Little Red Tractor

Little Red Tractor is a British children's television series co-produced by the Little Entertainment Company and Entertainment Rights.[1] The ten-minute episodes were broadcast in the UK by the BBC on the CBeebies channel.[2]

Little Red Tractor
GenreChildren's television series
Created byColin Reeder
Voices ofStephen Tompkinson
Derek Griffiths
Theme music composerMichael Cross
Stan Cullimore
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series4
No. of episodes75
Production
Running time10 minutes per episode (approx.)
Production companiesLittle Entertainment Company
TRACK Productions Limited
Entertainment Rights
DistributorEntertainment Rights
Release
Original networkCBeebies
Picture formatHDTV (2004–2007)
Original release5 January 2004 (2004-01-05) 
29 April 2007 (2007-04-29)

The series is produced using stop motion model animation and features unusually detailed sets and models. It features the voices of Stephen Tompkinson and Derek Griffiths. The characters are based on the books by Colin Reeder, which were narrated for video in the mid 1990s by Brian Glover and Richard Briers. It is mainly aimed at an audience at elementary school.

History

Little Red Tractor Projects Limited owned the original Little Red Tractor video series. Despite not having television exposure, Little Red Tractor broke into the top ten children's videos and stayed there for several weeks. In total, the original series sold over 300,000 copies. Contender the distributor wanted to duplicate that success. However, the television rights were sold to Keith Littler's Little Entertainment Group because Peter Tye, the director/writer of the series, preferred their expertise in stop frame animation and empathy with the original. Despite losing the television rights to Little Red Tractor, Contender went ahead and produced their similar series, Tractor Tom. Despite apparent similarities to Tractor Tom, Little Red Tractor has a completely different style, with more realistic story-lines, a larger human cast, and no surreal livestock behaviour.

Characters

The characters of the series are:

  • Stan – Little Red Tractor's driver and constant companion. Stan lives at Gosling Farm, and keeps 2 cows Daisy and Veronica, and 2 pigs. He is voiced by Stephen Tompkinson.
  • Little Red Tractor (leader) – a small, old but reliable farm tractor, mute but capable of expressing emotions. Stan restored him to his as new condition. He resembles Tom from Tractor Tom.
  • Patch – is Stan's dog.
  • Mr. Jones – Stan's neighbor and owner of Big Blue Tractor and Harvey. He often appears selfish, materialistic or otherwise antisocial, but tends to be socially inept or smug rather than actually unpleasant. His full name is Mr. Jasper Jones and he lives at Beech Farm. He is voiced by Derek Griffiths.
  • Big Blue Tractor (co-leader) – a large, up-to-date farm tractor owned by Mr. Jones. Has no anthropomorphic traits, but can blow his horn by himself. He resembles Travis from Bob the Builder.
  • Harvey – Combine harvester owned by Mr. Jones but sometimes borrowed by Stan. He resembles Wheezy from Tractor Tom.
  • Thomas – Mr. Jones' nephew who comes to stay at Beech farm with him on occasion since Mr. Jones' sister moved back from the city to the country. Thomas is learning to like the country life which he initially thought was smelly, dirty and not as good as computer games.
  • Stumpy – the miller. Friendly and mildly eccentric. Drives his quadbike, "Nipper" very badly. Stumpy plays in Walters band.
  • Elsie – She is Stumpy's wife.
  • Nipper – a quadbike ridden by Stumpy. He resembles Buzz from Tractor Tom and Scrambler from Bob the Builder.
  • Ryan – Child neighbour of Stan. He and his sister like to play with Little Red Tractor and help out.
  • Amy – Ryan's sister.
  • Mr Turvey – Ryan and Amy's father. He likes to run and plays keyboards in Walters band.
  • Mrs Turvey – Ryan and Amy's mother. She likes to paint and does arts and crafts.
  • Walter – Runs the Babblebrook garage and likes to play rock and roll. Walter is easily led astray. Walter is lead singer and plays the guitar for his band called Walter and the Wolverines.
  • Nicola – Walter's daughter who also runs the garage. She tends to be far more sensible than her father. Nicola also plays an instrument in her fathers band.
  • Leo – Walter's nephew, becomes a friend of Ryan and Amy. He is a more than competent drummer who Stands in for Nicola in Walter's Band.
  • Sparky – Tow truck which Nicola and Walter drive.
  • Rusty – Walter's unreliable car and restoration project. Breaks down regularly.

Episodes

The Big Bang

Ladder

The Gold Cup

Little Red Tractor's Birthday

Making Hay

The Lucky Day

Berries

Mr. Fixit

Flying

Garage Sale

Tiger, Tiger

Windy Day

Farm of the Year

The Dam

Silence of the Cows

The Big Sneeze

Secret Den

Mr. Big

The Detectives

Roof Tops

Winter Lights

Dog Gone

Bye Bye Blue

Enter the Dragon

Water Water

The Party

The Beast of Babblebrook

The New Engine

The Town Boy

Circles in the Corn

Spuds

Little Red Rocker

Glorious Mud

The New Addition

The Treehouse

Traction Trouble

Gone With the Wind

Llama Drama

Read All About It

Marrow Mangler

Buried Treasure

The Ghost of Tawny Owl Wood

The Beech Farm Flyer

Paperchase

Molehills and Windmills

May Day

Scrambled Eggs

Farm Games

Double Trouble

Hot Hot Hot

Cheesed Off

Magic Hat

Thunder and Dancing

Row Yer Boat

Lost!

Up, Up and Away

One Potato, Two Potato

The Show Must Go On

Too Cold for Snow

Furry Jumper

Topsy Turvey

The Map

The Hill

Run

Movie Madness

Kart Race

What's Up Duck

Rambling Rabbits

Milkshake

Dog Gone

Unwanted Tractor

Raindance

Bubblegum

Countryside Code

Welcome Home

International Broadcast

References

  1. Godfrey, Leigh. "Entertainment Rights Hauls Little Red Tractor To Mipcom". Animation World Network. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  2. Donohue, Simon. "True North's on the right track". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
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