This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2021) |
Come Outside | |
---|---|
Genre | Children's Educational Comedy |
Created by | Elizabeth Bennett Ronald Smedley |
Directed by | Elizabeth Bennett Peter Rose Barbara Roddam |
Starring | Lynda Baron Pippin Mr. Higgins |
Composer | Jonathan Cohen |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 3 |
No. of episodes | 40 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Judy Whitfield Stacey Adams Anne Brogan |
Producer | Elizabeth Bennett |
Production location | Greater London & Buckinghamshire |
Editors | David Austin Jon Bignold |
Camera setup | Graham Latter Lee Pulbrook Jeremy Braben |
Running time | 14 minutes |
Production companies | Spelthorne Productions (Series 1) Tricorn Productions (Series 2–3) |
Release | |
Original network | BBC Two |
Original release | 23 September 1993 – 18 March 1997 |
Come Outside is a British educational children's television series that ran from 23 September 1993 to 18 March 1997, presented by and starring Lynda Baron as Auntie Mabel and her dog 'Pippin'.
The series aims to encourage young children to learn about the world around them. The starting point for each programme is something with which children may already be familiar, such as: wood, paper, boots, spiders, buses, soap and lampposts.
The two main characters are Auntie Mabel (played by Lynda Baron), and her dog Pippin, who was initially played by a female dog also called Pippin and later by the dog's grandson Mr Higgins. A feature of Come Outside is Auntie Mabel's unusual mode of transport: a small aeroplane (a Slingsby T67 Firefly) with multi-coloured polka dots.
Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 23 September 1993 | 2 December 1993 | 11 |
2 | 22 September 1994 | 9 March 1995 | 19 |
3 | 7 January 1997 | 18 March 1997 | 10 |
Pippin was a mixed-breed dog, half Tibetan Terrier, half Bearded Collie, roughly third generation descended from the famous American acting dog Benji and was owned and trained by the award-winning animal trainer Ann Head. Pippin was quite old at the start of the first series in 1993 and so she performed the slower but more complex moves while her grandson, Mr. Higgins, performed any physically demanding actions.
Pippin retired at the end of Series 1 and Mr. Higgins took over the role of 'Pippin' entirely for Series 2 and 3. Mr. Higgins also starred as the Bakers dog for Bakers Complete pet food commercials and is still pictured on the products. He died in 2008 of old age while his grandmother, the original Pippin, died in the late 1990s.
Many other animals took part in Come Outside. Specially-shot footage included snails from London Zoo, frogs at Chester Zoo, geese at Folly Farm in Gloucestershire, rabbits at Tilgate Nature Centre in West Sussex, butterflies in the Butterfly Centre, Eastbourne, hedgehogs supplied by St. Tiggywinkles Animal Hospital and spiders from a private collection. In addition archive shots were provided by the BBC's Natural History Film Library in Bristol.
Elizabeth Bennett created the format and characters, wrote the scripts, directed many of the programmes and produced all three series.
Two different production companies were involved. Series 1 was made by Spelthorne Productions, which has since closed; Series 2 and 3 were made by Elizabeth Bennett's production company Tricorn Associates.
Aerial views of the various locations visited by Auntie Mabel were shot by Jeremy Braben.
Series 1 was set in a cottage on the corner of Denham Airfield in Buckinghamshire, and was used to provide the exterior shots of Auntie Mabel's house. She would come out of the house, walk through the back garden and on to the airfield to climb into her aeroplane (A 1989 Slingsby T67C Firefly registered G-RAFG). The interiors were shot at Capital Studios in Wandsworth, South West London. Chronologically, this series takes place after Series 2 & 3.
Series 2 was shot entirely on location, including the interiors of Auntie Mabel's house, with the exception of the bathroom in the Spiders episode which was shot in a studio. The cottage at Denham Airfield was occupied and so a new location had to be found. An empty cottage on some farmland in Harefield, Middlesex was rented. To allow for the change of location to be incorporated into the show's continuity, a programme about moving house was shot to link the two locations, which makes the first series the third chronologically. The plane (now a 1988 Slingsby T67C Firefly registered G-BOCM) was kept in a field nearby.
Series 3 was commissioned two years later and was also shot at the cottage in Harefield. A much older plane (A 1983 Slingsby T67M Firefly registered G-SFTZ) was used, now featuring a spiralled propeller
In every episode Mabel ventures outside and this involved shooting in many locations in the United Kingdom, such as a pencil factory in Keswick, the manufacture of Wellington boots in Dumfries, a pottery in Stoke, growing bulbs and attending the annual flower parade in Spalding, Lincolnshire and making brushes in Portsmouth.
Sometimes Auntie Mabel's adventures stayed closer to home. For example the episode "Buses", was filmed around the Ruislip area of North London. Scenes were also shot in Woodley, Berkshire, in the retail precinct and in the veterinary clinic.
In the episode "Marmalade" Auntie Mabel flies to Seville to visit an orange grove. Shooting was restricted to the one day on which the oranges were ready for harvesting. This was only known with very short notice and consequently arrangements to fly out were made at the last minute. It happened well outside the main production period by which time Lynda Baron was committed to other work and was not free to travel to Seville. To make it appear that Aunt Mabel had visited the orange grove, she was recorded in the studio against a Chroma key background while a body double was used for reverse angle shots of her in Spain.
Animation sequences for stories, songs and skits was done by Penny Holten, Touch Animation, Really Animated Pictures and Ealing Animation (occasionally).
