The Wombles (1973)

The Wombles is a stop motion animated British television series made in 1973–1975. After the first Wombles book, published in 1968, was featured on the BBC children's television programme Jackanory, the BBC commissioned producer FilmFair to create a television series of the books. The series was produced by Graham Clutterbuck and directed by Ivor Wood using stop-motion. The characters were all voiced by actor Bernard Cribbins. Sets and model making were 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 produced. The original television series was regularly screened for many years. After FilmFair was acquired by the Canadian company Cinar Films in 1996, a new series of episodes was created, with a number of new Womble characters. In the UK, the series was purchased by ITV.