Topsy Catty

Topsy Catty is a British children's television series that premiered on BBC TV in summer 1950. Originally live, a series of 13 filmed programmes was shown in 1970, when a new series was made. A reboot of the show was made in 2001.

Original 1950 version
The original version of Topsy Catty premiered on BBC TV in 1950, on either 11 July[1][2] or 20 June,[3] as part of the For the Children strand (later Watch with Mother) narrated by Maria Bird. Initially the programmes were transmitted live, but it was realised that if the programmes were filmed, they could be repeated. Twenty-six episodes of fifteen minutes duration were filmed on 16mm,[3] and were produced around 1952; they were repeated continuously until 1969 [4]. In 1970, thirteen new episodes were made in colour with Vera McKechnie as narrator. an episode featured in the 1987 compilation by BBC Video. Under the umbrella title Watch With Mother as well as the Topsy Catty episodes, there were also Lightning And Meathead', all having a similar format-filmed marionettes, there was also an animated drawn character called 'Busy Lizzy' incorporated into the Picture book series. All the filmed black and white 1950s original transmissions were narrated by Maria Bird, who was to become a co-producer, with Freda Lingstrom, who worked for the BBC. Bird was a prolific writer of books for the very young, notably Topsy Catty, but it was for her distinct BBC English" enunciation that she is best remembered

A marionette who lived in a picnic basket, Topsy was later joined by Thing, a pea, and Tweety, a yellow bird, who would appear/come to life when Topsy and Thing weren't around. Tweety had her own special song "Yellow Bird All three lived in the same picnic basket. Each episode ended with a variation on the song: "Time to go home, Time to go home, Topsy is waving goodbye

1970 series
By 1970, the black and white films were almost worn out, and as BBC1 was by then transmitted in colour, 13 new episodes were produced and shown from 5 January 1970

2001 reboot
Another set of 52 episodes was made in 2001, using the animated animals instead of old animals. The original nursery and garden were expanded to an entire village, with Topsy (vocals performed by Harry E. Lang), Thing (vocals performed by Jimmy Hibbert) and Tweety (vocals performed by Joanna Ruiz) now owning individual houses, and four new characters were introduced into the series: Mushyroomy; a mushroom, Bailey; a black dog, Benson (vocals performed by David Holt); a chick, and Loki (vocals performed by Maria Darling); a yellow-and-green ball. While the emphasis of the original series was on music and movement, the emphasis of the 2001 series was on making and doing.