Denise Bryer
After years of sailing the sea, Noah Tomten, a retired sea captain, owns an antique toy store called Notions Oddities Doodads and Delights of Yesterday, a variety of toys, from a weasel living inside of a jack in the box to a dog pretending to be a superhero, along with his pet lobster. Two of his grandkids, Kate and Truman, as well as Kate's friend DJ, come to visit him from time to time.
Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes delightful new friends, and dangerous new enemies.
The first four episodes of Gerry Anderson's 1980s Supermarionation series. In 'Expect the Unexpected (Part 1)' Queen Zelda attacks and destroys a NASA Mars expedition. 'Expect the Unexpected (Part 2)' sees Zelda offer to make peace with the Terrahawks. 'Thunder Roar' finds the Terrahawks battling the mighty Sram, Lord of Felony. 'Close Call' has an investigative reporter threatens to expose the Terrahawks on worldwide television.
Four Feather Falls was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television. It was based on an idea by Barry Gray, who also wrote the show's music. The series was the first to use an early version of Anderson's Supermarionation puppetry. Thirty-nine 13-minute episodes were produced, broadcast by Granada from February until November 1960. The setting is the late 19th-century fictional Kansas town of Four Feather Falls, where the hero of the series, Tex Tucker, is sheriff. The four feathers of the title refers to four magical feathers given to Tex by the Indian chief Kalamakooya as a reward for saving his grandson: two allowed Tex's guns to swivel and fire without being touched whenever he was in danger, and two conferred the power of speech on Tex's horse and dog. Tex's speaking voice was provided by Nicholas Parsons, and his singing voice by Michael Holliday. The series has never been repeated on British television, but it was released on DVD in 2005.
The Adventures of Twizzle is the very first television show produced by AP Films and specifically Gerry Anderson, after being approached by author Roberta Leigh and her colleague Suzanne Warner. Sources vary as to who directed the series. In addition to his production duties, Anderson also directed the action whilst photography was directed by Arthur Provis, Anderson's founding partner at AP Films. The music for the songs were written by Leslie Clair, the music was scored by Barry Gray, art direction came from Reg Hill and special effects were by Derek Meddings, all of whom would become long-time collaborators with Anderson. Twizzle and all the puppets for the 52 films were made by Joy Laurey, and there were two Twizzle puppets made for filming, one Twizzle puppet for conventional shots and another Twizzle puppet for the stunt shots when Twizzle's arms and legs became longer. The trick of extending Twizzle's arms and legs were based on a system of curtain rings and puppet strings pulled internally inside the puppets arms and legs.
Kandy the koala gets in a spot of bother when some unexpected visitors arrive at the house.
Hector's House is a children's television series using hand puppets. Like the better known The Magic Roundabout it was actually a French production revoiced for a British audience. A gentle, rather than subversive or outright bizarre, series, it was first broadcast in 1965. Its French title was La Maison de Toutou and the French version was written by Georges Croses. "La Maison de Toutou" translates as "The House of the Doggie" and in the French version, Zsazsa is known as ZouZou. In the UK, it was screened in the late 1960s and early 1970s for its 5-minute-long screenings on BBC 1 at 5.40 p.m. before the News. The main characters, affable Hector the Dog and cute Zsazsa the Cat, live in a house and beautiful garden. Kiki the Frog, dressed in a pink smock, is a constant and at times an intrusive visitor, through her hole in the wall. Despite Hector's willingness to endlessly help them out, Kiki and Zsazsa often played tricks on him to teach him a lesson, leading him to say his catchphrase at the end of the episode, "I'm a Great Big [whatever he was] Old Hector. Hector's voice was performed by Paul Bacon, who died in 1995. The voice of Kiki was by Denise Bryer, who also had roles in Noddy, Terrahawks and Labyrinth. The voice of Zsazsa was supplied by Lucie Dolène. About 78 episodes were made, each of 5 minutes' duration. A DVD featuring some of these episodes has been released.
