The Day of the Jackal (1973)

The Day of the Jackal the 1973 Anglo-French film, set in August 1963 was based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Directed by Fred Zinnemann and starred Edward Fox as the assassin known only as "The Jackal" who is hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle.

The film opens with the recreation of an actual event, the assassination attempt on the President of France, Charles de Gaulle, on 22 August 1962, by the militant French underground organisation OAS in anger over the French government's decision to give independence to Algeria. The group, led by Jean Bastien Thiry, raked de Gaulle's car, an unarmoured Citroen DS, with machine gun fire in the Paris suburb of Petit - Clamart, but the entire entourage escaped without injury. Within six months, Bastien-Thiry and several other members of the plot were caught and executed.

The remaining OAS leadership decides to make another attempt, and hires a professional assassin who chooses the code name The Jackal (Edward Fox). He demands half a million US dollars for his services, so to raise the Jackal's fee, OAS members rob several banks. Meanwhile, the Jackal commissions a rifle disguised as a crutch and fake identity papers. (Notably, he spares the reliable gunsmith but murders the forger who tries to blackmail him.) In Paris, he sneaks an impression of the key to a flat that overlooks a large square (where de Gaulle will make an appearance on Liberation Day).

The French service d'Action Civique (referred to throughout as the Action Service) identify and kidnap the OAS chief clerk, Adjutant Viktor Wolenski (Jean Martin) in Italy. They use torture to extract some elements of the plot, including the word "Jackal", before Wolenski dies.

Interior Minister (Alan Badel) convenes a secret cabinet. The police commissioner recommends the brilliant detective deputy commissioner Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale). He will have any resources he needs but must avoid publicity. One of the cabinet members, named St. Clair, unsuspectingly discloses the government's knowledge of the plot to his new mistress (Olga Georges Picot), an OAS palnt who immediately passes this information on to her contact.

Lebel uses an old boy network of police agencies in other countries to determine that suspect "Charles Calthrop" may be travelling under the name "Paul Oliver Duggan" and that Duggan has entered France.

The Jackal decides to carry on with his plan despite the fact that his code name is known. He meets and seduces Colette de Montpellier (Delphine Seyrig) in a Grasse hotel. Slipping away before Lebel arrives, he steals a Peugeot 404 that collided with his Alpha Romeo Guilietta and drives it to Madame de Montpellier's estate. After sleeping with her again and discovering that the police had talked to her, he strangles her. The Jackal then assumes a new identity as a bespectacled Dane, using a stolen passport. He drives Madame de Montpellier's Renault Caravelle to a station and catches a train for Paris.

Once the lady's servants discover her corpse and her car is recovered at the train station, Lebel is able to make an open manhunt for a murderer. But the Jackal makes it to Paris, slips into a cab and, avoiding hotels now, goes to a bath house, where he allows himself to be picked up by a man and taken to the man's flat.

At a meeting with the assembled cabinet, Lebel plays the tape of a phone call made from the house of one of the cabinet members. The cabinet hears St. Clair's mistress passing along information about the manhunt to her OAS contact. St. Clair acknowledges that the call was made from his house and leaves in disgrace. Another cabinet member asks Lebel how he knew which phone to tap, to which he replies that he didn't, so he tapped them all.

Lebel further reveals that the Jackal will most likely attempt to shoot de Gaulle in three days, when the president will make several appearances for Liberation Day.

Meanwhile, the Jackal kills the man who picked him up at the bathhouse after a television news flash reveals him to be wanted for murder.

On Liberation Day, the Jackal, disguised as an elderly veteran amputee, shows his forged papers and is allowed through to enter the apartment building he had cased earlier. He takes up a position at the window of the upper apartment. De Gaulle enters the square to present medals to veterans of the Resistance.

Lebel meets the policeman who met the disguised Jackal and becomes alarmed. As de Gaulle presents the first medal, the Jackal shoots but the bullet misses him because at that moment the president leans over to kiss the recipient on the cheek. Lebel and the policeman burst in to the room, the Jackal turns and shoots the policeman, Lebel uses the policeman's MAT-49 submachine gun to kill the Jackal as he tries to re-load his rifle.

Back in Britain, the real — and completely unrelated to the case — Charles Calthrop (Edward Hardwicke) walks in on the police in his flat. As the Jackal's coffin is lowered into a grave, the authorities wonder, "But if the Jackal wasn't Calthrop, then who the hell was he?"

The film was expensive to produce, as it was filmed in numerous locations throughout Europe. The French government was extremely helpful in the filming of the movie, providing soldiers and use of exclusive locations for the filming of the final Liberation Day sequence. Fred Zinnemann wrote that Adrian Cayla-Legrand, the actor who played de Gaulle, was mistaken by several Parisians for the real thing during filming — though de Gaulle had been dead for two years prior to the film's release. The sequence was filmed during a real parade, leading to confusion; the crowd (many of whom were unaware that a film was being shot) mistook the actors portraying police officers for real officers, and many tried to help them arrest the "suspects" they were apprehending in the crowd.

Although the story takes place in 1962 and 1963, the filmmakers made no efforts to avoid showing car models whose production began later, for example Peugeot 504 (built from 1968), Renault 12 (built from 1969), and a Fiat 128 (1969).

Zinnemann was pleased with the film's reception at the box office, telling an interviewer in 1993, "The idea that excited me was to make a suspense film where everybody knew the end - that de Gaulle was not killed. In spite of knowing the end, would the audience sit still? And it turned out that they did, just as the readers of the book did."

Among those who praised the film was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave the movie his highest rating of 4 stars, writing, "Zinnemann has mastered every detail... There are some words you hesitate to use in a review, because they sound so much like advertising copy, but in this case I can truthfully say that the movie is spellbinding." Ebert would later include the movie at No7 on his list of the Top 10 films of the year.

Some critics have seen visual and thematic similarities between the film and the John F. Kennedy Assassination. These include the shot of the exploding watermelon during the Jackal's target practice, the man being carted away by an ambulance during the parade (recalling a similar incident in Dealey Plaza), and the presence of a magazine with JFK's picture on the cover in the hotel scene. Also, the setting is in August 1963, three months before Kennedy's death. Save the last, these were not evident in the original novel.

Did You Know Your Green Cross Code?

How many of you remember The Green Cross Code Man? The Green Cross Code Man (sometimes known simply as "Green Cross") was a costumed superhero character created in 1975 as an aid to teaching young children the Green Cross Code, and for promoting general road safety. British Actor David Prowse MBE a Bodybuilder and former Mr Universe (and the actor best known for his portrayal of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films) is famous for his realisation of the character in a well-known series of Public Information Films (PIFs) sponsored by the Central Office of Information for the UK Department of the Environment. The light-hearted spots ran on UK Television from 1975 to 1990.

In the films, Green Cross Man character has the power to teleport from his monitoring station at Green Cross Control to any location where youths are in need of pedestrian safety instruction. He accomplishes this by use of a wristwatch-like "Dematerialiser"device. On these missions he is sometimes accompanied by a whimsical robot companion. His signature exclamation of surprise or disbelief is "Green Crosses!" and his slogan is "I won't be there when you cross the road / So always use the Green Cross Code." Green Cross Man, played by Prowse, was later to guest in an episode of BBC2's Fantasy Football League - a Phoenix From the Flames recreation of a goal by Gerry Francis in a Home International against Scotland (the main premise being that Francis tended to look from side to side during interviews - as was advised by Green Cross Man in his adverts).

In 1976, the late, great Jon Pertwee famous as the Third Doctor on the TV series Doctor Who, appeared in a PIF for the Green Cross Code introducing the mnemonic "SPLINK", which appeared to stand for:

• (Find a) Safe (place to cross)
• (Stand on the) Pavement
• Look (for traffic)
• If (traffic is coming, let it pass)
• (When there is) No (traffic near, walk across the road)
• Keep (looking and listening for traffic as you cross).

In 1983, the television adverts employed a "Green Cross Code" rap based on the hit "The Message by Grandfather Flash. The original lyrics of "Don't push me cos I'm close to the edge" were replaced with "Don't step out when you're close to the edge." The advert was re-released for its 10th anniversary in 1993 with slightly different lyrics.

