40 Fun Facts About Trumpton

Which officer commands Trumpton's fire brigade and calls the famous roll of his men's names?

Captain Flack leads the brigade, and to his annoyance his men are sent to every kind of emergency except the one they trained for.

Why did the makers of Trumpton never let the fire brigade tackle a real blaze?

Flames were hard to animate, along with water and smoke, so the firemen were called out to all sorts of minor mishaps instead.

Which Play School presenter narrated Trumpton and also sang the songs of its characters?

Brian Cant spent 21 years on Play School, and a 2007 poll named his the best-loved voice in UK children's television.

In Trumpton's fire brigade roll call, which surname is heard twice because two firemen are twins?

Pugh is called twice for the brigade's twin brothers, and the series' creator was firm that neither of them was named Hugh.

What did Trumpton's creator do with nearly all of the original puppets and sets years later?

He burned them, and the lone survivor, a soldier from Camberwick Green, later failed to reach its reserve price at Christie's.

What do Trumpton's firemen turn into for the closing scene of every single episode?

Town band duty follows every call-out, with the firemen playing the episode out at the Thursday concert as the townspeople gather round.

Which band's video for Burn the Witch was animated in the style of Trumpton and its sister series?

Radiohead's video crossed the cosy puppet look with the horror film The Wicker Man, and the family of Trumpton's creator said nobody had asked them.

Every episode of Trumpton opens with a shot of which feature of the Town Hall?

The clock is introduced by the narrator in the same few lines each time, before the townsfolk appear going about their daily business.

Which former BBC puppeteer created Trumpton and built its puppets and vehicles himself?

Gordon Murray had earlier been the puppeteer of Spotty Dog in The Woodentops, and he made Trumpton through his own puppet company.

Where did the family of Trumpton's creator find original film that led to a digital restoration?

In an attic lay boxes of the original footage, and the BBC went on to clean, scan and restore all 39 episodes of the trilogy frame by frame.

Which series followed Camberwick Green and Trumpton, adding a biscuit factory and a steam railway?

Chigley completed the trilogy, and it borrowed so many earlier puppets and theme songs partly to save the cost of making new ones.

Trumpton's creator gave up string marionettes for which technique, seen in Eastern Europe?

Stop motion won out because he feared string puppets would look old-fashioned, so he built the puppets himself and left the frame-by-frame filming to two specialist animators.

What does Mrs Cobbit sell from her regular pitch in Trumpton's town square in every episode?

Flowers are her trade, and one episode reveals she has not missed a day in the square for forty years, Sundays aside.

Mr Antonio appears in the crowd at the close of every Trumpton episode, and what does he sell?

Ice cream is Mr Antonio's trade, and although he turns up for every finale he joins the story itself in only two episodes.

What do Trumpton's firemen keep unrolling by mistake until their captain tells them to stop?

The hose often comes out by habit on a call-out, even though the crew are never sent to fight a real fire.

Which Camberwick Green character, from Trumpton's sister series, later fronted Quaker Oats adverts?

Windy Miller and his windmill had to be rebuilt from scratch for the adverts, and Charlie Higson voiced them in place of the original narrator.

A spoof Trumpton account on Twitter made headlines for parodying which British political party?

UKIP made the joke famous when one of the party's own MEPs urged his followers to report the account as a fake.

Which BBC police drama restaged the opening of Trumpton's sister series as a puppet hallucination?

Life on Mars shrank its detective Sam Tyler to a puppet rising from the Camberwick Green musical box after an accidental overdose in hospital.

What breed are Mitzi, Daphne and Lulu, the three dogs of Trumpton milliner Miss Lovelace?

Pekingese trot beside her in most of her appearances, and her shop front uses the formal title milliner rather than plain hat maker.

Barney McGrew, the elderly driver of Trumpton's fire engine, is always shown with what odd feature?

Closed eyes never keep him from the wheel, and the brigade he drives for appears in every one of the thirteen episodes.

Mr Clamp runs which kind of Trumpton shop, trading under the sign J Clamp & Son?

A greengrocer's it is, and the son on the sign is never seen, which leaves open the chance that Mr Clamp is the son himself.

Mr Munnings, who appears in Trumpton's opening titles, earns his living in which trade?

Printer was also the first career of the man who narrated the series, who worked as one before he took up acting.

What is the name of carpenter Chippy Minton's apprentice son, seen in every Trumpton episode?

Nibs works beside his father throughout, and a remark by his mother Dora hints at a brother or sister who is never seen.

Trumpton's animators later sold their north London studio building to which 1980s pop duo?

Eurythmics finished the album Sweet Dreams upstairs in the building, now known as the Church Studios, before buying it from the animators.

What decision by Trumpton's makers let the BBC keep repeating the series well into the 1980s?

It was filmed in colour at the animators' insistence, although BBC1 was still broadcasting in black and white when Trumpton first went out.

After the BBC's repeats of Trumpton ended, which broadcaster reran the trilogy in the late 1990s?

Channel 4 gave all three series a fresh run in the 1990s, years after the BBC had ended its long cycle of repeats.

Which magazine ran a Camberwick Greenbelt cartoon and later Trumpton strips mocking Donald Trump?

Private Eye first ran its Trumpton strip for a few issues around the start of 2016, then revived it that August as the American election neared.

Which birds does Trumpton shopkeeper Mr Platt keep as a hobby, the subject of one late episode?

Pigeons, kept for racing, are the centre of the twelfth of the thirteen episodes, which takes its title from them.

Which indie band's EP The Trumpton Riots imagines a violent uprising on the town's streets?

Half Man Half Biscuit filled the town with striking firemen and a military coup, and also parodied a train song from the trilogy's third series.

Nick Fisher appears in Trumpton's very first episode, doing which job around the town?

Bill poster Nick Fisher features in the opening episode, though episode titles were printed only in Radio Times and never shown on screen.

Which policeman keeps order in Trumpton and stands in the crowd at the close of every episode?

PC Potter is Trumpton's own officer, not to be confused with PC McGarry, who keeps the peace in nearby Camberwick Green.

Which classical guitarist composed Trumpton's music and also created many of its sound effects?

Freddie Phillips had played with The Royal Ballet and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and he altered tape speeds to invent the sounds he wanted.

Which children's author wrote the scripts for Trumpton despite not owning a television at the time?

Alison Prince took the work to feed her three children, and later shared the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize with Philip Pullman.

Which animation duo brought Trumpton's puppets to life in a homemade studio in Crouch End?

Bura and Hardwick shot one frame for every movement where other studios might use two, completing at least two and a half minutes of film a week.

Which dance act sampled the series' music for the 1992 rave single A Trip to Trumpton?

Urban Hype took the single to number six in the UK chart, part of a short craze for rave records built on children's television.

Which 1980s BBC sketch show spoofed Trumpton as Scumton, with a character called Vic the Vandal?

Three of a Kind, which starred Lenny Henry, Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield, also gave its spoof town a Mrs Pensioner and a PC Pig.

Mr Philby wears a smart uniform in Trumpton, doing which job for the Mayor?

Chauffeur Mr Philby drives the Mayor's vintage car and keeps its brass headlamps polished while he waits outside the town hall.

Which BBC charity's 2009 medley video ends with Trumpton's Chippy Minton arriving too late?

Children in Need gave him the last gag of the video, in which Big Chris from Roary the Racing Car tells him he missed the whole performance.

Mr Troop holds which official post beside Trumpton's Mayor?

Town clerk Mr Troop serves a Mayor who is the one regular character in the series whose name is never revealed.

Which BBC Radio 4 programme used Trumpton's economy as a model to explain the fiscal multiplier?

More or Less laid off one of the town's firemen in its example, to show the effects of the 2008 financial crisis.