"Yoffy lifts a finger, and a mouse is there..."
 

    Yoffy is the friendly, bearded host for this fabulously quirky series featuring stories
    and songs and a cast of finger puppet characters. As the title songs says, when
    Yoffy lifts a finger, Fingermouse appears. When he puts his hands together, Gulliver
    the seagull takes to the air. When he lifts another finger, Scampi darts about. And
    when he does it again Flash the tortoise peeks out in to the world. Yoffy (Rick Jones
    of "Playschool" fame), gives voice to these fine four friends and each episode he
    persuades them to gather up items to help him tell a tale.
    
    Fingermouse, Gulliver, Scampi and Flash are beautifully simple creations
    incorporating gloves for legs and body with rudimentary additions: a cone-shape
    head for Fingermouse, a ping-pong ball for Seagull, etc. They are extensions
    of Yoffy, of course, but each is treated as a uniquely seperate character. So
    Yoffy pulls a bright cut-out shell over his grey glove and - voila! - Flash appears,
    talks to his creator and sets about his task.

    The series is based in some light, bright Shangri-la studio by the sea, with a
    sky blue background and tan coloured tabletop. The Fingerbobs take off to
    simple swatches of sand and sea, astro turf fields, and even a purple-blue
    undersea haunt that's perfect for Scampi to explore.

    The Fingerbobs characters were the brainchild of the late great tv producer
    Michael Cole and  the creations were co-designed with his wife Joanne (see: BOD).
    Fingermouse was the series star, of course, renowned for being a "wonder mouse"
    and for being able to dodge past cats with his "famouse body swerve". And in 1985,
    thirteen years after "Fingerbobs" first premiered, he garnered his very own spin-off
    series, called naturally enough, "Fingermouse".

    Other lesser-recalled Fingerbobs characters included Enoch the woodpecker,
    Scaredy the crow, Gloria the white mouse, Louise the squirrel, Mole, Prickly the
    hedgehog, a Peacock, a whole girly family of Scampis and a trio of worms - Herbert,
    George and Alistair.

    Only thirteen episodes of "Fingerbobs" were ever made and repeated as part of the
    BBC's "Watch With Mother" broadcast slot. This has made the tales exceedingly
    memorable. Thus a generation can fondly recall the tale of the paper Mexicans
    dancing on stones, or the story of Scaredy the thirsty crow and his efforts to reach
    the contents of a cool clear jug of water. Yoffy told his tales and sang his songs
    with such seductive simplicity, and those "Fingerbobs" were simply brilliant...  

     
 

     Fingerbobs episodes

     Bumpy        Shapes        Shiny       
     Stones       Bricks          Paint
     Feathers     Sounds        Seeds
     String         Wood         House
     Shadow        

 

     Fingerbobs on DVD

      The Complete Fingerbobs
                Region 2 / Contender / April 2004