The episode entitled Bricks won the Royal Television Society Educational Television Award 1997 in the Pre-school and Infants category. [2]
The BBC issued a collection on VHS tapes in the early 2000s, later released on DVD. The complete series is now available in a DVD box set. The BBC also released a collection of DVDs with booklets and notes not intended for home use but instead for use in schools and other educational purposes.
A selection of books were issued by the BBC in the mid 1990s based on the episodes.
Press Gang is a British children's television comedy drama consisting of 43 episodes across five series that were broadcast from 1989 to 1993. It was produced by Richmond Film & Television for Central, and screened on the ITV network in its regular weekday afternoon children's strand, CITV, typically in a 4:45 pm slot.
Firefly is an American space Western drama television series, created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as an executive producer, along with Tim Minear. The series is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon pitched the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things."
Open All Hours is a British television sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. It ran for 26 episodes in four series, which aired in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985. The programme was developed from a television pilot broadcast in Ronnie Barker's Seven of One (1973) comedy anthology series. Open All Hours ranked eighth in the 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom poll. A sequel, titled Still Open All Hours, aired from 2013 to 2019.
Petticoat Junction is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Betty Jo; and her uncle Joe Carson. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters produced by Paul Henning. Petticoat Junction was created upon the success of Henning's previous rural/urban-themed sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). The success of Petticoat Junction led to a spin-off, Green Acres (1965–1971). Petticoat Junction was produced by Filmways, Inc.
The Upper Hand is a British television sitcom with dramatic elements broadcast by ITV from 1 May 1990 to 14 October 1996. The programme was adapted from the American sitcom Who's the Boss?
Higgins was an American dog actor, one of the well known animal actors during the 1960s and 1970s. He is most remembered for his roles as the original Benji film, and the uncredited dog from Petticoat Junction, two of the most popular roles he played during a 14-year career in show business.
Budgie the Little Helicopter is a British animated television series, relating to a fictional helicopter and his friends, based on a series of children's books. The characters were based on the books by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. The show was co-produced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin, The Sleepy Kids Company and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York for HTV West and Scottish Television, and originally aired on British television in 1994 on CITV, where it ran for 39 episodes. A range of videos, books, and toys were released under the Budgie label.
Lilian Ridgway, known professionally as Lynda Baron, was an English actress and singer. She is known for having played Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC sitcom Open All Hours (1976–1985) and its sequel, Still Open All Hours (2013–2016), Auntie Mabel in the award-winning children's series Come Outside (1993–1997), and the part of Linda Clarke in EastEnders in 2006 and from 2008 to 2009, with a brief return in 2016.
Keen Eddie is an American action, comedy-drama television series that aired on Fox from June 3 to July 24, 2003. The series was originally scheduled to premiere during the 2002–03 television season, but was postponed and premiered as a summer replacement in June 2003. Fox canceled the series, pulling it from the schedule after airing seven episodes. The remaining six episodes debuted on the American cable network Bravo and began airing in January 2004.
Woof! is a British children's television series produced by Central Independent Television about the adventures of a boy who shapeshifts into a dog. It was based on the book by Allan Ahlberg. It was directed by David Cobham with the screenplay by Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss who novelized the second, third and fourth series as Woof! The Tale Wags On, Woof! The Tale Gets Longer and Woof! A Twist in the Tale respectively.
Second Thoughts is a British comedy television programme that ran from 3 May 1991 to 14 October 1994. It was broadcast on the ITV network and made by the ITV company LWT. It was followed by a sequel, Faith in the Future. Second Thoughts followed the lives of two middle-aged divorcees, Bill MacGregor and Faith Greyshott, from very different backgrounds trying to develop a relationship, despite the pressures pulling it apart.
North & South is a British television historical drama programme, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in four episodes on BBC One in November and December 2004. It follows the story of Margaret Hale, a young woman from southern England who has to move to the North after her father decides to leave the clergy. The family struggles to adjust itself to the industrial town's customs, especially after meeting the Thorntons, a proud family of cotton mill owners who at first seem to despise their social inferiors. The story explores the issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers clashes with her growing attraction to John Thornton.
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends is a British animated anthology television series based on the works of Beatrix Potter, featuring Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphic animal characters created by Potter. 14 of Potter's stories were adapted into 9 films, and the series was originally shown in the U.K. on the BBC between 20 December 1992 and 25 December 1998. It was subsequently broadcast in the U.S. on Family Channel between 23 October 1992 and 23 October 1995. For the initial VHS releases, some of the characters' voices were dubbed-over by actors with more American-like accents.
"The Second Time Around" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the fourth episode of series 1, and was first broadcast on 29 September 1981. In the episode, an old fiancée of Del's returns and they rekindle their relationship, to Rodney and Grandad's horror.
"Thou Shalt Not Kill" is the premiere episode of the British television series Spooks. It first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2002. The episode was written by series creator David Wolstencroft and directed by Bharat Nalluri. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" focuses on MI5's activities in stopping an anti-abortion group who have smuggled 20 explosive devices to be used against family planning doctors. The episode title is a reference to the sixth Commandment.
Dogs Is Dogs is a 1931 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Robert F. McGowan. It was the 110th Our Gang short to be released.
Carrie's War is an adaptation of Nina Bawden's book Carrie's War, broadcast from 28 January 1974 to 25 February 1974 on BBC1 in five 30-minute episodes.
The Coroner is a BBC Birmingham drama series starring Claire Goose as Jane Kennedy, a coroner based in a fictional South Devon coastal town. Matt Bardock stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins.