A Rubovian Legend

Last updated

A Rubovian Legend is a British children's television series created by Gordon Murray. It centers around a fictional kingdom ruled by King Rufus XIV and Queen Caroline, assisted by Albert Weatherspoon and the Lord Chamberlain.

Contents

Premise

The show takes place within a small, fictitious kingdom named Rubovia, ruled by King Rufus XIV and Queen Caroline. Due to its small size, Rubovia is easily managed, with a chicken named Henrietta, who lays golden eggs, negating the need for high taxes. This means that the King and Queen can focus on problems created by Albert Weatherspoon, the latter of which is officially the Royal Gardner, tending to Queen Caroline's prized cabbages. Whenever Rufus needs him to entertain a visitor, such as King Boris of nearby Borsovia, or solve a problem, he creates most of the problems faced in each episode attempting to use magic. [1]

Weatherspoon is also a keen inventor, having created the speaking tube, and any Royal Command, given by the Lord Chamberlain, that does not require use of magic will involve it. In those cases, Weatherspoon is not the cause of the problem, sometimes even being successful in solving it. These are usually caused by an Indian named MacGregor, who spends a lot of time outside the garden wall, plotting schemes for personal reasons. [2] While Queen Caroline does not usually ask for Weatherspoon's help, she does dabble in various get-rich-quick plans of her own. [1]

Main characters

Production

Created by Gordon Murray, who wanted to break the mold of British puppet shows, [5] the first four plays were transmitted live from 1955 to 1956. They featured the voices of Raymond Rollett, Violet Lamb and Peter Hawkins, with Philip Latham in the first play. Kim Allen designed the puppets used in this series, which were 1/5 in size, [6] and they were operated by Audrey Atterbury, Bob Bura, John Hardwick, Molly Gibson, Elizabeth Thorndike and Joan Garrick. Each of these three plays had a different settings and costume designer, with Gordon Roland for the first, The Queen’s Dragon, and Donald Horne for Clocks and Blocks. The third play, The Dragon’s Hiccups, marked the debut of costume designer Andrew Brownfoot's involvement with the series, designing every subsequent episode, although not being the main designer for this play. [6] After The Mystery of Rubovia Castle, Gordon decided to revamp, designing his own, 1/3 scale puppets.

In 1958 the first of twenty-five new, recorded plays were broadcast, sporadically running until 1964. Only Violet reprised her role from the previous plays, with Derek Nimmo, Roy Skelton and James Beattie now providing voices. Molly Gibson, Elizabeth Thorndike and Joan Garrick also left, leaving Audrey Atterbury, Bob Bura and John Hardwick as the only three puppeteers. Gordon would sometimes fund the plays himself if BBC budget was too low. Andrew based his model of Rubovia Castle from Bohemia and Moravia. During filming of the first of these plays, a remake of Clocks and Blocks, the castle prop was damaged by an electric cable. [6] A twenty-sixth play, entitled The Giddy Ghost, was never broadcast, due to colour television being just a few weeks away, with the BBC abandoning many of its black-and-white programmes. [7]

Like many BBC programmes of the 1950s and 1960s, little of A Rubovian Legend survives in the archive, save for a four-minute clip of the 1961 episode Knight for a Day which appeared in a 1988 episode of DEF II hosted by Stephen Fry. [8]

Episodes

Series 1 (1955-1956)

Series 2 (1958-1964)

1976 series

1976 revival

In 1976, following the success of Gordon Murray's Trumptonshire trilogy, A Rubovian Legend was remade in a similar style, simply renamed Rubovia, and vastly watered down in its writing compared to its predecessor. [9] Gordon himself, as well as Roy Skelton provided the voices. Although thought lost, all six episodes have shown up on YouTube from time to time. An LP containing the soundtracks of two episodes was released by BBC Records. It is rumoured the castle seen in Gordon's later series The Gublins is the same used here. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Greenwood</span> Canadian fantasy writer and game designer

Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maleficent</span> Main antagonist from Disneys 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty

Maleficent is a fictional character who first appears in Walt Disney Productions' animated film, Sleeping Beauty (1959). Maleficent is the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" based on the evil fairy godmother character in Charles Perrault's fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, as well as the villainess who appears in the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the story, Little Briar Rose. Maleficent was originally animated by Marc Davis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardwight Chamberlain</span> American voice actor and screen writer

Ardwight Chamberlain is an American voice actor and screen writer currently living in Los Angeles, California. He is best known as the voice of Vorlon Ambassador Kosh on the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. He has also written a number of episodes for the animated TV show Digimon: Digital Monsters, has appeared on the game show Jeopardy!, and has written and provided voices for the English dubbed versions of several Japanese anime.

<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> (TV series) 1983 animated television series

Dungeons & Dragons is an American animated television series based on TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is a co-production of Marvel Productions and TSR, with the Japanese Toei Animation. It ran on CBS from 1983 through 1985 for three seasons, for a total of twenty-seven episodes.

<i>Dave the Barbarian</i> Animated television series

Dave the Barbarian is an American animated television series created by Doug Langdale for Disney Channel. The show centers on a barbarian named Dave and his friends and family, who go on surreal Medieval-themed adventures. The series premiered on January 23, 2004, and ended on January 22, 2005, with a total of one season with 21 episodes.

