Crossing Pelicans on Kangaroo Island

As part of our Adelaide trip, we spent two nights on nearby Kangaroo Island. Despite its name, the island doesn't just host kangaroos.  Among its other inhabitants are Australian pelicans and, one wet, windy and cold evening, we got to see quite a few of them, courtesy of John (shown below).  While treating us to the sight of pelicans (and some seagulls) trying to get hold of the fish he had brought with us, John entertained the crowd with various remarks, some contentious, others humorous, often both.  Among his proclamations:

 

'All a man needs is a boat and a wife.' (note the order of priority there...)

'A pelican once consumed a chihuahua which should earn it a place in history and our gratitude.'

And most crucially: 'For US and particularly Texan visitors, the Australian pelican is the world's largest and best-looking pelican.'

 

 

 

 

 

Wombles Down Under!

It's been a while since we've been able to take one of our Wombles to a place with a Womble-related name. But we've put that right this month, with a trip to Adelaide in Australia.

Miss Adelaide doesn't appear in the 1970s TV animations and (if I recall right) isn't in many of the books much. She is in charge of the Womble kindergarten.  Sadly I couldn't acquire a Miss Adelaide by hook or by crook, so Wellington came with us.  After all, there's a Wellington in New Zealand which is not far from Adelaide!  I'll be posting some updates over the next few weeks about our adventures in Adelaide and on nearby Kangaroo Island.  Wellington didn't join us for all of the outings - if the truth be told, he was a bit jetlagged, and who could blame him?  But he was pleased to get a chance at plane-spotting at the Aviation Museum in Port Adelaide:

The Museum has a number of exhibits including some real or replica planes from World War II and the Vietnam War.  There is a serious purpose, of course, with one panel of explanatory text saying: 'OBSERVE AND RESPECT'.  But we also saw an 80% scale replica of the Red Baron's machine, with a slightly unlikely pilot... Snoopy!  In the interests of world peace and understanding, we managed to avert a Snoopy-Wellington dogfight...

It's cold in the Cairngorms...

Cairngorm in the Cairngorms

 

While one of the best-known Wombles has Scottish links - step forward, Tobermory - there is another one whom fans of the books and TV series might remember.  Cairngorm McWomble the Terrible once came down to Wimbledon, causing chaos (and making quite a lot of noise).  I had a chance to return the favour recently and pay a brief visit to Cairngorm's home patch.  This involved a train from London to Edinburgh; a dash from the station to my Edinburgh hotel where I would later return for the night; and a dash back to the station for another two hours on the train up to Blair Atholl, where the station has been awarded 'Bronze Tidy Station Standard' by Keep Scotland Beautiful.  The waiting room certainly had no rubbish.  But that might have been because it also had no door, enabling any rubbish to be blown away...  There is a small but twee gift shop, unoccupied at the time of my arrival but with a sign: 'Winter opening - I may not always be here at said times, but if you are passing and something catches your eye, please call [number] for assistance'.

 

My visit was to nearby Blair Castle - an extraordinary place of which more, perhaps, another time - and, as it was early spring in Scotland, there was a distinct chill in the air.  Added to which, Edinburgh is always cold whenever I visit that fair city.  It has many virtues, but a warm climate is not one of them.  Still, Cairngorm got a day out, which was just as well as he'd only have spent the rest of the year - and probably longer - complaining if he hadn't travelled with me.

Six degrees of Womble separation...?

Maybe it's just the effect of spending time writing a book related to the Wombles, but the world seems to be turning more and more Womble-tastic - at least around me.

The other day I mentioned the book to a colleague (in the office where I work with around ten others).  He said: 'Oh, really? Did you speak to Marcus?'

It turned out my colleague knew Marcus Robertson, son of Elisabeth Beresford and the original model for Orinoco (although he is far from fat or lazy in adult life, running several successful companies).

Then, the other day, a new colleague started.  After a few days settling in, they nipped around the corner to a cafe for an initial chat with me.  On the way back to the office, we talked about other things and the Wombles came up.  Like they do.

'Oh,' said my colleague.  'I toured with the Wombles a while ago.'

You couldn't keep walking when someone said something like that.  My colleague was not, in fact, a backing singer or musician - she was in PR, and had been accompanying a nationwide tour to promote the use of tin cans and particularly recycliny.  Hence the guest presence of the Wombles.

