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Bric-a-Brac: C is for...

Captain Beaky

Actually, the bastard looks more sinister than whimsical here...They really were the greatest animals in the land. Captain Beaky and his band (from left to right: Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Artful Owl, Batty Bat) were immortalised in verse by Jeremy ‘Allo ‘Allo’ Lloyd, set to music by Jim Parker (whose recent Ground Force theme bears more than a passing resemblance) and recited by Keith ‘Henry VIII’ Michell. Lloyd’s doggerel tales of anthropomorphic derring-do, Parker’s military pomp and Michell’s deliberate, actorly relishing of the juiciest rhymes (‘Owl’s idea, the clever feller/to have a flying um-ba-rella . . . ’) secured a number five chart position. A second single, two albums and a BBC2 series followed in short order, detailing the further adventures of Beaky and nemesis Hissing Sid, plus a whole menagerie of zoological chums. Michell was helped out in the reciting department by the likes of Twiggy, Harry Secombe, Penelope Keith, Peter Sellers, Petula Clark, Noel Edmonds and, naturally, Peter ‘Me and My Girl’ Skellern.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Graham Harris

    March 24, 2010 at 2:47 pm

    Hi, The Captain Beaky stories relating to the Bible always go down well at our Boys’ Brigade camp. The younger lads have the book as their bedtime story.

  2. Richard Davies

    June 22, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    My brother’s Fisher Price ferry had a very similar looking motif of a pelican wearing a naval officer’s hat.

  3. christopher matthews

    June 20, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    Noone ever seemed to remember Captin beaky I hd some soft toys that were animals in his band and I named them I had bedspread ad mat by my bed with captain beaky. Coo glad it wasn’just in my head.

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