Raymond Alan Whyberd was an English ventriloquist, television entertainer, and writer. His career spanned over half a century, though he was most popular from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the dummies Lord Charles and Ali Kat and later with the puppets Tich and Quackers.
Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran from 16 October 1972 until 6 March 1992, made by Thames Television. The series was revived by Tetra Films from 10 January 1994 until 24 March 1997, in two different formats from the original Thames Television series, with differing cast members. The series was originally conceived as a British equivalent of Sesame Street.
The Sooty Show is a British children's television series, created by Harry Corbett, and produced for the BBC from 1955 to 1967, and then for ITV from 1968 until 1992. The show, part of the Sooty franchise, focuses on the mischievous adventures of the glove puppet character of the same name, alongside his friends Sweep and Soo, and their handler. Between 1955 and 1975, Corbett presented the programme until his retirement, before it was taken over by his son Matthew Corbett. It also co-starred Marjorie Corbett as the voice of Soo from the character's debut in 1964, until her retirement in 1981, whereupon Brenda Longman replaced her.
Sweep is a British puppet and television character popular in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and other countries.
Matthew Corbett is an English former actor, singer, comedian, magician, puppeteer, television presenter, and writer, best known for presenting The Sooty Show and later Sooty and Co. He is the son of Sooty's creator, Harry Corbett, and took over the show from his father in 1976. He retired in 1998.
Harry Corbett OBE was an English magician, puppeteer and television presenter. He was best known as the creator of the glove puppet character Sooty in 1952.
Ronnie Le Drew is a Canadian-born British puppeteer who was born in Toronto, Canada. He is best known for playing "Zippy" from the ITV children's show Rainbow since the early 1970s and trained at the Little Angel Theatre, London under John Wright. His association with the Little Angel spans over thirty years as performer, and later as director.
Sooty Heights is a British children's television series, created and presented by Richard Cadell, co-stars Liana Bridges and Brenda Longman, produced by Granada Television, and aired on the CITV block of ITV from 27 September 1999 to 11 December 2000. It is the successor to the children's series Sooty & Co and the first programme to feature Cadell as Sooty's right-hand man, following the retirement of Matthew Corbett in 1998. The show focuses on Sooty, Sweep, Soo, Scampi, Richard, and Liana running their new home and business place, the Sooty Heights hotel. The programme operated on the same sitcom format first used by The Sooty Show, and retained some elements from the previous show such as Sooty's camper van and the characters' bedroom.
Soo is a British glove puppet and TV character from the show Sooty and first appeared in 1964 as the girlfriend of Sooty. Soo is an intelligent, calm and collected female panda who acts as the foil for both Sooty and Sweep. In the second and Third 2001-2004 TV series she became stroppy and bossy.
Richard Coombs is a British puppeteer who has worked extensively on television shows, feature films, commercials, and music videos. From 1987 to 1988, he worked on the ITV Saturday morning children's show, Get Fresh, where he operated the puppet Gilbert the Alien, alongside fellow puppeteer John Eccleston, with the character's voice performed by Phil Cornwell.
Sooty is a British children's television series, created and presented by Richard Cadell, and premiered on CITV on 5 November 2001, running for three series. The programme is the fourth programme in the franchise of the same name, and replaced Sooty Heights, with Cadell supported by co-presenter Vicki Lee Taylor, and Brenda Longman during the first series, and Sheila Clark for the remaining series. The programme focuses on the exploits of the titular character and his puppet friends in their running of the hotel, and features many elements used in previous programmes. The show saw the return of a puppet character from the franchise, as well as the creation of a new character.
Richard Cadell is a British illusionist, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter, best known for being the in-vision presenter and the hand of puppet Sooty since succeeding Matthew Corbett in 1998.
Liana Bridges is a British actress and presenter. Best known for co-presenting Sooty & Co. with Matthew Corbett and Richard Cadell in 1998, and Sooty Heights with Richard Cadell from 1999 to 2000.
Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in The Sooty Show in 1955. The main character, Sooty, is a mute yellow bear with black ears and nose, who is kind-hearted but also cheeky. Sooty performs magic tricks and practical jokes, and squirts his handler and other people with his water pistol. The franchise itself also includes several other puppet characters who were created for television, as well as an animated series, two spin-off series for the direct-to-video market, and a selection of toy merchandising.
Sooty's Amazing Adventures is a short-lived animated spin off series of the Sooty franchise which aired from 1997 to 1998. In this incarnation, he is a fully bodied bear free from the puppeteer's hand.
Learn with Sooty! is a series of educational videos produced from 1989 to 1991, based on the British children's television series The Sooty Show. It features the glove puppet characters Sooty, Sweep and Soo, and follows them in their many mischievous adventures. Learn with Sooty! is presented by Matthew Corbett.
Sooty is a British children's slapstick television series that aired on CITV and the Mini CITV block from September 2011 to October 2018. It was later rerun on ITVBe's "Little Be" strand. It was the fifth such incarnation of the series to feature the titular character Sooty, following the previous series which ended in 2004. It is also the first since presenter Richard Cadell bought the licensing rights to the brand in 2008. This programme focuses on the storyline of the titular character, two of his puppet friends, and the presenter starting a new life running a holiday park known as Slater’s Holiday Park based at a British coastal resort. A fourth series has been commissioned and will now be produced by the ITV network itself. It is unknown yet when filming will begin.
Marjorie Corbett was a British stage, voice actress, puppeteer, and film actress, she was the wife of Sooty's creator, Harry Corbett.
Phil Fletcher is a British puppeteer. He established his puppet manufacturing and performance company, Gluvets, at the age of 11. After briefly working in manufacturing he found summer work performing in holiday camps and became a full-time puppeteer in 2002. In 2009 he was cast by the BBC as the puppeteer for Hacker T Dog for continuity segments on the CBBC Channel. Fletcher gave Hacker a voice for the first time and the character proved popular, receiving his own 63-episode TV series, Hacker Time, which was nominated for eight BAFTAs. From 2017 Fletcher voiced Sweep in Sooty and from 2021 has appeared as Larry the Lizard on Buffering.
