Flower Pot Men

Originally, the programme was part of a BBC children's television series titled Watch with Mother, featuring a different programme each weekday, most of them involving string puppets. The Flower Pot Men was the story of Bill and Ben, two little men made of flower pots who lived at the bottom of an English suburban garden. The characters were devised by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird in the 1950s.[3][4] Rights to the stories were later sold to Ben Productions, successfully transferring the radio programme to television. The puppeteers were Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson. The voices and other noises were produced by Peter Hawkins, Gladys Whitred and Julia Williams. The narration in all episodes was done by Maria Bird.

The plot changed little in each episode and always took place in a garden, behind a potting shed. A third character, Little Weed, of indeterminate species resembling either a sunflower or a dandelion with a smiling face, was shown growing between two large flowerpots. The three were also sometimes visited by a tortoise called Slowcoach and, in one particular episode, the trio met a faintly mysterious character made out of potatoes, Dan the potato man. Typically, while the "man who worked in the garden" would be away eating lunch, the two Flower Pot Men, Bill and Ben, would emerge from their pots. After a minor adventure, a slight mishap would occur, for which someone would then take the blame: "Which of these two flower pot men, was it Bill or was it Ben?" the narrator would trill in a quavering soprano; the culprit would then confess, before the gardener's footsteps would be heard coming up the garden path; the Flower Pot Men then would vanish into their pots and the "Goodbye" screen would appear. The final punch-line was, "..and I think the little house knew something about it; don't you?".

The Flower Pot Men spoke their own, highly inflected version of English, called Oddle Poddle, invented by prolific voice artist Peter Hawkins (who also provided speech for the Daleks and Captain Pugwash). "Ickle-kickle", for instance, was an icicle and Ben would say "Flobabdob!".[2] At the end of each adventure, they would say bye-bye to each other and to the Little Weed – "Babap, Ickle Weed!" – to which the Weed would inevitably reply, with tremulous cadence, "Weeeeeeeeeeed!". This language, like that of the Teletubbies' in 1997, was criticised for hindering children from learning proper English.[2]

On 4 January 2001, a reboot[5] named Bill and Ben began on CBBC on BBC Two, this time involving stop-motion animation, 35mm film style and full colour, and made by Cosgrove Hall Films with a team of ten animators.[6] This reboot features the voices of John Thomson (who also serves as the narrator), Jimmy Hibbert, and Eve Karpf.[6] The series aired in Ireland on RTEjr and formerly aired on CBeebies in 2002–2008.

Many additions were implemented:

• A mean female rosebush with two talking buds in the neighbour's garden named Rose.
• A mischievous female prickly plant named Thistle.
• A female magpie named Pry, obsessed by shiny treasure, often just every bottle cap.
• A male hedgehog named Boo.
• A tortoise named Slowcoach remains in the series, with few changes to his characteristics. He gets angry at Bill & Ben for ruining his things, but mostly, for messing around.
• A male frog named Tad.
• A female squirrel named Scamper.
• A male baby squirrel named Scuff. He is Scamper's baby nephew.
• A female spider named Whimsy.
• A male earthworm named Whoops.
• A male talking tomato named Ketchup.
• Another male tortoise called Lightning. He is Slowcoach's brother.
• Bill and Ben's voice tones have switched; Bill now has the deep-toned voice, while Ben now has the high-toned voice.
• Weed no longer just says her name; she speaks normal English, playing an "earth mother" role to Bill and Ben and often assisting them.

The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.[7]

• Flower Pot Men at BBC Programmes
• http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/nostalgia-flobberdobberdobberdobber-what-fight-over-bill-and-ben-600758
• Toonhound on the Flowerpot Men
• Whirligig TV
• Flower Pot Men (1952)  at IMDb
• Bill and Ben (2001)  at IMDb
• Bill and Ben (2001) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• British Film Institute Screen Online