"Down at the bottom of the garden,
    Among the birds and the bees,
    Live a lot of little people,
    They call the Poddington Peas!"       
 

    At the bottom of the garden, you'll find a little village of upturned flower pots.
    This is Poddington, and it's the home of an extraordinary community of
    walking, talking garden peas.

    That's right. Peas.

    At last count, there were at least 34 different pea characters residing in this
    jolly village, and they tend to take their names, employment and/or character
    traits from english words or phrases that feature "pea", or end in "py".
    Thus, Zip-pea is super-fast, Grump-pea is always moaning, Snoop-pea is
    a Sherlockian detective, Sweep-pea is a roadsweeper, etc. Poddington has
    its very own newspaper in the form of "The Podding Press", edited by
    Scoop-pea. And it also has two resident bad peas, in the shape of
    pointy-nosed Creep-pea and eyepatched Black-Eyed Pea , who are
    a recognisably darker shade than the rest of the vilagers, both in deed
    and pea colour.

    The Poddington Peas were created by Paul Needs, and they were originally
    conceived as a series of storytime tales told to his own youngsters. In 1986
    he teamed up with artist Colin Wyatt and together they produced a series
    of Poddington books. They were subsequently awarded a series
    commission by the BBC.

      

    Wonderful Poddington

    In 1992 Poddington plc brought writer Phil Gardner onboard to help put together
    some new stories. Specifically, they wanted a pilot to take to American
    broadcasters. Now billed as "The Wonderful World of Poddington", the new
    series was going to incorporate two equally-new sets of characters designed
    once more by Colin Wyatt and called The Bugz and The Freshwater Friends.
    Although the series never made it to our screens, Phil has put three of these
    abandoned stories on his web site, for our viewing pleasure, as well as
    one of Colin's design pages for The Bugz. Look for them in his
    "Bits & Pieces" section.

    Those potty peas have proven to be perenially popular. Currently, plans are
    afoot to bring us an all-new pea-green CG Poddington series. You can read
    all about it, and even watch a clip, over on the official site!

 

    Pea-ple

    Ssh. Don't mention humans. There are none in the series. We're also
    not told where Poddington is, precisely, or how it came to be. Which is
    just as well, because those peas wouldn't appreciate us stomping all over
    their flowerpots in our great gardening boots.

    Maybe they live somewhere near The Pondles? Or maybe, they're near
    to the real-life village of Podington (one "d"), in Bedfordshire?

 

    Why Wyatt?

    Colin Wyatt has a background in young children's comics. He spent twenty
    years at Amalgamated Press, drawing for "Tiny Tots", "Jack & Jill", and
    "Playhour". He then moved on to IPC where he drew for "Disney Comic",
    before becoming the art editor for "2000ad" (1978-1980). He's been working
    freelance since then...

 

    easy-peasy

     Here are those 34 peas...

    Bump-pea (accident prone)               Chip-pea (cafe owner)
    Captain Hop-pea (one-legged sailor)    Penela-pea (mother)
    Chop-pea (lumberjack)                      Skip-pea (skipping youngster)
    Dough-pea (baker)                           Sweet Pea (cute girl)
    Dump-pea (overweight)                     Tea-pea (tea-lady)
    Garden Pea (gardener)
    G-pea (Doctor)                               Creep-pea (bad guy)
    Grump-pea (moody)                         Black-Eyed Pea (cohort)
    Hap-pea (jolly)
    Hip-pea (60's throwback)                  Pup-pea (a small dog)
    Jump-pea (lively)
    Nap-pea (Penele-pea's baby)
    P.C. Pod (policeman)
    Pop-pea (old guy)
    Scoop-pea (journalist)
    Scrap-pea (trash collector)
    Sleep-pea (always tired)
    Slop-pea (messy artist)
    Snap-pea (photographer)
    Snip-pea (barber)
    Snoop-pea (detective)
    Soap-pea (soap-covered)
    Sweep-pea (sweeper)
    Wee McPea (small Scots pea)
    Weep-pea (tearful)
    Zip-pea (speedy)

 

    e-pea-sode titles

    The Vegetable Show
    Creep-pea Gets Carried Away
    Dump-pea's Diet
    Mound of Trouble
    Hip-pea's Band
    Well Done Dump-pea
    Zip-pea Saves the Day
    Poddle Island Mystery
    Dough-pea Gets Lost
    Zip-pea's Shadow
    Bubble Trouble
    The Balloonatics
    Creep-pea's Christmas Surprise

 

     broadcast info

      The series premiered on BBC1, on 14th September 1989....

 

    a Cairnvale Production for Poddington PLC

    director:                    Colin White
    series director:           Pat Gavin
    producer:                   Laurie Frost
    executive producer:    Ian Green
    writer:                       Paul Needs
    original designs:         Colin Wyatt
    music and lyrics:        Geoff Stephens
    production
     managers:                 Muriel MacLeod, Heather Pedley
    animation director:     Tony Garth
    animation:                 Barry Hales, Simon (Jiminy) Turner,
                                     Stephen Hales, Billy Allison
    backgrounds:             Ian Henderson
    painters:                   Sarah Marsden, Lisa Stephenson,
                                    Lynn Durrans, Beverley Allan
    editor:                       Keith Holden
    paint and trace
    supervisor:                Henrietta Maslin
    title animation:          Harold Whitaker
    checking:                  Russell Murch, Louise Harding
    rostrum:                   Cardiff Cartoon Cameras
    narration:                 Neil Pearson

 

     On the web


     Poddington Peas
     The official site....

     Colin Wyatt
     The peas' artist...

     Phil Gardner
     Their "wonderful" writer...


 
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