List of Come Outside episodes

It is night time at Auntie Mabel's house. She and her dog Pippin search the garden for Spikey the hedgehog who is a regular visitor. Auntie Mabel remembers the day when Spikey broke his leg and she flew him in her aeroplane to St. Tiggywinkle's Wildlife Hospital. She saw many other sick animals at the hospital. Spikey soon recovered and was returned to Auntie Mabel's garden. Auntie Mabel is about to go to bed when she spots Spikey enjoying a meal of Pippin's favourite dog food.

Pippin is making too much mess indoors and Auntie Mabel decides she must move into a kennel in the garden. Pippin is not keen, even when her friend Danny pays a visit. Auntie Mabel finds a snail on the garden path and compares the size of its ‘house’ its shell with Pippin’s kennel and her own house. She and Pippin fly to London Zoo to see the giant snails. When they return. Pippin is sent to her kennel for the night. Auntie Mabel recites some verses from The Four Friends by A. A. Milne then changes her mind and lets Pippin back into the house.

It’s Pippin’s bath day but she doesn’t like having a bath and so she’s hiding in the cupboard. Auntie Mabel is filling the bath when she hears water gushing outside. A pipe under the street is leaking. Auntie Mabel phones the water company and while they repair the pipe she and Pippin visit the river. where their water comes from. and where it begins its journey through cleansing and purifying processes. ending up at Auntie Mabel’s kitchen tap. She tells Aesop’s fable ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’. The leaking pipe is mended and now Pippin can have her bath.

Today Auntie Mabel will give some children a music lesson using wooden musical instruments. She uses wooden kitchen utensils to make some jam tarts for the children. Pippin wants a jam tart but Auntie Mabel tells her they are not good for dogs. Auntie Mabel finds many things made of wood in her kitchen and living room. She recites ‘The table and the chair’ by Edward Lear and recalls the day she and Pippin went for a walk in the woods. They saw a tree being felled. visited a factory where wooden furniture is made and bought a wooden chair. The children arrive for their music lesson and while they’re not looking Pippin steals a jam tart. PIPPIN!!!

Pippin has been to the newsagent to collect Auntie Mabel’s daily newspaper. She brings it home but won’t let go of it. She carries it around with her all day. even when they fly off in Spotty Plane to visit a forest. They see a tree being cut down and travel with it to a paper factory where they find out how newspaper is made. Pippin misbehaves and loses Auntie Mabel’s newspaper in a heap of papers and magazines waiting to be recycled. When they get home. the newspaper Pippin is carrying is not the one Auntie Mabel was expecting to read.

Auntie Mabel receives a new brown teapot as a birthday present from her nephew Jay who is coming to tea. When Pippin accidentally breaks it they hurry to the shop to buy a replacement before Jay arrives. But the shop has run out of brown teapots. So they fly to the pottery factory. visit a clay quarry and watch a teapot being made on a potter’s wheel. Eventually they return home with their new brown teapot. When Jay arrives for tea. Pippin gets over excited and knocks over the new teapot. Auntie Mabel catches it just in time.

Auntie Mabel is sorting her rubbish while Pippin is busy picking up litter and putting it in the dustbin. The refuse collection vehicle arrives but Pippin misses it and chases after it with a piece of litter. Auntie Mabel takes some of her rubbish to the paper. can and bottle banks. and we see how new milk bottles are made from old recycled glass bottles. Some of Auntie’s old plastic containers and cardboard boxes are going to a local school where they use them to make models. Her vegetable peelings go on the compost. Meanwhile. Pippin is lost. Auntie Mabel flies in Spotty Plane to the rubbish tip to look for her. It’s the end of the day by the time Pippin arrives at the tip but Auntie Mabel has gone home.

Auntie Mabel digs a hole in her garden and plants a tree. She and Pippin watch men from the telephone company working in a hole in the street to lay new cables under the street. They fly to Wookey Hole caves where they see stalagmites. the witch of Wookey Hole and her dog. and water from an underground river. Auntie Mabel tells her version of Aesop’s fable ‘The fox and the goat’ in which the fox is trapped in a hole in the ground but tricks the goat into helping him out. Pippin falls into a hole in the road. Auntie Mabel rescues her but what’s happened to the tree she planted.

Auntie Mabel has run out of bread. She and Pippin go on a journey in their Spotty Plane to buy some more and find out where bread comes from. They visit a wheat field. a flour mill and a bakery where the loaves are made. Auntie Mabel sings a song about the many different kinds of bread for sale in the shops. She chooses a loaf and takes it home. She tells the story of the Little Red Hen who couldn’t persuade any of the animals on the farm to help her grow some wheat. cut and thresh it. take it to the mill to be ground into flour. or make the bread. So she did it all by herself. When the bread was ready to eat they all wanted to help her. but she ate it by herself.

Auntie Mabel is the start of the day. Pippin wakes up one morning. Pippin is frightened when she finds two geese swimming on the pond in Auntie Mabel’s garden. They fly in Spotty Plane to a place where there are many different kinds of geese and some goslings. They get home just in time to see the geese fly away. Auntie Mabel gives Pippin a new cushion filled with goose feathers. But Pippin wants to play with it. the cushion splits open and feathers fly everywhere.

Auntie Mabel and Pippin have been out for a walk and they got caught in the rain. Auntie Mabel’s Wellington boots have holes in them and her feet are wet. They fly in Spotty Plane to the shoe shop in the High Street but Auntie Mabel is dismayed to find they have sold out of boots in her size. So they fly on to The Gates Rubber Company. a factory where they watch Wellington boots being made. There Auntie Mabel shows us how the rubber is pressed flat, a lining is glued on. the rubber is formed into the shape of a boot. and soles and heels are added. Auntie Mabel buys a new pair. She tells the story of Martha the firefighter who couldn’t get her boots off until everyone came to help.

It’s Pippin’s bath day and so she is hiding in the cupboard. Auntie Mabel is about to run the bath when she sees a spider. She lifts it out of the bath. counts its legs and shows how it can spin a thread and hang from it. A spider is seen spinning a web to catch an insect. Auntie Mabel and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to Peter's house and visit some big spiders. including a tarantula. and their spiderlings. When they get home. it’s time for Pippin’s bath but Auntie Mabel has to catch her first. In return. Pippin washes her bath on her bathtub. At the end of the day. she gets down Pippin and dry yourself down and you know all about spiders.

Auntie Mabel has to return some books to the library before it shuts. She and Pippin climb into Spotty Plane but it won’t start and so they have to go on the bus. Auntie Mabel is in such a hurry that she leaves Pippin asleep on the bus by mistake. Pippin ends up at the bus depot where she helps the bus driver look for lost property and sees a bus being washed and filled with fuel. Auntie Mabel discovers her plane wouldn’t start. because its tank was empty. and Pippin gets a special ride home on the bus.

Bus driver: Ashok Srivastava
With thanks to: CentreWest London Buses Ltd.

Auntie Mabel and Pippin visit an apple orchard in Kent where Cox’s Orange Pippins are growing. They help with the harvesting. watch the apples being sorted and ride with the apples to market where they are bought by a shop owner. They go to the shop where the apples are put on display and Auntie Mabel buys some for a fruit salad.

Auntie Mabel and Pippin are buying some tricks for a children’s party. including a fake poo made of plastic. When they get home. Auntie Mabel notices Pippin has made a poo on the path outside her front door. She cleans it up and puts it down the lavatory. She decides to find out where the dirty water goes and explores an underground sewer. Auntie Mabel and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to visit a sewage treatment plant. They see how water is cleaned and returned to the river and how solid waste can be treated and used as fertilizer to be spread on fields. Back home again. Pippin tricks Auntie Mabel into thinking the fake poo is real.

Auntie Mabel is knitting a blue jumper for her sister Edie when she runs out of wool. She and Pippin go to the shop to buy some more. but they have sold out of blue wool. Auntie Mabel decides to begin at the beginning. She and Pippin set off in Spotty Plane to find some sheep. They watch the sheep being shorn and find out how the wool is carded and spun into a long thread. They visit a factory where the wool is dyed and at last Auntie Mabel finds the blue wool she needs to finish the jumper.

Shop assistant: Valerie Hunkins

Auntie Mabel buys a packet of her favourite cheese and onion crisps and decides to find out where potato crisps come from. She and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to the fields where potatoes are being harvested. Auntie Mabel describes the life cycle of the potato plant and Pippin helps to dig them up. They see the potatoes being sorted and then travel to the Golden Wonder crisp factory. Auntie Mabel watches the potatoes being washed sliced and cooked. She sees how the flavour is added and the crisps are sealed in air tight packets ready to be sold in the shops. When they get home. Auntie Mabel pops out of her packet and says: “In the bin please Pippin”.

Pippin ran out of the door and behave to stop at the end.

A mouse lives in a hole in Auntie Mabel’s kitchen wall. She and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to a wood to look for holes that are home to different animals. They find holes in tree trunks and in the ground which might be occupied by squirrels. woodpeckers and badgers. Auntie Mabel remembers the day when a hole in the back door saved her life. She had installed a dog flap for Pippin. One day she became trapped in her larder and her chip pan caught fire. Pippin got out through the dog flap and ran to fetch the fire brigade. The firemen arrived just in time to put out the fire and save Auntie Mabel.

