h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone remember The Flumps? The great characters with the toes that just kept going up and down in a ripple movement? I still remember one episode where Pootle had a magnet and attracted tons of metal! Am I barking made? Quite possibly!

That's the only episode I remember.
Was that the one whewre someone was told a secret and had to keep it under their hat so pootle (what a great name!!) did that literally?
If not, that's two I remember. That was a great program. Iused to get to watch that before my Mum turned over for the Sullivans.

Yeah, that's two you remember! I remember that one too! Cor - memories!

Hmm. Starter for ten.... Late 1970s, a family of Yorkshire folk - fluffy round brown creatures with interstingly animated toes (see above)

Perkin, a boy who wore a yellow and blue woolen hat,
Posie his sister, lighter in shade with a pretty blue bow,
Mother with a tea towel knotted hat (à la corry norry),
Father, red woolen hat and moustache,
Grandfather, and older version of father with ('ey up lad) a flat cap, and lastly but most importantly Pootle - the kid bother/sister of Posie and Perkin. Pootle was almost yellow in shade (obviously a very young example of the species), and it was almost impossible to work out His/her gender.

Perhaps alien of origin (hence the gender instability in the young).
They young 'uns would run around a lot and have fun on carts or rollerscates (except Pootle was too young to have its own pair). Mother and Father were quite stereotypical of your average sensible responsible caring parents. Grandfather was a hoot, and would often be found playing the Flumpaphone (?) an elongated squashed tuba like affair he probably knocked up himself in the shed at the bottom of the garden.

There was a ref here: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/yec61/index.htm, but it seems to have gone. Boo. It was an excellent flumps page.

Oops, "à la corry norry" was a reminder for me to remember to put
"à la Hilda Ogden from Corination Street" instead!

This is what I found on http://tv.cream.org :

THE FLUMPS (late '70s)
BBC

This hyper-whimsical puppet stop-mo series is a bona fide classic of the genre. A homely, northern-accented family of pompoms with limbs and varying forms of headgear get up to various garden/housebound adventures with stories, songs etc. From left to right - Father (woolly hat, tache);Mother (headscarf, rolling pin); Grandad (knotted hanky, glasses); Posy (bow); Perkin (again with the hat); and the tiny, adenoidal Pootle (bobble hat), who was deemed "too small" to have roller skates like Posy and Perkin, so Dad made him a trolley to put his things in. Aaaaah. Titles involved them peeping over a wall and wiggling fingers in a bizarre manner to a jolly ooompah trumpet theme. Songs (sung by mother from a big songbook) included "Balloons" and "Wheels Turning Round" (OK, not exactly classics). Also the Flumpet (knackered-looking trumpet/tuba-type thing) and the Flumpcycle ("Looks like the whole family's on wheels today!")

How did I manage to forget about this wonderful programme? Actually, it was my sisters favourite program at the time so we'd watch it religiously. All the characters are coming back to me now after reading the above entries. (wiggles fingers and toes and grins stupidly )