Ivor Wood | |
---|---|
Born | Ivor Sydney Wood 4 May 1932 Leeds, West Yorkshire, England |
Died | 13 October 2004 72) London, England | (aged
Occupation(s) | Animator, director, producer, writer |
Years active | 1960–2004 |
Spouse | Josiane Wood |
Children | 1 |
Ivor Sydney Wood (4 May 1932 – 13 October 2004) was a prolific Anglo-French [1] [2] [3] animator, director, producer and writer. He was known for his work on children's television series. [4]
Born in Leeds to an English father and a French mother, his family moved to the mountains near Lyon, France, after the Second World War, where he was educated. [3] [5] He studied fine art in Paris, and later worked in an advertising agency in Paris, where he met Serge Danot. [1] [3] Together they made the acclaimed French series Le Manège enchanté (known in English as The Magic Roundabout ), with Wood as the animator. [6]
Following the success of The Magic Roundabout in the UK, Wood partnered with the London-based animation company FilmFair. [1] Wood became both animator and director for a number of FilmFair's animated children's programmes, starting with The Herbs in 1968. During the 1970s, he animated and directed Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings , Hattytown Tales , The Adventures of Parsley , The Wombles , and Paddington . [1]
Woodland Animations Ltd. was founded by Ivor Wood and his wife Josiane, specifically to produce stop-motion animated series for the BBC. The company produced a number of programmes, the earliest and most popular of which was Postman Pat .
Title | Year(s) | Notes | Format |
---|---|---|---|
Postman Pat | 1981, 1996 | Stop Motion | |
Gran | 1983 | Stop Motion | |
Bertha | 1985–1986 | Stop Motion | |
Charlie Chalk | 1988-1989 | Stop Motion | |
Postman Pat's ABC Story | 1990 | Co-produced with Abbey Broadcast Communications | Traditional |
Postman Pat's 123 Story | 1990 | Co-produced with Abbey Broadcast Communications | Traditional |
Read Along with Postman Pat | 1994 | Co-produced with Abbey Broadcast Communications | Traditional |
Wood died on 13 October 2004 at the age of 72.
Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, The Clangers, but it became dormant again in 2017, after production of the show was slightly changed. It was originally a partnership between Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. Several popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine. Another Smallfilms production, Bagpuss, came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite British children's programme of the 20th century.
The Magic Roundabout is an English-language children's programme that ran on BBC Television from 1965 to 1977.
Richard Oliver Postgate was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes. Bagpuss, Pingwings, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Pogles' Wood, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with collaborator, artist and puppet maker Peter Firmin. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC from the 1950s to the 1980s. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time.
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Cosgrove Hall Films was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, headquartered in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films, which are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc, on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series Danger Mouse, The Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula.
Fenella Fielding was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as "England's first lady of the double entendre". She was known for her seductive image and distinctively husky voice. Fielding appeared in two Carry On films, Carry On Regardless (1961) and Carry On Screaming! (1966).
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Serge Danot was a French animator and former advertising executive. He is best known for creating the animated series, Le Manège enchanté in 1964, which became known in its 1965 English-language version, written and narrated by actor Eric Thompson for the BBC as The Magic Roundabout.
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Enrique Nicanor is a film and TV producer/director, writer and designer best known for his works for public service broadcasting as Director of TVE-2, the Spanish Public TV and the creation of Caponata and Perezgil, the Spanish muppets of Sesame Street. He began as a designer and film animation Director in Cuba (1959). Based in Paris (1965) and Spain (1967) he was board member and President of INPUT-TV, The International Public TV Conference and Film trainer at EAVE, The European Producers' workshop and the European Commission Learning Network. Independent producer since 1988.
Events in 1940 in animation.
Joy Whitby is an English television executive, television, and radio producer who specialises in children's programmes and animated films.
Le Manège enchanté is a popular French animated children's television series of hundreds of episodes each five minutes long, which premiered on October 5, 1964, on the first channel of the ORTF. Serge Danot created the series.
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