<i>Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders</i> Television series

Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, also known outside of North America as Starla & the Jewel Riders and sometimes spelled as the more traditionally Arthurian "Guinevere", is an American fantasy animated television series aimed at a pre-teen girl audience and produced by Bohbot Entertainment in association with Hong Ying Animation Company Limited. It was internationally syndicated by Bohbot on their syndicated Amazin' Adventures block, where it originally ran from 1995 to 1996, with two seasons and twenty-six episodes.

Robert Rackstraw is an English voice actor who has worked in various animated films, television shows and video games.

<i>Fushigi no Kuni no Alice</i> Japanese anime television series

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice is an anime adaptation of the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which ran on the TV Tokyo network and other local television stations across Japan from October 10, 1983 to March 26, 1984. The television series was a Japanese-German co-production between Nippon Animation and Apollo Films. The television series consists of 52 episodes. however, only 26 made it to the United States.

Gordon Murray was a British television producer and puppeteer. He created and wrote some of the most repeated children's television programmes ever seen in Britain. Camberwick Green, Trumpton, and Chigley, collectively known as the Trumptonshire Trilogy, were all produced by the company he founded.

David Stuart is a Canadian actor, best known for his work as Pete in the SupernaturalSeason 7 episode The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo.

Stories involving the mythical wizard Merlin have been popular since the Renaissance, especially with the renewed interest in the legend of King Arthur in modern times. As noted by Arthurian scholar Alan Lupack, "numerous novels, poems and plays center around Merlin. In American literature and popular culture, Merlin is perhaps the most frequently portrayed Arthurian character."

<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i> DreamWorks Animation media franchise

How to Train Your Dragon (HTTYD) is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous series of children's books by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). The franchise also contains five short films: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010), Book of Dragons (2011), Gift of the Night Fury (2011), Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019). A live-action remake from Universal Pictures is in development and scheduled for release on June 13, 2025.

Dragons, commonly referred to as DreamWorks Dragons, is an American animated television series based on the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon. The series serves as a bridge between the first film and its 2014 sequel.

<i>Wallykazam!</i> American animated TV series

Wallykazam! is an American CGI interactive children's animated television series created by Adam Peltzman for Nickelodeon. The series was first broadcast on February 3, 2014 on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block and ended on September 16, 2017. In Canada, it was broadcast on Treehouse TV. In December 2020, the entire series was added to Paramount+.

<i>Lego Elves</i> Lego theme

Lego Elves was a Lego product line produced by The Lego Group that was launched in 2015. The product line was based on the storyline of accompanying animated series on Disney Channel, the Lego YouTube channel, and Netflix which follow the adventures of a character named Emily Jones who travels to a magical land called Elvendale. The theme aimed to introduce a fantasy element to girl-focused Lego products. It was discontinued in 2018.

<i>The Legend of Vox Machina</i> 2022 fantasy animated series

The Legend of Vox Machina is an American adult animated fantasy action television series produced by Metapigeon, Titmouse, Inc., and Amazon Studios, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on January 28, 2022. The series is based on the first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role. It stars Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, reprising their roles from the campaign.

<i>My Little Pony: Make Your Mark</i> Animated streaming television series

My Little Pony: Make Your Mark is a Canadian animated television series tied to the fifth incarnation of Hasbro's My Little Pony toyline. Set after the events of the film My Little Pony: A New Generation (2021), the series follows five ponies—Sunny Starscout, an idealistic earth pony; Izzy Moonbow, a creative unicorn; Hitch Trailblazer, a responsible earth pony; and sisters Zipp Storm and Pipp Petals, two pegasi princesses—on their adventures and battles across Equestria. The ponies are joined later on by Misty Brightdawn, a shy unicorn and former associate of the series' antagonist, the villainous alicorn Opaline Arcana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erika Ishii</span> American voice actor (born 1987)

Erika Ishii is an American voice actor and host. They are best known as the voice of video game characters such as Valkyrie in Apex Legends, and for their appearances in actual play web series including L.A. by Night and Dimension 20.

<i>DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms</i> 2020s American animated TV series

DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms is an American animated television series in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise produced by the DreamWorks Animation under DreamWorks Animation Television for Hulu and Peacock. The series serves as a spin-off from the original animated trilogy. The voice cast consists of Jeremy Shada, Ashley Liao, Marcus Scribner, Aimee Garcia, Vincent Tong, Julia Stiles, Lauren Tom, Keston John, Angelique Cabral, Justina Machado, Pavar Snipe, Carrie Keranen, and Haley Joel Osment.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Rubovian History - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Rubovia - Dragon Doctor". YouTube . Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  3. ↑ "Rupert of Rubovia - King for a Day". YouTube . Retrieved 19 May 2023. Actually A Rubovian Legend - Knight for a Day.
  4. ↑ "The True History of the Speaking Tube - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "A Rubovian Legend (The Marionette Series) Production - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  6. 1 2 3 "Settings and Costumes - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  7. ↑ "F.A.Q. - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "A Rubovian Legend Episode Guide - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  9. ↑ "Rubovia (The Stop Motion Series) Production - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  10. ↑ "Picture Gallery: 1976 - Realm of Rubovia" . Retrieved 19 May 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.