Rainbow (TV series)

Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran from 16 October 1972 until 6 March 1992, made by Thames Television. The series was revived by Tetra Films from 10 January 1994 until 24 March 1997, in two different formats from the original Thames Television series, with differing cast members. The series was originally conceived as a British equivalent of Sesame Street.^[1]

The British series was developed in house by Thames Television.^[2] It was intended to develop language and social skills for pre-school children and went on to win the Society of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Children's Programme in 1975. It aired five times weekly, originally twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays, then switched to Tuesdays and Fridays, and finally once weekly at 12:10 on Fridays on the ITV network.

The show had three producers over its lifetime – Pamela Lonsdale, Charles Warren and Joe Boyer.

The original Thames series has gained cult status and continues to get frequent mentions on radio and television. A few DVDs have been produced, including one celebrating 30 Years of Rainbow.

Each episode of Rainbow revolved around a particular activity or situation that arose in the Rainbow House, where the main characters lived. Some episodes, particularly in the early years, were purely educational in format and consisted of a series of scenes involving the characters learning about that particular episode's subject. The puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle would take the role of inquisitive children asking about the episode's subject, with the presenter (initially David Cook, and from 1974 onwards Geoffrey Hayes) serving the role of teacher figure, educating them about the subject. From the 1980s onwards, most episodes were more story-driven and frequently involved a squabble or dispute of some kind between the puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, and Geoffrey's efforts to calm them down and keep the peace.

The main story was interspersed with songs (most notably from Rod, Jane and Freddy, although the musicians on the show changed several times during its run), animations by Cosgrove Hall Productions and stories read from the Rainbow storybook, usually by Geoffrey (David before 1974). Some episodes focused on a particular topic, such as sounds or opposites, and consisted mainly of short sketches or exchanges between the main characters, rather than a consistent storyline.

In 1972, Pamela Lonsdale was asked to create a preschool series for Thames Television. She cast John Kane as presenter and Tim Wylton as a bear named Rainbow.^[3] Violet Philpott was cast as the puppeteer of Zippy, with Peter Hawkins providing his voice, as well as those of Sunshine, Bramble and Pillar, however policy changes after the pilot meant those latter characters were recast.^[4] No script was made for the pilot,^[3] which led to Hawkins attempting to rewrite gags, difficult for the preschool audience, and would lead to him departing the show after its first year,^[4] recommending Roy Skelton to take over.^[5] For the first two filmed series, the show was presented by David Cook, with John Leeson as Rainbow, renamed Bungle, and featured songs by the group Telltale.

Philpott left the series after its first year due to suffering a back injury from Zippy's appearances all being through a window.^[6] She was replaced by John Thirtle for the second series, and Ronnie Le Drew from 1974 onto the present day. Cook left afterwards due to focusing on his writing career, and was replaced by Geoffrey Hayes.^[3] John Leeson also left at this point, replaced as Bungle by Stanley Bates, and Telltale were replaced by the trio of Charlie Dore, Julian Littman and Karl Johnson, who the following year were replaced by the trio that would eventually become Rod, Jane and Freddy. The second series also introduced George, operated by Valerie Herberden and voiced by Roy Skelton. Bungle's appearance was also changed with a completely different head design, more like a teddy bear than the previous grizzly bear look.

Herberden was replaced by Malcolm Lord as George's puppeteer, who Ronnie Le Drew recommended.^[7] The format of the show was built upon during this era, with the scripts beginning to move beyond the educational format of the show and focussing more on actual storylines, driven by character comedy rather than educational themes. More of the episodes were written by the cast members themselves, with Roy Skelton, Stanley Bates, Geoffrey Hayes and Freddy Marks all contributing episodes to the show.

In 1989, Rod, Jane & Freddy left the show to concentrate on their own TV series and their touring. Rather than replace them, most episodes became increasingly storyline-driven. Stanley Bates also stepped down from his role as Bungle to contribute as a scriptwriter, with George's puppeteer Malcolm Lord taking over as Bungle. George was now operated by Tony Holtham.

The show came to an end on New Years' Eve 1992, when Thames Television lost the London weekday ITV franchise to Carlton Television. Despite this, the cast continued to make TV appearances throughout 1993, guesting on talk shows as well as promoting the release of the "Raynboe" dance single by Eurobop (a mix of the theme tune set to a techno dance beat) and launching a newspaper campaign for the show to be brought back on air.

A reboot of the show by Tetra Films debuted on Children's ITV in on 10 January 1994. The reboot of the show reworked the format and replaced nearly all of the cast members. Geoffrey's presenter role was scrapped altogether and the show instead focused on the characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, now independent of Geoffrey, running a toy shop for an unseen boss called Mr Top. Tetra could not afford Roy Skelton to voice Zippy as well as hiring Ronnie Le Drew to operate him, so Ronnie became Zippy’s voice,^[8] while George was operated and voiced by Craig Crane. Bungle's appearance was changed and he was now played by Richard Robinson. An additional puppet character was also introduced in the form of Cleo, a blue female rabbit voiced and operated by Gillian Robic.

After the poor reception to the first reboot, Tetra Films attempted a second reboot in 1996 in association with HTV, reworking the format again into a form closer to that of the original series. Now titled Rainbow Days, the new show ditched the toy shop setting and brought the characters back into a house environment, and reintroduced the role of the presenter, with Dale Superville now presenting the show. The character of Cleo was scrapped entirely, and Bungle's role was now played by Paul Cullinan. Rainbow Days re-embraced the 'variety show' format of the original series, generally focusing on an educational subject and consisting of scenes with Dale educating the puppet characters about the episode's subject, interspersed with comedic exchanges between Zippy and George in a similar style to the 'Sunshine and Moony' sketches from the earliest seasons, and songs performed by the whole cast, led by Dale.