Hopping Its Way Into History - The Spacehopper!

Many people of my generation will remember having great fun on a Space Hopper when the inflatable orange balls made their debut in the late 1960s. With horns for handles, they were like huge rubber satsumas that you simply sat on, and bounced up and down. Also known as Hoppity Hops, Hop Balls and Kangaroo Balls, they became extremely popular - but actually served no purpose whatsoever.

TV adverts prior to their arrival promised some sort of wonder device that would see the end of cars and bicycles as a means of transport. From now on, you could just sit on your Space Hopper and bounce off to school or race your friends around the block with hardly any physical effort.

The space hopper was invented by Aquilino Cosani of Ledragomma, an Italian company that manufactured toy rubber balls. He patented the idea in Italy in 1968, and in the United States in 1971. Cosani called the toy PON-PON. Space hoppers were introduced to the UK in 1969 — the Cambridge Evening News newspaper, England, contained an advertisement for the hopper in November of that year and described it as a "trend". Although in practical terms they served absolutely no useful purpose whatsoever (in that they didn’t allow the user to go faster, bounce higher, or run further than they could on foot), nevertheless they became a major craze during the late 1960s/early 1970s.

The original UK space hopper was manufactured by Mettoy (Mettoy-Corgi). Wembley made a similar model which had smooth handles rather than the ribbed original. The orange kangaroo design is now available in adult-sized versions in the UK. In the United States, the first mass-marketed hopping ball (a version of an earlier European toy was the Hoppity Hop, released by the Sun company around 1968. Because of the market and media saturation by this toy, any such ball — regardless of origin — is now generally known in the U.S. by that name (or sometimes "hippity hop"). The earliest HHs were made of rubber (usually red or blue) with a round ring handle on top and automotive tire valve for inflation. In the 1970s Sun introduced various character versions of the HH, such as the Hoppity Horse, Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (with hard plastic versions of the character's head attached to the ball).

The HH sold rather steadily for decades, but by the 1990s sales apparently started to slip due to increased competition from foreign hoppers. At some point the HH came to be made of a vinyl-like material, some molded in fluorescent colors. The Hoppity Hop now appears to have been discontinued, but the original — sometimes still in the box — comes up from time to time on online auction sites. It is interesting to note that the Hoppity Hop's original targets (according to advertising materials) were adults as well as kids. Since the balls only inflated to around 20", however, it's doubtful any but the shortest hop-minded adults could have gotten much use out of one. Today, numerous (usually Chinese) versions can be found in most stores, ranging anywhere from 16" to 24".

The European Hop! balls appeared in the early 1990s and are still available. Made by Italy's Ledragomma/Ledraplastic, these are essentially the quality Gymnic exercise ball with a handle attached. The sizes of these balls range from the Hop! 45 to the Hop! 66 (66 cm, about 26"). While it is still is used for fun and exercise by many adults, the Hop! 66 is still borderline child-sized. So demand for truly adult-proportioned hopping balls was met with two notable items. The first of these was Kitt 2000 Velp of the Netherlands Mega Skippyballs, a huge hopping ball which by virtue of its size was intended only for adult use. There were three sizes: 120 cm, 100 cm and 80 cm. The Mega Skippyballs are made of extra strong vinyl, and in the Netherlands there are various Skippyball races and Skippyball championships.

Of course they didn't allow you to go faster, or run further than you could on foot.

But you didn't question them, because they looked cool and you had to have one.

For much of the early 70s, children grew very attached to their orange Hoppers, and spent hours bouncing up and down busy roads. After 10 bounces they were either still in the same spot, had developed a headache, or fell off and grazed their knees. Some Space Hoppers also occasionally burst - not an easy task unless they were incredibly over-inflated.

Goodies! Goodie, Goodie, Yum, Yum! Remembering The Goodies (1970 - 1982)

What can you say about the Goodies? Other than they were fuckin' brilliant! So join me as I pay homage to one of the greatest, legendary, classic shows of the 1970s.

The Goodies was a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s.

The series, which combined surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast on BBC2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company London Weekend Television for a year, between 1981 to 1982. The show was co-written by and starred Tim Brooke - Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie (together known as "The Goodies"). Bill Oddie also wrote the music and songs for the series — while "The Goodies Theme" was co-written by Bill Oddie and Michael Gibbs. The directors/producers of the series were John Howard Davies, Jim Franklin and Bob Spiers.

An early title which was considered for the series was Narrow Your Mind (following on from Broaden Your Mind) and prior to that the working title was Super Chaps Three.

The series' basic structure revolved around the trio, always short of money, offering themselves for hire — with the tagline "We Do Anything, Anywhere, Anytime" — to perform all sorts of ridiculous but generally benevolent tasks. Under this loose pretext, the show explored all sorts of off-the-wall scenarios for comedic potential. Many episodes parodied current events, such as an episode where the entire black population of South Africa emigrates to Great Britain to escape apartheid. As this means that the white South Africans no longer have anyone to exploit and oppress, they introduce a new system called "apart-height", where short people (Bill and a number of Jockeys) are discriminated against.

Other story lines were more abstractly philosophical, such as an episode in which the trio spend Christmas Eve together waiting for the Earth to be blown up by prior arrangement of the world's governments. The "Christmas Eve" episode titled "Earthanasia" was one of the two episodes which took place entirely in one room. The other, "The End", occurred when Graeme accidentally had their office encased in an enormous block of Concrete. These episodes were made when the entire location budget for the season had been spent, forcing the trio to come up with a script shot entirely on the set that relied entirely on character interaction - episodes known in the industry as bottle episodes.

A special episode, which was based on the original 1971 Goodies' "Kitten Kong episode, was called "Kitten Kong Montreux 72 Edition", and was first broadcast in 1972. The Goodies won the Silver Rose in 1972 for this special episode at the Festival d'or held in Montreux, Switzerland. The Goodies also won the Silver Rose in 1975 at the Festival Rose d'Or for their episode "The Movies".

The show featured extensive use of slapstick, often performed using sped-up photography and clever, though low-budget, visual effects, such as when they built a railway station together, and awoke the next morning to discover that the construction equipment outside (steam shovel,bulldozer, backhoe) had come to life, and were lumbering, growling, and battling like dinosaurs.

Other episodes featured parodies of contemporary pop music composed by Oddie, some of which went on to substantial commercial success in the British charts, among them the hit single "Funky Gibbon" as well as character-based comedy. Some early episodes were interrupted by spoofs of contemporary tv commercials.

The group also acknowledges their debt to the usage of music in silent movies. In "The Movies" episode, they buy an old movie studio, and attempt to make their own epic film, MacBeth Meets Truffaut The Wonder Dog. After several 'takes', they argue and each begins to make his own movie in a different style. The episode finished with an extended silent movie segment, in which each movie comically interferes with the others.

The characters are based on the personae of the three characters: Garden, a bright but bizarre "mad scientist"; Brooke-Taylor as a conservative, vain, sexually-repressed, upper-class royalist; and Oddie as a scruffy, occasionally violent, left-leaning rebel from Lancashire. The group have suggested that the characters of Graeme, Tim, and Bill represent the Liberal, Conservative and Labour wings of British politics or Middle-Class, Upper-Class, and Working-Class stereotypes respectively. The characters played up to their stereotypes, but were not necessarily based on the actor playing the character, even though the actors played characters with their own names, and had some minor characteristics in common. In reality, Garden is a medical doctor, Brooke-Taylor is a lawyer who is not at all conservative ("But I had the double-barrelled name so I was always going to play the Tory") and Oddie is a pacifist, Ornithologist and active Environmentalist.

The Goodies was a consistently very popular show in the UK, although, because it seemed to appeal particularly to younger viewers, some critics dismissed it as juvenile in comparison to the other contemporary UK "alternative" comedy hit, Monty Python's Flying Circus. In fact, whilst this comparison irritated them, Oddie, Garden and Brooke-Taylor were old university friends of the Monty Python cast, and had worked with them in the past, so there was considerable mutual respect between the rival shows. This led to several gentle parodies of Monty Python appearing on The Goodies.

Goodies episodes, in which Monty Python's Flying Circus was either parodied or alluded to, included the following:

• "The Goodies and the Beanstalk" — At the end of this episode, John Cleese portrays a geenie in the guise of a Monty Python character and uses the Python catchphrase "And now for something completely different". When spotted and told to "Push off!" by Tim, he shouts dismissively: "Kids' programme!" before vanishing.
• "Invasion of the Moon Creatures" — the opening credits of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" can be seen when Graeme switches on the television. Graeme immediately switches off the television in disgust because he has missed what he wanted to see (Moira Anderson).
• "Fleet Street Goodies" — in which the Liberty Bell March (the theme for "Monty Python's Flying Circus") can be heard.
• "Scatty Safari" — in which four Gumbies are featured.
• "The Goodies Rule – OK?" — in which two Gumbies are seen on Skid Row.
• "U Friend or UFO?" — Bill plays the Python theme on the trombone with the aliens.

"Kitten Kong" (episode seven from season two) is the only Goodie episode that is officially missing from BBC archives. However, an expanded, more elaborate version of the episode called ‘Kitten Kong: Montreux '72 Edition’, especially made for 1972 Montreux festival, does exist, and is said to have only minor differences with its 1971 prototype. The Goodies were awarded the Silver Rose at the 1972 Montreux festival for this special episode. Several other episodes that were originally screened in colour are also missing, but exist as black and white telerecordings made for overseas sales.

All Aboard Chopper One (1974)

Chopper One was the short-lived ABC drama/adventure television series in early 1974 depicting the activities of a California police helicopter team. The program aired in a half-hour time slot on Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern. It aired adjacent to Firehouse, an action-drama series about a Los Angeles fire station.Chopper One was cancelled after six months and Firehouse ended in the following month.

Chopper One was directed by E.W. Swackhamer and was about two flying police officers (a pilot and an observer) and their adventures in a police helicopter. The helicopter was a Bell 206 Jetranger. It starred Jim McCullen as Officer Don Burdick and Dirk Benedict as officer Gil Foley. Benedict would later earn fame as Lt. Starbuck int the original 1978 TV show Battlestar Galactica and as Lt. Templeton 'Faceman' Peck in the TV show The A - Team. Ted Hartley played their boss Capt. McKeegan and Lou Frizzell played Mitch, the crusty mechanic.

The officers were assigned helicopter duty and to make things more easier these guys were given the task to catch and apprehend dangerous criminals in tight places the police couldn't get to so with the guys up in the air they can get a description of the suspect whether he is located with the help of the local authorities. Their adversaries included chasing automobiles,bank robbers,rooftop snipers,renegade cyclists,kidnappers, muggers in the park and other desperadoes foolish enough to work out in the open. The series produced 13 episodes for ABC-TV from January 17, 1974 until the series finale on July 11,1974. The show,which ran a half-hour was on Thursday night and despite the ratings it received was right in the same time slot against a ratings powerhouse drama "The Waltons" which was on a rival network.

Bernard Lee - The Original M (1962 - 1979)

James Bond's boss M was originally played by Bernard Lee from the first Bond movie, Dr .No, until Moonraker (1979) and remains the series greatest M. In Dr. No, M refers to record in reducing the number of operative casualties since taking the job, implying someone else held the job recently before him. The film also saw M refer to himself as head of MI7; Lee had originally said MI6, but was overdubbed with the name MI7 prior to the film's release. Earlier in the film, the department had been referred to as MI6 by a radio operator.



A number of Bond scholars have noted that Lee's interpretation of the character was in line with the original literary representation; Cork and Stutz observed that Lee was "very close to Fleming's version of the character", whilst Rubin commented on the serious, efficient, no-nonsense authority figure. Smith and Lavington, meanwhile, remarked that Lee was "the very incarnation of Fleming's crusty admiral."

Bernard Lee died of cancer in January 1981, four months into the filming of For Your Eyes Only and before any of his scenes could be filmed. Out of respect, no new actor was hired to assume the role and, instead, the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave, with his lines given to either his Chief of Staff Bill Tanner or the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray. Later films referred to Lee's tenure as head of the service, with a painting of him as M in MI6's Scottish headquarters during the 1999 instalment The World Is Not Enough.

The World According to Mrs Bridges! Remembering Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 - 1975)

I have just been viewing the excellent 1970s period drama Upstairs, Downstairs on freeview this morning and it has reminded me just what a truly excellent series this was. I vaguely remember the original broadcasts from the 1970s when I was knee high to a grasshopper and watching them again has just brought those memories flooding back, so much so, I thought it would be good to pay homage to this wonderful series with a series of posts. The first post pays tribute to the wonderful cook, Mrs Bridges payed by the late Angela Baddeley.

Kate Bridges (1858–?) was the cook at 165, Eaton Place throughout the whole series. She was portrayed by Angela Baddeley, who was nominated twice for an Emmy (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress). Information given on-screen about the marital status of Mrs Bridges is contradictory.

In the first series episode "Why is her door locked?", Mrs Bridges mentions a husband who died fifteen years previously; and in the episode featuring a visit to the house by King Edward VII, Lady Marjorie states their cook is not a French chef but "a temperamental widow from Bristol."

However in the third series finale "The Sudden Storm", Mr Hudson states that there was never a "Mr Bridges", but that the "Mrs" is a courtesy title customarily applied to a cook in a gentleman's household. In the final episode, she and Hudson are married and move to open a seaside boarding house. Kate was still alive and well in 1931 (Rose wrote to 'Mrs Hudson' that year according to the second TV Times UD special).

Joe 90 -Top Secret - Number 13 (1969)

Features are W.I.N. Field Agents Foto-File (readers' photographs), The B.I.G. R.A.T. Tells The Story Of Earthquakes, a competition to win 100 Corgi Commer Mobile Camera Vans, World Intelligence Network (quizzes and jokes),Champions Of Sport - Henry Cooper, Joe's Hobbies (The Story Of Space Travel Told In Stamps No. 13), and Great Britain Eleven No. 3 Centre Back - Mike England.

"Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?

The legendary Camberwick Green produced by the BBC in 1966 was a British Childrens' Television series, originally seen on BBC One, featuring stop - motion puppets. It was one of the first British television series to be filmed in colour.

The series was written and produced by Gordon Murray and animated by Bob Bura, John Hardwick and Pasquale Ferrari. Music was by Freddie Phillips, and narration and song vocals were provided by the legendary Brian Cant. There are 13 fifteen-minute colour episodes produced by Gordon Murray pictures. The inspiration for the name is believed to have stemmed from the East Sussex village of Wivlesfield Green supported by the nearby villages of Plumpton (Trumpton) and Chailey (Chigley).

Each episode begins with a shot of a Musical Box which rotates while playing a tune. It is accompanied by the following narration:

"Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?"

The lid of the box then opens and the puppet character that is central to the particular episode emerges. After a brief introduction, the background appears and the story begins.

The series is set in the small, picturesque (and fictitious) village of Camberwick Green, Trumptonshire, which is inhabited by such characters as Police Constable McGarry (Number 452), Mickey Murphy the baker, Dr Mopp (who makes house calls in his vintage car), and the town gossip, Mrs Honeyman, who is always seen carrying her baby. Just outside the village lives Jonathan Bell, owner of a "modern mechanical farm", who has a friendly rivalry with Windy Miller, owner of a clanking old - but nevertheless efficiently functional - Windmill and a firm believer in old-fashioned farming methods. Mr Dagenham, a travelling salesman who drives an open-topped convertible occasionally appears, as do the staff and cadets of Pippin Fort, a nearby Military Academy run by Captain Snort and Sergeant-Major Grout. Almost all the characters have their own theme songs. There is one other character who never appears in the stories: an unnamed Clown or Pierrot who turns a roller caption to display the show's Closing Credits.

