"Penny Crayon can draw anything she likes
     Like cats and dogs and crocodiles
     and juggernauts and bikes..."
  

     Artful Penny could indeed draw anything she wanted with her magic crayon and
     it would spring into life. A fantastically useful toy to have. Only her best friend
     friend Dennis knew her secret so the two had acres of fun winding up adults,
     nosey-parkers, bullies, bad guys, teachers and ne'er-do-wells with her creations,
     or solving problems for folk, or sketching their way out of tricky situations.
     Penny would scribble away, her arm becoming a blurr as she worked and
     then - hey presto! - her line drawing would leap off the drawing surface as a
     fully-formed 3D object. To underscore the magical transformation we'd witness
     a brief burst of zap lines preceeding a spiral of confetti-type colours...

      

     Ms Crayon was a Peter Maddocks creation, following in the successful
     monstersteps and undercarriage tracks of The Family-Ness and Jimbo and
     the JetSet. Sons Simon and Guy were producer and director respectively. 
     Penny's breathless, excitable voice was supplied by "Hi-De-Hi" star Su Pollard,
     whilst Peter "Pugwash" Hawkins furnished Dennis with his familiar guttural tones.
     The animators certainly caught something of Su's spirit in Penny, with her
     straw blonde hair, googly glasses and ever-roving eyes. This was a fun, bright,
     series which looked and felt like an animated comic strip. Penny's adventures
     wouldn't have looked out of place in Buster or Whizzer & Chips...

     Peter Hawkins, of course, had worked with Peter Maddocks before on The
     Family-Ness and Jimbo too. Maddocks regulars Peter and Gavin Greenaway
     also returned with yet another of their sing-a-long-hum-a-long title songs...

  

    Episodes

    1.Tower of London      9.Camping Holiday
    2.Cookery Class          10.Treasure Hunt
    3.Circus Lion              11.Dickens of a Mess
    4.Amusement Park      12.Dog Show
    5.Waxworks               
    6.Pantomime
    7.Haunted House
    8.Silly Daydream

  

    Broadcast info

    episodes 1 to 8
     First broadcast on BBC1 from 14th September 1989
     to 2nd November 1989, once a week at approx 4.00pm.

    episodes 9 to 12
     First broadcast on BBC1 from 10th Sept 1990 to 1st Oct 1990,
     once a week between 3.50pm and 3.55pm.

  

     Penny Crayon on DVD

     Penny Crayon
                Region 2 / 4 episodes / 4 Front / April 2004

  

       written and created by Peter Maddocks
       
       director:        Guy Maddocks
       producer:      Simon Maddocks
       music:           Roger and Gavin Greenaway
       animation:     Kevin Baldwin, Gary Blatchford,
                            Malcolm Bourne, Malcolm Hartley,
                            Charles Macrae, Neil Salmon,
                            Paul Stone, Rick Villeneuve
       trace+paint:   Cel-Out Films Limited
       layouts:         Gary Blatchford, Clive Dawson,
                           Ted Pettengell, Neil Graham
       b'grounds:     Olivia Brown, Gary Sycamore
       voices:          Su Pollard
                            Peter Hawkins

  

      On the web


      Peter Maddocks
      Jimbo's creator has his very own web space...
    
      Paperpeople
      And so does his son. Guy Maddocks was the series director.
      He's a bright spark who balances his film-making chores with his
      own flourishing business selling all the artful bits and pieces you could
      possibly need to create your next animated masterpiece...


 
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