The theme song for the show was a small part of a full version, also called "Rainbow", written by Hugh Portnow, Lady Hornsbrie, Hugh Fraser and Tim Thomas of the band Telltale, who regularly appeared in the first two seasons of the show. It was released as a single on an offshoot of the Music for Pleasure label called Surprise, Surprise in 1973 with the B-side "Windy Day". Although Telltale left the show in 1974, their recording of the theme tune continued to be used until the end of the original show's run in 1992.

Rainbow featured the following characters, each with their own character style:

• The presenter was at first David Cook, but was replaced in 1974 by the better-known Geoffrey Hayes.
• Zippy – loud and domineering, but often very funny. The puppet was originally voiced by Peter Hawkins and operated by Violet Philpott, and later voiced by Roy Skelton, operated by Ronnie Le Drew.
• George – a shy, pink and slightly camp hippo. He broadly represented sensitivity and introversion. (puppet; voiced by Roy Skelton and operated by Malcolm Lord, Tony Holtham and later Craig Crane (who voiced the character in the Tetra shows).
• Bungle – a brown furry bear with a squashed face, who is inquisitive but also clumsy and usually complains a lot about the other characters. Bungle is a costume rather than a puppet; played by John Leeson, Stanley Bates and Malcolm Lord in the Thames TV series and by Richard Robinson and Paul Cullinan in the reboot. The stunt double in the late 1990s was Stuart Nichol.^[9]
• Rod, Jane and Freddy – a group of musicians who are regularly featured on the show. When they debuted in 1974 they were 'Rod, Jane and Matt', Matt being Matthew Corbett (of The Sooty Show fame). Matt was replaced from 1977 by Roger Walker, before Freddy Marks, in turn, took over in 1981.
• Sunshine and Moony – optimistic sunshine (yellow with a red hat) and his more gloomy friend Moony (brown with a tuft of yellow hair). They were voiced by Violet Philpott.
• Telltale – a six-piece group who provided the music in the early days of the show. They were a folk-rock band and their repertoire would consist of both original compositions and cover versions.
• Charlie Dore, Julian Littman and Karl Johnson – the singing trio who replaced Telltale in 1974. They stayed with the show before being replaced by Rod, Matt & Jane in 1975.
• Duffy – a white sheepdog and Zippy's short-lived original sidekick for a handful of episodes circa 1972. Replaced by George in the 1973 series.
• Zippo – Zippy's cousin, identical in appearance to Zippy but slightly brighter in colour, who would make the occasional guest appearance throughout the 1980s and 1990s seasons. Operated by Valerie Heberden, and voiced by Roy Skelton.
• Georgette – a pink female hippo, identical in appearance to George except for her longer eyelashes and floppy hat.
• Aunty – played by Patsy Rowlands, is apparently Geoffrey's aunt, who he used to stay with as a little boy.
• Christopher – played by Christopher Lillicrap, a semi-regular guest star who would guest on the show from time to time since the 70s, at first to read stories and later to perform songs, which the main cast would join in with.
• Vince – played by Vince Hill, a singer who would occasionally visit the Rainbow House and join in a song with Rod, Jane & Freddy.

In 1979, the cast and crew of Rainbow made a special exclusive sketch for the Thames TV staff Christmas tape, sometimes referred to as the "Twangers" episode. This sketch featured some deliberate sexual innuendo and was never shown at the time (as it was never intended to be screened to the general public.) The cast later sang "The Plucking Song".^[10]

• Thorn EMI Video/Thames Video (1983-1984)
• Video Collection International (1986–1996)
• FremantleMedia (2002–2018)

Episodes of the original Rainbow, dating from the early 1980s, were shown sporadically on the UK satellite TV channel Nick Jr. (and/or its sister channel, Nick Jr. 2) between March 2006 and January 2009 as part of its Nick Jr. Classics reruns. A previous repeat run took place on UK Gold (now Gold) from its launch in November 1992 to 1994; these were mostly from the final three seasons of the programme (without Rod, Jane and Freddy).

• Mike Anderiesz, Climbing High: Life Under the Rainbow Exposed (Boxtree, 2002).
• Tim Randall, Rainbow Unzipped – The Autobiography Published on 1 October 2009 by Headline Publishing Group (ISBN 9780755319763).
• The A to Z of Classic Children's Television by Simon Sheridan. (Reynolds & Hearn books, 2004, reprinted 2007). This book features a chapter on the series and interviews with Jane Tucker and Pamela Lonsdale. (ISBN 1-903111-27-7)
• Zippy and Me: My Life Inside Britain’s Most Infamous Puppet by Ronnie LeDrew, Unbound (2019)

An initial range of three hand puppet books featuring Bungle, Zippy and George was launched at the London Book Fair on 12 March on Sweet Cherry's stand, and then at the Bologna Book Fair on 1 April. These books were going to be available at retail from July–October 2019, but it was delayed further until May 2020.

• I Love You, Bungle! (Sweet Cherry Publishing, 28 May 2020) (ISBN 1782266062)
• Time For Bed, Zippy! (Sweet Cherry Publishing, 28 May 2020) (ISBN 1782266070)
• Let's Play, George! (Sweet Cherry Publishing, 28 May 2020) (ISBN 1782266089)

• Rainbow at IMDb
• Transcript of the adult version
• Zippy's Big Red Twanger
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Rainbow Facebook Fan Page
• BBC News, 28 February 2006.
• Zippy and George starred on The One Show, 9 October 2009.
• Zippy, George and Bungle appeared in the Pizza Hut advert, 3 October 2017.