What a small Wombling world it is...

It's in next year's post...

It seems there may be Wombles by post next year if this report is true.  It's very good to see not only Great Uncle Bulgaria, but also Bagpuss and The Magic Roundabout, both of whom celebrate significant anniversaries next year. Get posting!

The Clangers influenced new Sky at Night presenter

For Journeys from Wimbledon Common I met several people whose lives and even careers had been influenced by the Wombles. Well, it turns out that another classic BBC animation series has had the same effect on at least one current TV presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock - the new Patrick Moore (sort of)...

Wombles Glastonbury gig on new YouTube channel

And while we're on about new stuff - there's a new Wombles YouTube site.  The first items to go up are videos of songs performed at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival.  The Wombles gig didn't make it onto the TV coverage at the time, so this is great.

All together now:

'Nashville Wombles play guitar real fine...'

New Wombles coming...

Mike Batt says it is only a 'teaser'. Presumably this means the details have to be worked out.  But, according to Batt:

'In a deal signed this week, Dramatico, my company has acquired the major shareholding in a company called Wombles Copyright Holdings Ltd – formerly owned 50/50 by ourselves and the estate of Elisabeth Beresford. This announcement can only be a teaser I’m afraid, regarding planned activity and probable project partners. Suffice to say we have plans for two new 26-part TV series’, a feature length movie and an interactive online “Wombles World” experience.'

He also refers to 'new musical productions we shall be mounting'.  This could be The Wombles: The Musical or something along those lines - the advantage being that, if it were done using a compilation of songs as per Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You etc, then the music's already done.

Apparently the rights to Elisabeth Beresford's Wombles books remain with her children, Kate and Marcus.

Perhaps we shouldn't get too excited at this stage - even if all these plans come to fruition, it's going to take time.  Even so - exciting, eh? Even Orinoco might wake up and pay attention to this...

Full statement by Mike Batt

Happy Birthday to you...

It's a year tomorrow since Journeys from Wimbledon Common was published. I can't send cake via the internet (and Orinoco has eaten it all anyway), but let's have a little sing-along at least... "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Wombles... Happy Birthday to you!"

New Wombles in 2014?

A couple of weeks ago, the Guardian carried interviews with Mike Batt and Bernard Cribbins for a feature 'How we made The Wombles'.

It's a great read - and buried deep within the piece is this little comment from Batt (the underlined words are my emphasis):

"The show took up two years of my 40-year career, yet I'm still known as the man who wrote the Wombles. I used to find this irksome: I once described them as a furry anvil round my neck. But now I realise they were more of a furry balloon, and I'm currently working on a new series for 2014. Time has taught me what a wonderful legacy those little creatures are."

This doesn't say whether it's radio or TV, or where such a series might be broadcast.  But keep your furry fingers crossed for new Wombles next year...

A letter from the Senior Office (Waste)

We received a letter the other week from the Senior Office (Waste) of our local council.  The Senior Office (Waste) is apparently part of something called the Joint Waste Service.  Now there's a title which could be misunderstood...

Anyway, the letter itself, and the information which came with it, was encouraging for those who are keen on recycling.  Up to now, we've received a supply of black sacks in which to put general rubbish including food - collected weekly - and a flat rectangular box into which to put paper waste, which is collected fortnightly.  At some point in June or July, this service will upgrade to:

• A food waste wheelie bin, with a silver kitchen caddy into which to collect scraps and leftovers - with weekly collections
• A black wheelie bin for general rubbish (which 'might include nappies securely tied in a bag, cat litter securely tied in a bag, plastic wrapping and polystyrene packaging and broken crockery or glass securely tied in a bag') - fortnightly collections
• A flat rectangular box for paper and cardboard - fortnightly collections, as now
• For £28 per year, a new garden waste wheelie bin for leaves and grass cuttings, trimmings and prunings, weeds, shrubs, flowers, dead plants, small branches (thumb width size) and even rabbit and guinea pig bedding - fortnightly collections

The £28 is an introductory offer which expires at the end of May - no doubt the charge will increase after that date.  'Charging for this collection will enable us to fund continuous improvements to the recycling service,' says the covering letter.  The overall aim is to recycle 60% of waste by 2015.

