Wimpole
Village was originally animated by Videola Ltd, using simple 'animatic'
techniques. Artwork was panned over to create
movement,or cut-outs married
on to backgrounds giving the illusion of action.
It was a technique used regularly
in the advertising industry at the time for
creating test commercials. Regular
Wimpole Village viewers will se the repetitive
use of shots to save further costs,
like the action of Captain Mainmast 'hurrying'
up and down his lighthouse...
Narrator 'Timbo' is in fact Tim Lloyd,
a radio dj and presenter who still
broadcasts regularly today...
True Blue Wimpole-ites should track down
the Wimpole Village books from
Studio Publications, written and illustrated
by creator Peter Kingston. Interesting
to see the differences between books and
series. For example, postman Dennis
Letterleaver is depicted as a typical wing-moustached
Wimpole in the books,
but in the series he is much younger, without
a moustache or glasses...
The rights to Wimpole Village have recently
been acquired by Cameron
Thomson
Entertainment
who are now licensing the series to terrestrial television and cable
operators in North America and Europe - which
means Dennis, Horace, Ted and
the gang should be back on our screens in the
very near future. What's more the
company is rather keen to exploit the tie-in
possibilities too. Imagine, you could
soon be holding
a Wimpole in your hand as well as your heart!...
As anyone from Cambridgeshire can tell
you, there is a very real English
village of Wimpole out there. Is the series
connected in any way? - possibly
not, because Toonhound visitor Graham
Westrope recently passed on some
intrigiung info:
"...Years ago I recall a fellow primary
school kid who, in assembly,
brought his dad in, who happened to be the
creator of Wimpole
Village. In fact the kid (can't remember his
name unfortunately)
wrote one of the books. He lived only down
the road from where
I live, in a house called - wait for it
- Wimpole House. It still has
that name today..."
And that particular property stands in
Essex, which rather deflates that
first association of mine. But regardless
of the series origins I can still leave
you with a perplexing question. If Wimpole
is supposed to be a village - real
or imagined - why do the series logo and opening
credits only feature one
single house by a woody copse...?
written
and created by Peter Kingston
producer: Ross
Cameron
director: Tom
Morrish
illustration: Peter
& Lisa Kingston
music: Tony
Kinsey
editors: Mark
Cookman
Jason
Yardley
sound:
John Woods
Studios
rostrum: Gavin
Cookman
production: Videola
Ltd
narration
and voices: Timbo
On
the web
Cameron
Thomson Entertainment
http://www.cameronthomsonentertainment.com
The new rights holders. Nothing
specificially 'Wimpole' here yet, but
this is the place to go for info
on the series availability,
tv rights, etc...

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