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 | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's television series |
| Created by | Colin Reeder |
| Voices of | Stephen Tompkinson Derek Griffiths |
| Theme music composer | Michael Cross Stan Cullimore |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 75 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 10 minutes per episode (approx.) |
| Production companies | Little Entertainment Company TRACK Productions Limited Entertainment Rights |
| Distributor | Entertainment Rights |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBeebies |
| Picture format | HDTV (2004–2007) |
| Original release | 5 January 2004 – 29 April 2007 |
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
References
- Godfrey, Leigh. "Entertainment Rights Hauls Little Red Tractor To Mipcom". Animation World Network. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- Donohue, Simon. "True North's on the right track". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
