Flower Pot Men

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The Flower Pot Men was a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, that first ran in the 1950s and 1960s and was then revived in the 2000s.

Original series

Originally, the programme was part of a BBC children's television series titled Watch with Mother, with a different programme each weekday, and all involving string puppets. The Flower Pot Men was the story of two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. The characters were devised by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Three later stories were written by Hilda Brabban. The puppeteers were Audrey Atterbury and Milly Gibson. The voices and other noises were produced by Peter Hawkins, Gladys Whitred and Julia Williams.

The Flower Pot Men spoke their own, highly inflected version of English, called Oddle Poddle. However, the popular notion that they ever said "Flobbalob" or "Flobbadob" is an urban myth; if one listened carefully to their banter, one could hear words like "Loblob" ("lovely") and "Flobberpop" ("flowerpot"), either of which could have given rise to the urban myth. At the end of each adventure, they would say bye-bye to each other and to the Little Weed - "Babap ickle Weed", to which the Weed would inevitably reply with tremulous cadence "Weeeeeeeeeeed". This language, like that of the Teletubbies in the 1990s, was invented by Peter Hawkins and was criticised for hindering children from learning proper English.

Legend has it that Hilda Brabban (nee Wright) sold the rights to her stories to the BBC for a mere three guineas (£3 3/–). The stories were said to be about the antics of Hilda's brothers William and Benjamin as small boys in their home in Castleford Yorkshire.

2001 series

In 2001, a second series named Bill and Ben was produced for CBBC, this time involving stop-motion animation and full colour. However, many additions were implemented:

• A mean rosebush with buds in the neighbours garden.
• A magpie obsessed by shiny treasures, often just bottle caps.
• A hedgehog.
• A worm.
• Weed is no longer a weed, but an enormous sunflower. Rather than whining, "Weed!", she can now speak proper English. She appears to play an "earth mother" role to Bill and Ben. She often assists them.

External links

• Toonhound on the Flowerpot Men
• CBeebies - Bill and Ben at bbc.co.uk
• Whirligig TV
• Flower Pot Men (1952)  at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill and Ben (2001)  at the Internet Movie Database
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• The Museum of Broadcast Communication
• "Flowerpot Men Bloom Again" article at bbc.co.uk