Auntie Mabel and Pippin have been to stay with their friend Dora. But Pippin gets bullied by Dora’s big dog Gully and she leaves her little suitcase behind. When they get home. Auntie Mabel writes a letter to Dora. They take it to the Post Office and buy a stamp. Auntie Mabel decides to travel with the letter to see what happens to it. They watch letters being sorted. ride in a post van and on the night train. After a long journey they end up. with the letter. back at Dora’s. Pippin stands up to the big dog and retrieves her suitcase.

Auntie Mabel brushes her teeth with some striped toothpaste because today is check up day at the dentist. Pippin is taken to the vet to have her teeth checked too. They go to a chemist to buy some more of Auntie Mabel’s toothpaste and then visit the factory where the toothpaste is made and find out how they put in the stripes.

Auntie Mabel decides to build a rockery in her garden. She and Pippin fly off in their Spotty Plane in search of some stones. They visit a beach but the stones are too small for a rockery. So they go to a stone quarry where they see huge slabs of stone being dug out of the ground and watch the stone masons at work shaping pieces of stone which will be used to decorate the wall of a building. At the quarry. Auntie Mabel finds some pieces of stone just the right size for the rockery.

Quarry Foreman: Reginald Tsiboe

Auntie Mabel prepares a picnic hamper and puts some sausages in Pippin’s lunch box. They fly to the countryside in Spotty Plane looking for a good place to have their picnic. They come across a field of blackcurrants being harvested. Auntie Mabel decides to follow the blackcurrants to the factory where they are turned into blackcurrant juice and put into cartons. Auntie Mabel buys one to drink on the picnic. They are about to start their picnic when Auntie Mabel hears the sound of a woodpecker coming from the woods nearby. She and Pippin follow the sound and see the woodpecker. Auntie Mabel can’t remember the way out of the woods. but Pippin has left a trail of food and they follow it back to their picnic.

A cat is after Auntie Mabel’s goldfish. but she shoos it away. She and Pippin fly to the river in Spotty Plane where they feed and watch all sorts of freshwater fish. They meet a fisherman and his dog who catch a trout. Auntie Mabel tells the story of Bernard the stickleback who looked after all his brothers and sisters. When they return home. Auntie Mabel sees something in the cat’s mouth. She thinks it’s one of her goldfish but it turns out to be one of Pippin’s sausages.

Auntie Mabel is looking after her sister Edie’s rabbit Bobby. Pippin is sulking as Bobbie is getting all the attention. Bobby is staying in a hutch in the garden. with a fence round it. Auntie Mabel changes the straw in the hutch and Pippin begins to make friends with the rabbit. They fly to the countryside where they see some wild rabbits and visit some baby rabbits in a Nature Park. When they get home. Auntie Mabel feeds Bobby with a meal of dandelion and cabbage leaves. But she leaves the gate open and Bobby hops out of his enclosure and into the garden. Auntie Mabel tells the story ‘Brer Rabbit and the Well’. She returns to the hutch to check on Bobby and is horrified to find him gone. But eventually she finds him curled up with Pippin in her basket.

Auntie Mabel and Pippin collect some newly laid eggs from their hens. They look at pictures of different eggs then fly in Spotty Plane to an ostrich farm where they see an ostrich’s nest containing some very large eggs. They watch an ostrich egg hatching and meet some baby ostriches. When they return home. Auntie Mabel feeds her hens. but is distracted when the phone rings and leaves a gate open by mistake. Pippin spots a fox hiding in the bushes and runs to fetch. Auntie Mabel who shoos away the fox and closes the gate just in time.

Auntie Mabel is moving house and there are packing cases and boxes everywhere. Pippin is feeling sad and Auntie Mabel gives her the key to their new house to look after. Pippin packs her little suitcase and Auntie Mabel packs her ‘treasure chest’ which has some special boxes in it – a Jack-in-the-box, a musical box and a jewellery box. Auntie Mabel tells the story ‘The Magic Box’ Pippin hides in the back of the removal van. By the time the van is ready to leave. Auntie Mabel can’t find Pippin anywhere. She spends a long time looking for her then flies in Spotty Plane to her new house to tell the removal men what has happened. But by the time she arrives they have found Pippin and the key and unloaded all the furniture.

Auntie Mabel is using bricks and mortar to repair a hole in her cottage wall but hasn’t enough bricks to finish the job. So she and Pippin fly off in Spotty Plane to get some more. They fly over a clay quarry and visit a factory to see how bricks are made. Auntie Mabel buys some bricks to finish the hole in her wall. They’re too heavy to carry and will be delivered on a lorry. Before returning home. Auntie Mabel and Pippin visit a building site. While Auntie Mabel has a go at brick laying. Pippin runs off and gets lost in amongst the machinery. She is in great danger and Auntie Mabel can’t find her. At the end of the day. there is still no sign of Pippin and Auntie Mabel goes alone home. But when the lorry arrives with her bricks she gets a lovely surprise. Pippin is on the lorry too.