It certainly seems to represent an improved service although, to be fair, there is a line of (usually full or close to full) recycling boxes in a car park across the road, and a very useful tip a few miles away.  Our local council is not renowned for being dynamic; it frequently gives the collective impression of just wanting the local populace to leave it alone. Whether other services are being reduced to pay for all this is not clear to me.  Similarly, whether 60% is an ambitious target or actually rather a low one is a question which would need some research to answer.  But overall this initiative seems to be, as Sellar and Yeatman might put it, a Good Thing.

Wombledonia!

At last!  In a world full of theme parks (from Disney to Stalin), why hasn't there been a Womble theme park? Now that's all set to change with plans for the Wombles' original home, Wimbledon.

I can't wait!

Wombles from Kent - shock news (except they're not)

The Kent and Sussex Courier recently ran a story entitled: 'Revealed: Wombles are from the Weald'.  Apparently based on a conversation with Marcus Robertson, the son of Wombles creator Elisabeth Beresford, it mentions that Marcus' grandfather (and Elisabeth's father-in-law, as she explained it to me in 2009), who had a fruit farm in Kent, was the inspiration for the character of Great Uncle Bulgaria.  It claims: 'The Wombles may be synonymous with Wimbledon Common but the Weald was the real inspiration behind Orinoco and co.'

Reading the report further, it also states that Danger On the Old Pull'n Push, another TV series for children written by Elisabeth, was filmed in Kent.  Fair enough.  I wonder - being cynical - if the reporter or her editor decided that more people have heard of the Wombles than of Danger On the Old Pull'n Push - and adjusted the headline accordingly?

Because, as you and I know, while a Womble may have been inspired by a man of Kent, the implication that all Wombles are from Kent is, of course, totally misleading and wrong.  In the books, there are Wombles all over the world.  In terms of the characters' origins, the individual Wombles were named after places with family or other associations for Elisabeth Beresford. Hence, for instance, Madame Cholet was based on the author's mother and named after a French town  her daughter visited on a school trip, for instance. And Tobermory was based on the author's brother, who retired to the small town of that name in Scotland.

But then a headline in a Kent paper 'Wombles are from Kent as well as lots of other places' probably wouldn't be deemed to be quite so Kent-tastic, would it?

A shortage of knitting

This is a figurative comment; whether there is a shortage of true knitting I wouldn't know.  Let's hope not. The comment is a reference to one of the very few useful things that management 'gurus' [sic] have ever said, namely Tom Peters' advice to business to 'stick to the knitting' i.e. stick to what they know.

What, you ask, has this to do with Wombles? Well, it is connected to Wombles via - (somewhat implausibly) Newsnight.  Yes, Newsnight, the late evening BBC2 current affairs programme where issues in the news get a closer examination and, from time to time, politicians get grilled, turned over and grilled some more.  Newsnight, which got into trouble recently over the investigation-into-Jimmy-Savile-that-wasn't. Yes, that Newsnight.

You might think Newsnight has more important things to discuss than the Wombles (even though we all know they are important).  Apparently not. The other night, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast on BBC1 of the original Wombles TV series, Newsnight closed with a clip from the Wombles - and a comment from presenter Kirsty Wark that 'surprisingly, [they] weren't strangled at birth'. You can see it here.

This led to a number of complaints, some on the inevitable Twitter, including one from Mike Batt. Eventually Kirsty Wark apologised and explained the remark had been a joke.  I'm grateful to Tidybag for collating the various tweets here.

We do, of course, live in a ridiculous 24/7 news-eat-news culture where news is no longer news, but news which is going to be news ('The Government is set to announce...') or news of people commenting on other people's comments on something ('David Cameron has said that Hilary Mantel is wrong about...'). But I am still bound to ask:

1. Why was Newsnight discussing the Wombles at all? OK, it was a significant anniversary of a TV broadcast - but of a light entertainment programme.  If any late night BBC2 programme should mark such things, it's The Culture Show.

2. What on earth did Kirsty Wark think she was doing? Why would the BBC introduce a clip of one of its own programmes in order for a presenter to make a rude remark about it (ahem, sorry, 'joke')?

Some people will condemn this as another example of modern TV journalists editorialising when they should be reading a script. There might be a grain of truth in that. But I wonder if it's just one more symptom of a news culture which no longer has any discipline. You're a serious news and current affairs programme, Newsnight, so stick to the knitting. And Kirsty: next time you think a joke is a good idea... just shut up, eh?

Forty years on...

In just over an hour's time, it'll be exactly 40 years since the original broadcast of the first episode of the first TV incarnation of The Wombles. Happy anniversary!

This isn't the place to recount that episode in detail, nor to re-summarise the whole success story - aside from anything else, the summary on the Tidybag site does that better than I could - but here are a few thoughts and suggestions about why the Wombles have been so successful, and so enduring:

• They prove that families come in all shapes and sizes. There are no parents as such, nobody is married to anyone else and the vexed question of where baby Wombles come from is never addressed.  (There is a pecking order, of course, but that will happen wherever people or animals congregate.)  At a time when some of our MPs seem quite determined - to their shame - to argue that some forms of love are more equal than others, it's a gentle reminder that one size of family does not fit all.  Some of the greatest animations and children's TV have made this point in different ways.  Think of how often the Simpsons are described, for example, as 'dysfunctional'.  Funny, then, that they stay together, isn't it?
• The significance of the TV series success (although the books were very well received in the first place) lies partly in design.  If the TV adaptation had stuck with the teddy bear-esque look of the book illustrations, it's doubtful whether the Wombles would have captured so many hearts.  Although he did many other things in his life, Ivor Wood's Wombles designs were genius.
• The idea is so strong that it even survived a not terribly good revival in the 1990s.  I understand a new TV series may be in the pipeline, under the aegis of Mike Batt's production company.  Let's state the obvious here and now: get Sir Bernard Cribbins to do the voices. Please.

Above all, I wonder if any set of fictional characters for children engender the same levels of affection as the Wombles.  When doing the UK travel and research for Journeys from Wimbledon Common, I didn't come across a single person who disliked the Wombles, or thought they were cheap or tacky or any of the other criticisms which get thrown at other children's TV programmes of years gone by.

I hope Elisabeth Beresford is looking down on all this with a smile.  Wish you were here, Liza.

Those post-Christmas Wombling Blues...

It's the end of the holidays. 'Wombling Merry Christmas' isn't playing any more (except when you open the cupboard to get some crockery and the musical mug starts up - not sure what the electricians updating our light switches think of this).  The Orinoco costume is back in the cupboard. How do you get through these winter days without a touch of Wombling?

Luckily, people such as Arfon Jones have thought of this.  Mr Jones has prepared a special scientific display of what he calls 'Womblus Wimbledon Vulgaris' (trans. Common Wimbledon Womble).  Read, and marvel at his erudition.

Never mind the apocalypse...

Whatever your 2012 has been like, have a thoroughly Merry Wombling Christmas (and don't forget to tidy up afterwards...) and a Happy New Year!

For two final bits of Womble stuff this year:

1. The ultimate music/Wombles video with the ultimate Christmas song - even finding time to poke a bit of fun at a certain TV talent show...

2. If you haven't yet Wombled up your seasonal celebrations, the Kindle version of Journeys from Wimbledon Common is still available. Beat the Christmas post and order it to your Kindle today!

See you all in 2013...

In a hole in the ground there lived a... Womble?

You may have noticed that they've made a film of JRR Tolkien's classic tale The Hobbit.  Well, they've actually made (or are making, I'm not sure which) three films out of it. It's not a long book, so that seems excessive - and reminiscent of Elaine Stitch's comment on Just a Minute about Kenneth Williams' JaM technique - 'He makes one word into a three act play.'

Anyway - the first film of the trilogy is out soon and I'm looking forward to seeing it, partly because it's an adaptation of a book I haven't read in a long time - such a long time, in fact, that I had no idea of a Womble connection...

But there it is, on the second page of Chapter 1 in my wife's 1979 paperback edition, as the narrator introduces us to Bilbo Baggins' mother, Belladonna Took, from a family of Tooks who had adventures and

'were not as respectable as the Baggins... Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs Bungo Baggins.  Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water...'

Hang on! Just a moment... did he say Bungo Baggins?

Yes, he did. The narrative describes Bungo as 'solid and comfortable' - a notable contrast to Bungo Womble, who is chided by Great Uncle Bulgaria for such a silly choice of name from the Womble atlas.  I haven't had a chance to re-read the rest of The Hobbit to see if Bungo Baggins is mentioned again.

But here, if you'll forgive the irritating phrase, is a thing. When I interviewed Elisabeth Beresford for Journeys from Wimbledon Common, and asked her about the origins of the various names for the different Wombles, she told me that - unlike other names which came from places with definite family connections - Bungo came straight out of the Robertson/Beresford family atlas.  Life had, it seemed, imitated art. But hobbits live underground - like Wombles - and are heroic and lovely - like Wombles.  Is there a chance that - even if only subconsciously - Elisabeth Beresford got the name Bungo from Tolkien?

If so, then two thoughts occur:

1. Perhaps she dreamed it. In which case my never-yet-realised ambition to write a book about JRR and his influences, entitled Tolkein in their Sleep, may yet come to fruition.

2. The location filming for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit took place in New Zealand.  I've been to two UK Wellingtons, but not the New Zealand city of that name. Even if it's a bit tenuous, the Bungo connection gives me another reason to visit New Zealand. All I need is some money. Now where do you get money...?

The Womble Project

My other half has kindly put a summary of 'The Womble Project' (as she calls it) on Virtual Tourist.

VT is a very useful travel resource used by thousands of tourists and travellers from all around the world.  So it's heartwarming to think that, in our own small way, we might be creating a new trend in world tourism - a Womble Trail.

Or maybe not. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the information and the pictures.

'Her Britannic Majesty...'

One of the icons of our travels - the passport - seems to have had a makeover, while I wasn't looking.  And what a peculiar beast it is now...

The neat red cover with the royal coat of arms is familiar enough.  Underneath that and the word PASSPORT, though, is a small symbol which had me foxed - a gold circle encased in two rectangles. Apparently, according to the notes in the back of the booklet, it denotes that 'British citizens may use their e-passports in automated gates'.  Fine...

The inside front cover includes those famous words we have all learned by heart (ahem...):

'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.'

Where the old version of the passport surrounded this text with a decorative border, the new incarnation includes artwork of leaves and a row of what seem to be rural cottages.

Then there's a double page spread, with the content in landscape format, with the all-important photo and biographical information.  The photo used to be on a single page at the back. It probably makes sense to have it at the front instead (although arguably the place at which someone naturally opens a passport is the middle).  The second page of the spread features a copy of the photo and a space for 'official observations'.  In another piece of artwork, a seagull hovers, possibly unfortunately, over the photo on the opposite (left) page.

Then, after a couple of pages of small print explaining in about 25 languages the intricacies of the holder's signature, expiry date and so on, the passport reaches its crowning glory... 26 blank pages, awaiting their stamps as the holder crosses borders and adds more countries to their list.

Previous passports have featured decorative abstract art in the style of watermarks, but the new version goes several steps further.  Each double page spread includes themed artwork - a main image and an inset/closeup, an explanatory caption on the top left and a weather symbol of the sort Ian McCaskill used to stick on BBC maps, back when he got confused and told us there would be widespread GOF in Scotland that day. I'm not sure if each passport is different or there are a few variations (like £1 coins), but the artwork on the copy I have to hand is as follows:

REEDBED features a windmill and a dragonfly
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION shows the Giant's Causeway and an archway
COASTAL CLIFF uses the cliffs of Dover (I think) and a jetty
FISHING VILLAGE is messy, but displays small boats and a pile of rope
BEACH - a beach (obviously) and some beach huts
CANAL - with a lock
VILLAGE GREEN - an old wooden bench by the green, with a view of a duck pond
FORMAL PARK - landscaped gardens and a sundial
WOODLAND - a wood and the leaves from a beech tree
LAKE - and one of its inhabitants, a tuna
RIVER - in similar vein, a salmon
MOORLAND - a moor, and a tree bending in the wind
MOUNTAIN - and a snowy owl

It's all so pretty that it will almost be a shame to have the artwork obliterated by the stamps (or glued-in forms) of other countries' immigration officials.

One or two thoughts come to mind looking at all this creative outpouring.  I can understand why there are no images of people - but it does conjure up a somewhat misleading image of an empty, rural United Kingdom.  We do have our country spaces, of course.  But, if the intention is to give a quick visual guide to our islands, isn't it a bit counter-intuitive to leave out (say) London?

Still, it's a nice irony that a passport enabling UK citizens to travel elsewhere seems now to be used as a way to promote a specific image of the UK.  If we get an inpouring of other countries' immigration officials coming here on their holidays, we'll know it's worked.