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The Wombles

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The Wombles are fictional characters created by British author Elisabeth Beresford,originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. The characters later became nationally famous in the mid 1970s as a result of a popular BBC children's television show using stop motion animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became major hits in the British music charts. The Wombles are pointy-nosed furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Their motto is Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish. This "green" message was ahead of its time in the 1970s. Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus on the life of the burrow in Wimbledon Common in London, England.

1 Background
- 1.1 Characters
  - 1.1.1 AFC Wimbledon
  - 1.1.2 The Rutles
- 1.2 The storyline
2 Children's novels
3 Television and film
4 References
5 External links

Background

Elisabeth Beresford was a freelance ghost writer and children's book author. She was born in Paris and traveled the world with her BBC sports commentator husband Max Robertson. One Christmas, Beresford took her young children for a Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common, where one referred to the green as "Wombledon Common." On getting home, Beresford wrote down the idea and started developing the characters and storylines.^[1]

Characters

Beresford developed the characters around members of her family, and named them after places the family had associations with:^[2]

Great Uncle Bulgaria - the Wombles' leader, was based on Beresford's father-in-law
Tobermory - an engineer and handyman, was based on Beresford's brother, a skilled inventor
Orinoco - a shirker who loved sleep and food, was styled on Beresford's teenage son
Bungo - over-enthusiastic and bossy
Tomsk - athletic Womble
Wellington - scientifically inclined, named after her nephew's school
Madame Cholet - a cook, was styled on Beresford's mother

Later character names for the second series developed in the same manner:

Alderney - Madame Cholet's assistant, was named after where Beresford lived at the time of the second television series
Shansi - often paired with Alderney, as Bungo was with Orinoco
Miss Adelaide - schoolmistress
Stepney - East Ender with dreadlocks

In the first book, Bungo was the youngest and least experienced of the team, and the story is mostly viewed through his eyes. Afterwards Wellington (who was not introduced until the second book) took over the role of "new boy". Alderney and Adelaide appeared in the earlier books but were not included in the original 1970s TV series. Alderney was re-introduced in the later TV shows produced in the 1990s (the Channel Island of Alderney was actually Elizabeth Beresford's home at the time), along with Stepney (who appeared in none of the earlier versions).

AFC Wimbledon

Due to the Wombles' association with the area, sporting teams representing Wimbledon are sometimes affectionately dubbed "the Wombles". These teams include Wimbledon Ladies Rugby Club [1], whose mascot is Alderney, Wimbledon Volleyball Club and the Wombles Netball Club. [2] From 2000 to June 2003, Wimbledon F.C. used a Womble as a club mascot named "Wandle" after the local River Wandle. However, in light of the controversy of moving the club to Milton Keynes, the license was not renewed.^[3] In 2006 the club's spiritual successor AFC Wimbledon agreed a licensing deal, and launched its own Womble mascot. After a naming competition in which the final name was chosen by Elisabeth Beresford herself, the club announced that the new Womble would be known as "Haydon," after Haydons Road, the nearest railway station to Wimbledon's original home ground, Plough Lane.

The Rutles

"Barrington Womble MBE" is a fictional drummer of the fictional band "The Rutles" played by John Halsey. Based on "The Beatles" drummer Ringo Starr, he is sometimes referred to as The Lost Womble.

The storyline

The Wombles are pointy-nosed furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Their motto is Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish. Wombles are based all around the world, although the story is based on the group living on Wimbledon Common burrow in London, England. Below a certain age, all Wombles are nameless. Upon coming of age, a Womble chooses his name from Great Uncle Bulgaria's atlas, after which he leaves Miss Adelaide's "Womblegarten" and enters the communal work of the burrow, which is mostly clearing up and recycling human refuse. The life expectancy of a Womble is over 200 years, with some reaching 300, which would make them the longest-lived of all animal species. The story is mostly viewed and told through the eyes of the lazy and gluttonous Orinoco. His favourite food, as with every Womble, are Cloud Berries.

Children's novels

There were a total of five novels:

The Wombles (1968)
The Wandering Wombles (1970)
The Wombles at Work (1973)
The Wombles to the Rescue (1974)
The Wombles Go Round the World (1976)

The latter two books are less well known than the original three, perhaps because they appeared after the advent of successful TV series. In The Wandering Wombles, the setting moved from Wimbledon Common to Hyde Park in central London. However The Wombles to the Rescue saw them return to Wimbledon Common. Beresford also wrote a collection of short stories entitled The Invisible Womble and Other Stories (1973), in which the original Wimbledon Common setting was restored. Although based on episodes from the TV series, these stories occasionally refer to events in the novels. In addition to these books, a great many annuals, picture-books and children's early readers have been published over the years, some of which were also written by Elisabeth Beresford.

Television and film

After the first book was published in 1968, it was featured on the BBC children's television programme Jackanory.^[4] As a result the BBC commissioned producer FilmFair to create a television series of the books. Produced by Graham Clutterbuck and directed by Ivor Wood using stop-motion, the model characters who were all voiced by actor Bernard Cribbins. Sets and model making was by Barry Leith. Two series of 30 five minute episodes were produced, with the first series airing in 1973, animated by Ivor Wood, and the second in 1975, animated by Barry Leith. In all, sixty episodes were made. The series proved so popular, that although the "green" message was ahead of its time in the 1970s, children began to organise Womble Clearing Up Groups all over the UK. Songwriter and producer Mike Batt wrote the series' theme tune, and later went on to perform and produce a number of highly successful novelty singles as "The Wombles." The members of the band were:

Vocals / sax: Orinoco
Lead guitar: Wellington
Bass guitar: Madame Cholet
Violin: Great Uncle Bulgaria
Drums: Bungo

When the "band" performed live on stage, the characters were always played by experienced musicians in full Womble costume, often including top session players such as guitarist Chris Spedding and drummer Clem Cattini, both of whom had played on Batt's recordings. In 1977, a feature-length live-action movie Wombling Free appeared, starring David Tomlinson and Bonnie Langford. The original television series remained popular with children in the eighties After FilmFair was acquired by the Canadian company Cinar Films in 1996, a new series of animated cartoons episodes were released in 1998 with number of new to television geographically-named Wombles were introduced. In the 2005 Neil Jordan film "Breakfast on Pluto," the protagonist happens across a Wombles-themed amusement park at Wimbledon Common, and is hired to work at the park as Madame Cholet.