Pinky and Perky

Pinky and Perky

Pinky and Perky as they appeared on their original BBC TV show
Genre Children's television series
Created by
Presented by
  • Jan Dalibor
  • Vlasta Dalibor
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
Production company(s) Thames Television (1968-1971)
Distributor BBC Television (1957–1968), ITV (1968–1971)
Release
Original network BBC1 (1957–1968), ITV (1968–1971)
Picture format 405 lines (1957–1969) PAL (576i) (1969–1971)
Audio format Monaural

Pinky and Perky is a children's television series first broadcast by BBC TV in 1957, and revived in 2008 as a computer-animated adaptation.

Original series

The title characters are a pair of anthropomorphic puppet pigs, named Pinky and Perky, who were originally going to be named Pinky and Porky but there was a problem registering Porky as a character name. This was solved by Margaret Potter, the wife of their producer, Trevor Hill, who also discovered them, when she woke him up one night announcing "I've got it! Pinky and Perky!" They were created by Czechoslovakian immigrants Jan and Vlasta Dalibor. The characters of pigs were chosen because the pig is seen as a symbol of good luck in the former Czechoslovakia. The puppets, who had only very limited movements, looked very alike. Pinky wore red clothes and Perky wore blue, but this distinction was of little use on monochrome TV, so Perky often wore a hat.

Pinky and Perky spoke and sang in high-pitched voices, created by re-playing original voice recordings at twice the original recorded speed; the vocals were sung by Mike Sammes[1] while the backing track was played at half normal speed (Sammes did the same job for Ken Dodd's Diddymen, as Ross Bagdasarian did for the original Chipmunks in the early 1960s)—hence the expression "Pinky and Perky speed", when an LP record is played at 45 rpm or 78 rpm instead of the correct 33⅓ rpm. Pinky and Perky would often sing cover versions of popular songs, but also had their own theme song, "We Belong Together".

They had their own fictional TV station "PPC TV". They also performed comedy sketches usually with a human foil (similar to Basil Brush). Actor John Slater worked with them as a straight man for many years, enduring soakings from water pistols and similar pranks. Other human companions included Roger Moffat, Jimmy Thompson, Bryan Burdon and Fred Emney.

Their show included other puppets such as the Beakles, (an avian parody of the Beatles), Topo Gigio, a mouse puppet who appeared in many later episodes, as well as a female pig. Other puppets included Ambrose Cat, Basil Bloodhound, Bertie Bonkers the baby elephant, Conchita the Cow, Horace Hare and Vera Vixen.

The puppets also appeared on TV in the United States on a number of episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show: 532 (14 September 1958), 548 (4 January 1959), 573 (5 July 1959), 740 (10 March 1963), 780 (23 February 1964, where they shared the bill with the Beatles and Morecambe and Wise) and 908 (26 February 1967).

The pigs featured in series, such as Pinky and Perky's Pop Parade and Pinky and Perky's Island, for 11 years until 1968 on the BBC before transferring to ITV until 1971. There were no real people, sketches or stories in the shows at all. Instead, the puppets would be seen lip-synching and dancing to songs by the likes of Petula Clark. In this incarnation, each episode would end with the characters singing the Scaffold's hit "Thank U Very Much". At this point, there would be the only piece of spoken dialogue, which went along these lines:

"Who's going to say it?"
"Oh, let me!"
"No! I want to!"
"Alright, then, let's do it together! Ready—MUCH!"

Other shows and appearances

The characters enjoyed a brief revival in the 1990s, on the short-lived children's series The Pig Attraction. A children's annual was also produced in the '60s featuring their adventures.

The Pinky and Perky Show reappeared in an all-new CGI-animated television series on CBBC, beginning in November 2008 on BBC One. There are 52 episodes, each 13 minutes in length. Some of the old characters remained in the show, such as Vera Vixen (who often hatches schemes to try to get rid of the two pigs) and Morton Frog (who works in the production control room, usually running the end titles [or in "Cartoon Mash-Up", cueing the end music] at the end of an episode.). Alongside them, there were a host of new characters, such as K.T. the studio manager cat, Wilberforce the tortoise security guard (who comes up with impractical ideas for new acts or games for the show), and a pair of poodle receptionists called Tara and Tamara (who, in a recurring gag, often get Pinky and Perky's names wrong). There is also a steady stream of special 'celebrity' guests, many of which spoof better-known franchises, such as Doctor Who as "Dr. Roo" and Harry Potter as "Harry Trotter". The series was produced by Lupus Films, and line produced by Sally Marchant.

A DVD of the new look Pinky and Perky, featuring eight episodes from the new series, entitled Licence to Swill was released in 2009.[2]

Discography

Singles

All singles were released on 7" vinyl format unless otherwise stated:

EPs

EP cover of Children's Favourites with Pinky and Perky. Photographic illustration: Perky and a blue bird stand alongside Perky (seated) in front of a brick wall.
EP cover of Children's Favourites with Pinky and Perky (1961 Columbia Graphophone Company)

LPs

Cultural references

Notes

  1. ↑ Spencer Leigh, Mike Sammes, obituary in The Independent on Sunday, 11 June 2001
  2. ↑ PINKY & PERKY at televisionheaven.co.uk
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