Saturday 13 February 2010

Donald Duck Sounding Tentacle-Fingered Octopus Art Lovers

Paperplay



From Thames Television, this was disturbing but quite weirdly funny. Alright the finger puppets are actually 2 spiders, blook more like tiny octopus. Set in studio fantasyland, "Paperplay" is much like "fingerbobs" but with has no musical element and the finger puppets can fully communicate with an on-screen presenter, who is former "Magpie" presenter Susan Stranks, who came up with the idea of this show also. The puppeter is not seen, who is Norman Beardsley, camoflaged in the black background, and it's a good effect. In this episode, under the influence of a rather inconcisely titled book called "The Dangerous Sort", and they create a hot-air ballon from paper and yes, a balloon.

The 2 spider's names were Itsy and Bitsy, clear inspiration from the nursery rhyme "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Itsy was the Donald Duck-sounding red male, and Bitsy was the squeaky, human trumpetting yellow female. Other puppets also featured like Boris the Ladybird, Cardew the Caterpillar and Katie the bird.


"Paperplay" ran from 1974-1981 on weekday lunchtimes, so it was by no means, an oscure show.

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