The Lampies
The Lampies is an English children's animated television series created by David Bonner and features a mix of 2D and 3D animation.
| The Lampies | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Entertainment |
| Created by | Dave Bonner |
| Written by | David Bonner, Jimmy Hibbert |
| Directed by | Dean Roberts, Mark Marren |
| Voices of | Jimmy Hibbert Eve Karpf Rob Rackstraw Susan Sheridan |
| Theme music composer | Mcasso |
| Composer | Mcasso |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 104 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Theresa Plummer-Andrews, James Coldwell |
| Producer | Morgan Francis |
| Editors | Mark Edwards, Rory Timoney |
| Running time | 11 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBBC |
| First shown in | 12 October 2000 |
Created by David Bonner in conjunction with Uli Meyer Animation Studios and music by Mcasso Music, there are 52 eleven-minute episodes that were originally commissioned by the BBC. Financial issues caused the creative and business drive to falter and momentum was lost. In 2003 The Lampies IP was bought from the receiver by a private investor.
Plot
A group of sprite-like power engineers maintain and defend the lamp post HO32 which is the critical area of the entire Lighting Network. The Roons who live in the sewers below are the creatures who threaten the Lighting Network due to their strong dislike to the presence of light. Sewer rats can also prove to be a pest to the Lampies.
Characters
The Lampies Crew
- Burnout - The laid back Foreman of the Lampies who has to run scheduled switches for the lamp light.
- Matronly Spotlight - The routine inspector of the Lampies.
- Charge - The clumsy, day-dreaming assistant worker of the Lampies.
- Contact - The serious and sensible computer operator of the Lampies.
- Livewire - The cute and feisty young girl of the Lampies, who looks after Dustywugg and is Contact's niece.
- Dustywugg - A furry dog-like sprite who serves as the Lampies pet and mascot.
- Captain Bright Light - The absent-minded captain of the Lampies.
Others
- Brigadier Big Beam - The superior organiser of the Lighting Network.
- Phosphorous - The Brigadier's officer liaison and Charge's love interest.
- Captain Spentflint - Formerly the Lampies' captain and now retired. Criticised as a slave driver.
- Spark - The keeper of a bike light. People like him are called Bikeys.
- Neon - A one-off character for the series 2 opener and the 'Light Up the World For Christmas' Single
- Haywire - A one-off character in series 1 episode 11 'Bouncer' who is Burnout's cousin living in Lamppost HY11 at sector 14.
Episodes
Series 1
| # | Title | Summary | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain Who | The Roons invade HO32 but the newly recruited Captain Bright Light repels them. | 12 October 2000 |
| 2 | Dustywugg: Space Marine | With the HO32 crew captured by the Roons, Dustywugg inspired by Captain Spectrum, goes superhero. | 19 October 2000 |
| 3 | Walkabout | Charge runs off from HO32, Dustywugg following him. They both get lost in the sewers, but Dustywugg finds their way back. | 26 October 2000 |
| 4 | The Inspection | The HO32 crew to try to clean for the Brigadier's inspection, when an alien called Jeff arrives with just what they need. | 2 November 2000 |
| 5 | Flash By Name | Captain Bright Light dreads a visit from his brother Flash Light. Flash Light is however not what he first appears to be. | 9 November 2000 |
| 6 | Dustywuppy | Livewire adopts a Dustywuppy who turns out to be extremely messy. Eventually he is returned to his rightful owners. | 16 November 2000 |
| 7 | Bird's Nest Oops | As Charge tries to fix a malfunction in HO32, a pigeon mistakes him for her baby. The lampies solve this and fix HO32. | 23 November 2000 |
| 8 | A Bit of a Jam | Fed up with being pushed around, Livewire runs away and manages to thwart a Roon plot to short circuit HO32. | 30 November 2000 |
| 9 | Bikey | A Bikey called Spark visits the Lampies and later that night Livewire pays him an exchange visit. | 7 December 2000 |
| 10 | Thunder and Frightening | The Lampies are missing a Denby Attecorn to prevent the worst during a thunderstorm. Contact manages to get one in time to save HO32. | 14 December 2000 |
| 11 | Bouncer | On a visit to Burnout's cousin Haywire, Charge rescues a trapped Bouncer, who in turn saves him from a cat. | 21 December 2000 |
| 12 | Boris | A Pipistrelle Bat named Boris rests in the lamp. As the Roons make a daytime attack, Boris scares them away. | 21 December 2000 |
| 13 | Decoy | The Roons kidnap Brigadier Big Beam. Using a diversion and the Roons' decoy, the Lampies rescue Big Beam. | 8 January 2001 |
| 14 | And That's Magic | Captain Bright Light is practicing magic tricks for his nephew's birthday, he and Burnout are captured by Roons, Livewire becomes a magician with Spotlight as the assistant to help rescue them while distracting the Roons. | 15 January 2001 |
