tool shed is always nearby. Hector likes things to be neat and calm. He's always thinking of ways to make his garden or himself better.

Zsazsa the Cat

Zsazsa the cat lives with Hector. She's like a mother figure but also loves to play tricks!

Kiki the Frog

Kiki the frog is a neighbor. She often visits the garden by hopping through a hole in the wall. Kiki likes to say she can predict the weather.

In the original French show, Zsazsa was called Zouzou, and Hector was called Toutou, which means "Doggie."

Fun in the Garden

Hector is usually happy to help his friends. But sometimes, their plans don't quite match his own. Kiki and Zsazsa often play jokes on Hector. But he always takes it well and laughs along. At the end of each episode, Hector would look right at the camera and say his famous line: "I'm a great big [whatever he was] old Hector." This is called "breaking the fourth wall" because it's like he's talking directly to you, the viewer!

Even though the show is named after Hector's house, almost all the stories happen in the garden. You only see inside the house through its open windows. The humor in the show is a bit like the old silent comedies of Jacques Tati. He was a French actor who often played characters who seemed a little out of place in their surroundings.

Who Made the Voices?

The show didn't have many credits at the end. It just had a short theme song with bird sounds.

French Voice Actors

• Toutou (Hector) was voiced by Jacques Morel.
• Zouzou (Zsazsa) was voiced by Lucie Dolène.
• Kiki was voiced by puppeteer Agnes Vannier.

English Voice Actors

• Hector was voiced by Paul Bacon.
• Kiki was voiced by Denise Bryer. She also voiced characters in other famous shows like Noddy, Terrahawks, and the movie Labyrinth.
• For a while, people thought Joanna Lumley voiced Zsazsa because her voice sounded similar. But she has said that it wasn't her!

Show Music

The catchy theme music for Hector's House was created by fr:Francis Lai. There were actually two different versions of the song used over time.

Episodes of Hector's House

There were 78 episodes of Hector's House in total. When the BBC showed the episodes in the UK, they didn't always show them in the same order as they were first broadcast in France.

Here are a few examples from the first series: