Mr Squiggle (not) on "Collectors"

This week on the TV show "Collectors", iconic Australian children’s character, Mr Squiggle, makes an appearance with his maker, Norman Hetherington.

"Hetherington talks about Mr. Squiggle, who went to air in 1959 for a trial season of six weeks only and lasted six decades for the ABC. The cartoonist and self-taught puppet-maker also shares Blackboard and many of his 400 puppets.

It airs 8pm Friday on ABC1."

Mr. Squiggle on Collectors!


Be there or be upside down. Hurry up!

More information on Australia's first astronaut here!

Mmmmm. Check out the Comments section for the update.

Australia's first astronaut is 50!

"Happy 50th Birthday" to Mr Squiggle.


Mr Squiggle, the man from the moon.

He hasn't aged a day! (Sigh. Unlike moi.) He can draw with his nose. He rides a rocket to the moon every week. He's a marionette friend to talking steam shovels, snails and blackboards. I watched him on TV as a kid, even worked with him (briefly) when we were 21 and 20 respectively, and now we are both past the big 5-0.

I did the kite-making in a 1980 episode of "Mr Squiggle and Friends", entitled "Space Age Kites", directed by Virginia Lumsden. I appeared on the little TV which Gus the Snail wore for a shell, and I had to teach Miss Jane (real-life daughter of actor Willie Fennell) to make sled kites out of beautiful, shimmery, polymer film. (I was taught how to do them by my wonderful teachers college craft lecturer, Klin Sullivan, who is a long-time puppetry colleague of the Hetherington family; Klin recommended me for the gig.)

My episode was made in the January of 1980 but didn't air until the August. It was quite a fluke as to how I became involved. I had stayed in touch with Liz, a prac supervising teacher in my second year at college, and her school kept inviting me back for their end-of-term celebrations. Knowing I was finishing up at Christmas 1979, I was invited to do some volunteer work at the Marrickville kids' drop-in vacation centre - located at Tempe, in the old heritage-listed nunnery by the river. (The students were bussed over every day in a mini-bus, and they were great kids, who were so appreciative of my efforts as a then-fledgling craft teacher.) We did several all-day excursions over four weeks of the school vacation, including Taronga Park Zoo, Channel Seven TV studios and the Festival of Sydney in Hyde Park.

It was at the Festival's hands-on craft exhibit where I bumped into Klin, and she said that if I'd come back on the weekend she'd upskill me to make space-age sled kites for the "Squiggle" show. All I had to provide my own eyelet punch, and fame could be mine! When it came time to tape the episode, the ABC and Miss Jane were able to come to us at Tempe, where we had a ready made child audience - they loved me! - and then we drove to Centennial Park in the afternoon to fly the kites we made for the cameras.

Not a bad opportunity for a 21 year old graduate teacher with no experience.

You know, despite the glorious rainbow vibrancy of Mr Squiggle himself, and the amazing purple and silver sled kites, I've never seen the episode in colour! The week my episode was due to air on TV, there was a lengthy bread strike - I was working in my Dad's independent depot bread shop in Ramsgate. I had to take my portable b/w TV in, and the episode ran for the entertainment of the queue of customers who were lined up to buy their meagre rations of daily bread. Mum and Dad couldn't see the episode at all, since they were back at the Bexley store, serving their own queue of customers. There were no commercial home video machines yet, of course. I had even asked my old college to tape the episode for their archives (and me) - on U-matic video - but something went wrong with their aerial socket that day, and it taped in b/w! (Somewhere around here I have a fairly clear b/w crosstape, but it's probably on Beta. Sigh. Unless I once made a VHS copy.)

Also: a man named Terry Dowling sang a silly song about an alien in the episode - and it was a shock, years later, to meet him in Galaxy Bookshop and realise that Terry Dowling the folk singer was THE Terry Dowling, SF writer - and the husband of Kerry, a fellow ASTREX Star Trek Fan Club member! Small universe!

Back to The Magic Circle Club

Last night I was lucky enough to see three half-hour b/w episodes of "The Magic Circle Club". I can only make guesses at the dating of them, and the order, because there were 550 episodes made (110 serialised stories, plus the live pantomime, "The Stolen Smile") over three years.

The first episode I revisited started with a close-up of the inaugural Logie Award the series won, so it was probably from the 1966 season. Claude Clumsy, Episode 1: A Smashing Time, with a "script and original material" by John-Michael Howson, had lots of physical comedy and featured a guest appearance by Mother Hubbard's youthful and accident-prone great-nephew, Claude (played by Max Bartlett).

Since I hadn't seen this episode since 1966, it was amazing just how many memories came flooding back! Sir Jasper and his wooden club, top hat and sequined, striped vest, Fee Fee Bear going shopping at the Pixie Village to buy Japanese china, Fredd Bear feasting on bananas, and puppets Cassius Cuckoo and Leonardo de Funbird giving out the full street addresses of young children who sent in riddles and limericks.

Favourite quote: when Fee Fee happens past Leonardo on his stump, he tells her his limerick instead of Nancy. As Fee Fee leaves for home, he mutters "Nice hairy girl, that."

Things I'd forgotten: Sir Jasper's sidekick Gaspar Goblin with his little gonk-like, furry creature, Oscar. So that's why my brothers and I were so determined to own a "Yukk" each from a certain gift store in Sydney's Imperial Arcade. (Product placement?) I'd also forgotten the frequent inference of violence (Sir Jasper urges that Gaspar takes Oscar with him or he'll "smash it to pieces") and teasing. Poor ol' mute Fredd cops a gentle teasing from everyone, including Nancy.



The next full episode I watched started off with the previous season's opening sequence, with that episode's cast walking in a circle around Nancy as they sang. This was King Size, Episode 3: Sir Jasper Takes Over with a "script and original material" by Max Barlett, featuring a guest appearance by elderly King Size of nearby Enchantmentland (again played by Max Bartlett).

This episode has a great duet, "Copycat", lip-synched by Mother Hubbard and Fee Fee (but not John-Michael's singing voice!), some hilarious, unscripted banter between Nancy, the bird puppets and the wall-sized IKAN computer, and another song, "Call of the Sea" by Sir Jasper, with Gaspar in a hula skirt accompanying (very badly) on ukulele, as they plot to kidnap the king. There was also the gnarled Wicked Fairy, who intends to turn King Size into a robot for expelling her from Enchantmentland.

More product placement! Sir Jasper's Hideaway, temporarily disguised as a seaside vacation guesthouse, has two summery posters advertising "Hayman Island's Carousel '65".

Favourite quote: another gem from cheeky Leonardo, after IKAN shows a film on the origin of racehorses. Leonardo asks Nancy, "You running in the Melbourne Cup?"

Things I'd forgotten: The whole IKAN computer segment. I recently saw the description of IKAN in the program I bought on eBay for "The Stolen Smile", but I'd quite forgotten Leonardo frequented anywhere other than his papier mache tree stump. IKAN stands for Instantaneous Knowledge Accumulation Network, and his computer screen functions similarly to the infamous round, square and arch windows of "Play School", and the monitor on Gus the Snail's shell in "Mr Squiggle and Friends".

There was also reference to Sebastian, a character I didn't remember at all. King Size previously suggested that he would make a good court jester for Max, who's gone off somewhere.

The episode concludes with an amazing shot, done almost in widescreen, with all the characters in silhouette, wandering through the Magic Forest, looking for the Wicked Fairy and clues as to King Size's whereabouts.



The third episode started with the same opening sequence, but this time only Fredd and a smaller bear parading in a circle around Nancy as she and her offscreen background singers vocalised. This episode, seemingly a Monday episode, was anticipated by Nancy to be a very quiet week (Ha! As if!) so she decides to read Fredd - and Sebastian! - a pirate story from the Barbary Coast. Again, the "script and original material" of this Episode 1 was by John-Michael Howson. Nancy warns the bears that the characters in her story might remind them of some familiar people. And sure enough, we have a guest appearance by nasty Simon Sneak (again played by Max Bartlett), keeper of an inn called the Cross and Bones. The Magic Cottage doubles as the inn, with a cellar in place of Mother Hubbard's cupboard.

Nancy herself is seen as Sweet Nelly, a serving wench and Fee Fee is Daphne Drudge, the cleaning woman. Fredd turns up in a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit, as Little Lollylegs, who is seemingly addicted to contraband food: rum cakes and toffee apples! A very clean cut Colin McEwan (not a bit like snivelly Gaspar) is the very clean cut Soldier Jim. The pirate villain is Captain Crook, a character (or at least a namesake) who returns in "Adventure Island" on the ABC a few years later. Of course, the inn has its own Barbary Coast version of Cassius, who lives in the clock.


The Magic Circle Club's IKAN computer

Leonardo and IKAN feel abandoned by Nancy and so they answer three viewers' letters themselves. Strangely, three separate letters have requested information on the unlikely topic of King Alfred the Great! The handwritten letters (and full addresses) are even shown, as if to prove their authenticity.

Favourite quote: Nancy mentions that children she meets say they are scared of Gaspar Goblin and she lectures that they just laugh at Gaspar, and that no one should be frightened of someone "who makes out that he's something he's not."

Things I'd forgotten: Sebastian. I have absolutely no memory of him! (Presumably played by Gael Dixon?)

Also, the sheer versatility of Colin McEwan and Max Bartlett. As a kid I had no idea that they doubled up in so many parts. McEwan's voice was all over the show, in so many accents and personas. And Max was my favourite character, but here were three episodes, all featuring him heavily, but none were actually his "Max" character. Did I ever realise that Max was all these people? No, I don't believe I did. I'm so impressed!



How I'd love to see a company such as Umbrella Entertainment release a "Best of..." DVD set, perhaps with a cast reunion commentary track? Sadly, you'd have to be over 48 or so to even remember the show.

I hope you enjoy the cast pics and bio extracts from my old theatre program.