| 15 | Pinspot | Spotlight has to look after her Niece's child, but when she falls asleep singing lullabies, Baby Pinspot goes out on an inquisitive adventure and shuts down all the lamps on the street. | 22 January 2001 |
| 16 | Cyber Lampy | Brigadier Big Beam wants to bring the crew at HO32 up to date and let them relax a little more with a "Cyber Lampy", but after the Brigadier leaves, it goes rouge and starts a hostile takeover of HO32. | 29 January 2001 |
| 17 | Dick Static | Charge dreams of being "Dick Static: Private Eye", and he suddenly becomes the character from his favourite film thanks to a bump on the head. | 5 February 2001 |
| 18 | Road Works | Roadworks disrupt HO32's good days rest, but when Livewire is the only one up during a Roon invasion, she manages to trick them into disrupting the workmen's generator. | 12 February 2001 |
| 19 | Return to Geoff | Geoff returns to Earth and helps Burnout Flush some Roons from a Lampie's traffic light and clean a "jammed up" Electric Unit, only to bore the Lampies of HO32 with his holiday slides. | 19 February 2001 |
| 20 | Who Dares Whines | A Special Lamp Service unit is captured by the Roons, and it's up to Spotlight to save the day. | 26 February 2001 |
| 21 | Chief Beef | Charge wants to get fit, and he goes to a Gym to be trained by Chief Beef, but it turns out Chief Beef isn't all as buff as he seems. | 5 March 2001 |
| 22 | A Dark and Stormy Night | A thunderstorm causes a power cut and Charge, Livewire and Burnout set out to deliver a new fuse. | 12 March 2001 |
| 23 | Striplight | When the lamp falls upon hard times, Captain Bright Light must explore alternate means of fundraising. | 19 March 2001 |
| 24 | Shipmate Charge | Charge and Livewire find themselves under attack from the Roons when they visit her Uncle Longbeam in his lighthouse. | 26 March 2001 |
Series 2
| # | Title | Summary | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neon | A musician named Neon has arrived at HO32, and Livewire, Dustywug and Spark get to play backup for him. | |
| 2 | Save By the Bikey | Spark officially joins the team as a member of HO32 and becomes a Lampie | |
| 3 | The Boy Who Could See Lampies | PJ, a boy who can see Lampies gets friendly with Spark, Livewire and Dustywugg. | |
| 4 | Space Walk | ||
| 5 | Boogie Lights | ||
| 6 | Pump it up | ||
| 7 | Charge's Sausage Mole | ||
| 8 | Sacked | The Lampies of HO32 face being sacked by Brigadier Big Beam | |
| 9 | Roon Goo Attack | The Roons plan to stop the Lampies once and for all by using their patent "Roon Goo", which could bring about the end of HO32 permanently. | |
| 10 | HO32 Squadron | Spark drives a remote controlled airplane to rescue Dustywugg, causing chaos in a hardware store. | |
| 11 | Bike Gone | Spark earns his own bike, but after the Roons steal it he and Livewire go on a mission to recover it. | |
| 12 | Moth Magic | Livewire looks after a Moth which burns its wings on the Lamp, meanwhile the Roons attack the Lampies of HO32 with Honeycomb. | |
| 13 | Football Roonigans | ||
| 14 | Lampies Unplugged | ||
| 15 | An Open and Shut Case | Two undercover agents visiting HO32 are captured with Charge by Roons, and Spotlight saves them posing as the Arch Roon's mother. | |
| 16 | The Haunted Lamp | Charge's past sins catch up with him as he learns that you can't run from your mistakes... or bury them. | |
| 17 | Lights on Legs | ||
| 18 | House Call | ||
| 19 | The Vacation | ||
| 20 | Watching Over Lois | ||
| 21 | Red Light at Night | The Roons topple the HO32 lamp post. The Lampies try to find an exit before the lamp is crushed at the dump. | |
| 22 | The Goon Roon | ||
| 23 | All That Glitters | ||
| 24 | A Day at the Movies | ||
| 25 | Roon Alert | With a nationwide blackout in progress, the crew of HO32 must make it through 48 hours of total Roon Apocalypse alive. | |
| 26 | Bright Light in Love |
Reception
TV distribution rights for Series One were sold into 33 countries."International Songwriting Competition Results". 2006. When series one was broadcast in 2001 it regularly achieved over 40% of target viewing audience. This figure reached over 50% during 2002. Series two of The Lampies was completed in March 2002 and generated similar audience figures with prime slots on BBC 1 and 2.
Releases
HIT Entertainment had released a single UK only VHS release of the programme entitled "Captain Who and other stories" in 2001. An introductory DVD - SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES was launched on 7 April 2008. The first full DVD, Disc 1 Series One - A BIT OF A JAM AND OTHER STORIES was launched on 19 May 2008. LP Productions formed a partnership with Save the Children in 2008. £2 from the sale of each SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES DVD will go towards the Save the Children protection work with very vulnerable children in Mongolia.
International Broadcast
References
External links
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