Each week the villagers undergo such domestic crises as a shortage of flour; a swarm of bees; a water shortage; and rumours of an unwanted electrical sub-station being built in the village. At the end of each episode the narrator bids farewell to the puppet character who was seen at the beginning, and the latter disappears back into the musical box.

Camberwick Green is notable for having no overt fantasy content (apart from the musical box). For the most part it is simply about ordinary people doing everyday things, and perhaps for that reason it has remained popular to this day. Unfortunately the original masters seem to have been lost; most of the surviving episodes tend to suffer from scratched, wobbly or grainy picture quality and a muffled soundtrack.Camberwick Green is available on DVD along with Trumpton and Chigley, its two sequels in a similar vein.

Camberwick Green was spoofed for a 1988 edition of Spitting Image, as "Gamberwick Greenbelt". The 90-second sketch had a puppet Nicholas Ridley, described as "Old Nicky Ridley, the village idiot", demolishing the village for redevelopment with the aid of a bulldozer.

The character Windy Miller and his famous windmill appeared in September 2005 along with some other Camberwick Green characters in commercials for Quaker Oats on UK television. The puppets and setting are all re-creations because Murray destroyed the originals in the 1970s. The original narrator, Brian Cant, auditioned to do the voiceover for the commercials, before the job was instead given to Charlie Higson.

Episode five of the second series of the BBC's Life on Mars features a recreation of the opening of Camberwick Green, with a puppet of the show's main character, Sam Tyler (John Simm), emerging from the musical box and despairing over his colleague, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), who can be seen in puppet form "kicking in a nonce" at the end. This later leads to Sam to threaten Hunt, telling him to "Stay out of Camberwick Green!". It emerges that Sam is tripping after being accidentally overdosed in his hospital bed. Again the voice-over was not supplied by Brian Cant, but is delivered in a similar style. It differs from the original by saying: "This is a box, a magical box, playing a magical tune. But inside this box there lies a surprise. Do you know who's in it today?"

The narration was provided by Brian Little, the co-founder of Hot Animation, the company that created the sequence. His recording was supposed to be a temporary guide track to help the animators time the shots, but the producers of Life on Mars were content to retain it for the final version. The one-minute sequence was designed and animated by Paul Couvela, the supervising animator of Bob the Builder

Chippy Minton features in the opening and closing sequences of the 2009 BBC Children in Need charity single Peter Kay's "Animated All Star Band" video when Peter Kay as Roary the Racing Car's Big Chris asks Postman Pat over the phone if Chippy is "ex-directory". Big Chris acts in a 'Bob Geldof' role to recruit characters from children's TV shows, past and present, to star in a Band Aid style video covering a range of songs by the Beatles to Take That. Windy Miller and Miss Lovelace also appear.

The Major Characters

Mickey Murphy the baker

Mickey lives on Camberwick Green with Mrs Murphy and their children Paddy and Mary. His bakers shop sells delicious walnut cakes at 5 shillings each.

Mr Murphy is a master baker,
Pudding pies and pastry maker,
Biscuits buns or birthday cake,
Everything is marvellous that Murphy makes.

Windy Miller

Windy lives in Colly's Mill, a windmill which has its own particular rhythmic sound when turning. Windy is very adept at walking between the turning sails. As well as being a character in Camberwick Green, he also appears in the series Chigley, the fictional neighbouring village to Camberwick Green. Windy is known for brewing his own cider, which makes him very 'sleepy'. He rejects modern ways and prefers to live a self sufficient life. He keeps a cow for milk and free range chickens for eggs. Windy is superstitious and believes in whistling for the wind and that touching a chimney sweep's collar brings good luck.

Windy Miller, Windy Miller sharper than a thorn,
Like a mouse he's spry and nimble when he grinds the corn.
Like a bird he'll watch the wind and listen for the sound,
Which says he has the wind he needs to make the sails go round.

Farmer Jonathan Bell

Farmer Bell runs his farm using modern machinery and practices. He is very proud of his milking machine and forklift loader. In this he is the very opposite of Windy Miller who he often teases about his old-fashioned ways. Despite this they are good friends.