Delivery man: Neil Reidman

Pippin is visiting some goats who live next door. Auntie Mabel calls her as it’s time to go to school. Pippin joins in with a class of children singing ‘Old MacDonald’ and goes out to play with them. while Auntie Mabel helps out in the kitchen. She serves the children carrots as part of their lunch and Pippin has a sausage and some carrot for her lunch. They fly in Spotty Plane to a farm where they find out how carrots grow from seeds. Auntie Mabel sees the carrots being washed sorted and packed ready to go off to the shops. Pippin finds a carrot outside and puts it in her lunch box. When they get home. she gives the carrot to one of the goats.

Auntie Mabel is drawing a picture of Pippin but she needs a new pencil. They go to a stationery shop to buy one. Auntie Mabel wants to see where pencils come from. She and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to Seathwaite Fell where graphite was discovered five hundred years ago and Auntie Mabel tells a story about a sheep farmer who used graphite to mark his sheep. They visit a graphite mine where they see how the graphite was chipped away from the rocks. Then they visit a factory where pencils are made from graphite and clay. Pippin is given a piece of graphite and Auntie Mabel buys a set of coloured pencils. Now when they get home. she can complete Pippin’s portrait in colour once Pippin has stopped making marks on it with her graphite. in return. Auntie Mabel writes Pippin.

Pippin helps Auntie Mabel hang her washing on the line. Auntie Mabel gives her a hug and tells her she needs a bath. Pippin hates having a bath and so she runs away and hides in the laundry basket. Auntie Mabel has run out of soap and goes out to buy some more. while Pippin stays firmly hidden. Auntie Mabel looks at all the different kinds of soap in the supermarket. buys a bar of soap and takes it home. Then she flies off in Spotty Plane to find out how soap is made. While she’s gone. Pippin hides the soap in a biscuit barrel. and when it starts to rain she pulls the washing from the line and drags it through the mud into the kitchen. Auntie Mabel will have to do the washing all over again.

Auntie Mabel’s sister Edie is due to visit and so Auntie Mabel is sweeping brushing and cleaning her house. She even brushes Pippin. She remembers the day she and Pippin visited a factory to see how brushes are made from coconut fibres plastic and wood. While Auntie Mabel looked around. Pippin made a collection of different brooms and brushes. Auntie Mabel tells the story The Sorcerer’s Apprentice where a boy is having trouble with the brushes.

Pippin has eaten some bad food and now she isn’t well. Auntie Mabel puts food in her fridge to keep fresh. but keeps her marmalade in the larder. She flies to an orange grove in Spain where the oranges are being harvested. She flies on to a factory where the oranges are made into marmalade. As marmalade used to be thought of as good for upset stomach. Auntie Mabel takes some home and gives a spoonful to Pippin to help her feel better. She tells a story about Mary Queen of Scots who ate some marmalade on a stormy sea voyage to stop herself feeling seasick.

There are frogs living in Auntie Mabel’s garden. She finds some frog spawn floating in her pond and describes how the eggs develop into tadpoles which grow into frogs. She tells the story of the tadpole who thought he was a fish until to his horror he began to grow legs. Auntie Mabel and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to Chester Zoo where they meet a giant African bullfrog and a green Australian tree frog. When they get home. Auntie Mabel gives Pippin a present a toy frog. Pippin carries it into the garden and sets it down on the edge of the pond.

Auntie Mabel loses one of her gardening gloves. While Pippin searches the garden. trying to sniff it out. Auntie Mabel smells the scent of a hyacinth and examines its bulb. It’s Spring time and her garden is full of daffodils. She remembers a visit she and Pippin made to Lincolnshire the year before. where they saw fields being planted with daffodil bulbs. She decides to fly back again to see if the bulbs have grown into daffodils. They watch the daffodils being picked and packed ready to go to the shops. Then Auntie Mabel and Pippin join in the annual Flower Parade. When they get home. Pippin finds Auntie Mabel’s gardening glove in the dustbin!

Auntie Mabel is weeding her garden but leaving plenty of flowers for the butterflies. She spots a butterfly on the buddleia. It flies off lands on Pippin's nose and Pippin chases it. Auntie Mabel finds out the name of the butterfly which is a peacock butterfly and recites the rhyme "The Butterfly and the Moth". She and Pippin fly in Spotty Plane to a butterfly house where they see many different kinds of butterflies. their eggs. caterpillars and pupae. When they get home. Auntie Mabel tries to catch a moth fluttering round her kitchen light. but it is difficult with Pippin around.