Budgie the Little Helicopter

Budgie the Little Helicopter is a British animated television series, relating to a fictional helicopter and his friends, based on a series of children's books.^[4] The characters were based on the books by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.^[5] The show was co-produced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin, The Sleepy Kids Company and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York for HTV West and Scottish Television, and originally aired on British television in 1994 on CITV, where it ran for 39 episodes. A range of videos, books, and toys were released under the Budgie label.

The show aired in the United States on FOX as part of the Fox Cubhouse programming block from 1995 to 1996, and moved to the Fox Family Channel in 1998 as part of It's Itsy Bitsy Time.^[6] The series was redubbed with North American voices for It’s Itsy Bitsy Time. In Canada, it also aired on Family Channel from 1994-97 and on Treehouse TV from 1999-2003.

On release of the first book, Ferguson was accused by the media of copying the idea for the series from an out-of-print 1960 book Hector the Helicopter, by A.W. Baldwin, which she denied.^[7]

The series is legally available on Ferguson's official YouTube channel.^[8]

Main characters

Aircraft

Budgie (voiced by Richard Pearce) is the title character who resembles a Bell 206 with a large yellow cap covering his whole airframe and a small tuft of brown hair underneath it. A white teddy bear named Snowy is nearly always seen carried in a pocket on Budgie's starboard side. He lives and works at Harefield Airfield, and is best friends with Pippa. His catchphrase is "Rocketing rotors!"
Pippa (voiced by Abigail MacVean) is a single-engined monoplane with a tuft of hair and a large bow attached to her roof. When she first arrives at Harefield, she and Budgie compete over who is the better and fastest aircraft, but soon become best friends.
Chuck (voiced by Kerry Shale) is the largest aircraft at Harefield and is tasked with most of the heavy lifting. An American Boeing CH-47 Chinook, he wears a cap with a visible crew cut underneath.
Lionel (voiced by Jeremy Nicholas) is the senior helicopter in the series and is in charge of the aircraft at Harefield. Resembling a Westland Lynx, he sports a modern-era pilot's cap, moustache, and a collar. His catchphrase is "Juddering joysticks!"

Non-aircraft/ground characters

Dell the baggage cart tow truck (voiced by Jeff Rawle, who also serves as the narrator)
Smokey the airfield fire engine
Don the stairs lorry
Ernest the tractor
Nosey the driller
Backhoe the backhoe loader
Smashit the bulldozer

Human characters

The control tower operator (unseen)
Ben and Lucy Kitchen, twin brother and sister
Mrs. Nancy Kitchen, the twins' mother
Ken Wrench the mechanic
Mike Sprocket the mechanic

Episodes

Series 1 (1994)

Series 2 (1995)

Series 3 (1996)

Home video releases

United Kingdom

The series was released on VHS in the United Kingdom by First Independent Films.

In 2004, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (Through the Universal Columbia Alliance venture) released "The Air Show" on DVD, containing the same episodes as the VHS counterpart.

In 2006, Right Entertainment and Universal Pictures Video released a single DVD titled "Pippa Arrives", containing five assorted episodes from the first series.

Internationally

In 1997, UAV Entertainment released some episodes of the series on individual VHS tapes in the United States.

In 2007, Jigsaw Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia and New Zealand.

References

^ "Budgie boost for Kids". Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ Eadie, Alison (4 December 1993). "Fergie's Budgie Coming to the US". Sun Sentinel. London. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ Shepherd, John (17 March 1994). "Shares in Sleepy Kids doze". Independent. London. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ Dullea, Georgia (16 February 1994). "AT TEA WITH: The Duchess of York; Mercy, Mischief and a Royal Fiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
^ Mallory, Michael (11 July 2013). "Anyone Remember 'Budgie?'". www.animationmagazine.net.
^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 162. ISBN 978-1476665993.
^ "Starting over at 40". 20 January 2000. Archived from the original on 25 November 2011.
^ "Budgie the Little Helicopter S1 Ep1 Pippa Arrives". YouTube.

External links

Toonhound
Budgie the Little Helicopter at IMDb
First episode at YouTube
Image of front cover of the original book