A go ahead farmer is Jonathan Bell
Who works his farm and he works it well
He doesn't hold much with the good old days.
In modern times use modern ways.
Electric mechanical all that is new
Which does the work that men used to do.
He swears by it all and he proves it too
On his modern mechanical farm.

PC McGarry number 452

Police constable McGarry is the local 'bobbie'. He rides around on his motorbike and talks to HQ on the bike's radio.

Here comes the policeman,
The big friendly policeman,
PC McGarry number 452.
Lost dogs, thick fogs,
Don't know what to do.
Then get the policeman,
The big friendly policeman.
PC McGarry number 452. Here comes the policeman,
The big friendly policeman,
PC McGarry number 452.
Lost a key, cat up a tree,
Baby lost a shoe.
Then get the policeman,
A big friendly policeman.
PC McGarry number 452.

Mr Carraway the Fishmonger

Mr Carraway runs the fishmongers shop on Camberwick Green. He enjoys fishing in the river that runs behind his shop.

Fresh fish! fine fresh fish!
Herring, plaice, mackerel turbot,
Whiting, cod, halibut, dab,
Prawn, crabs, crayfish and lobster,
In green parsley and set upon a slab.
Fresh fish, fine fresh fish.

Peter the Postman

Peter Hazel is a postman who empties the postbox and delivers the mail. He travels on foot with the mail in a large sack upon his back.

Peter the postman is a very busy man
He empties the boxes as quickly as he can
He puts all the letters in a great big sack
And whistles as he marches with his load upon his back.

Mr Crockett the garage owner

Mr Crockett operates a petrol station and on the outskirts of Camberwick Green. He also does automotive repairs and runs a breakdown truck.

If your car is needing petrol, if your van is broken down,
If your motorcycle engine starts to stick,
Then go to Crockett's garage, to Mr Crockett's garage.
He will do the work and he'll do it very quick. Fill her up, fill her up, the petrol pumps are working,
Pump them up, pump them up, you know what tyres are.
Hurry up, hurry up, there is no time for shirking,
If you want a very super sort of car.

Doctor Mopp

Doctor Mopp drives a vintage car (reg 1901) and wears a top hat and beard.

If you want a doctor,
Get Doctor Mopp,
For he can stop
A sneeze or a wheeze,
Or a lump or a bump,
A headache or a sprain,
Or rheumaticy pain. So if you're feeling sickly,
Please call him quickly.
He can cure all ills,
With his pale pink medicine,
And sugar coated pills.

Roger Varley the chimney sweep

Roger would travel around on his motorbike & sidecar.

Sweep all,
Here comes Roger Varley,
As black as a crow,
To sweep all your chimneys,
Which stand in a row. Big chimneys, small chimneys,
Low chimneys tall chimneys.
Chimneys so straight and chimneys awry,
With his rod, brush and sack,
And his suit shiny black,
He'll purl and twirl his brush,
Up the flues to the sky. Sweep all.

Mr Dagenham the salesman

Mr Dagenham is a travelling salesman and drives a red sports car. He sells everything from table lamps to forklift loaders. In one episode he tries to sell a helicopter to Farmer Bell.

Our Mr Dagenham, he can sell anything,
Anything, anything money can buy.
A tea set or a jacket,
A pram or tennis raquet,
A telly or a toaster,
A trumpet or a trike,
An overcoat, a motor boat,
A holiday in Africa,
A bathtub or a button,
A bugle or a bike.
Our Mr Dagenham, he can sell anything,
Anything, anything money can buy.

Captain Snort

Captain Snort runs a military academy for boys located in Pippin Fort. Members of the academy all wear red shirts in the style of the British Empire.

Captain Snort is a soldier man,
Scarlet and gold a soldier man.
He'll work a boy as hard as he can,
To turn him into a soldier man.
Captain Snort is a soldier man,
Who lives in Pippin Fort.

Mrs Honeyman

Mrs Honeyman is the Chemist's wife and always appears carrying her baby. She is the local gossip.

Chatter chatter have you heard the latest gossip?
Not a word to anyone...
But do you know that natter natter well my dear
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I was shocked !