Brian Cant's voice opens every episode with the same invitation: “Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play.” The hexagonal lid irises open, a puppet rises on a platform, and the story begins. Gordon Murray’s thirteen 15-minute films, animated by Bob Bura and John Hardwick, visit Camberwick Green, Trumptonshire, where flour shortages, bee swarms and rumours of an electrical substation threaten the routines of Windy Miller, PC McGarry (Number 452) and the soldier boys of Pippin Fort. Each crisis is solved by bedtime, the puppet sinks back into the box, and the iris closes on Freddie Phillips’ Baroque guitar motif.
The series blends Edwardian dress with 1960s technology: Farmer Bell champions “modern mechanical farming” while riding a 1910 trap, Dr Mopp motors in a vintage car, and the soldiers man a bright-red manual fire pump. Every tradesman owns a travelling song; Mrs Honeyman keeps the gossip, Baby Honeyman keeps the peace. Murray destroyed the original puppets in the 1970s, yet the films survived attic prints and wobbly transfers to be remastered for 2011 Blu-ray, ensuring the village still turns to the click of a stopped musical box.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 13 Episodes / 1966
Created by: Gordon Murray
Writer(s): Gordon Murray
Producer(s): Gordon Murray
Main Cast
Brian Cant as
