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TV: F is for...

Flumps, The

"Mum! There's a gypsy on the telly again!"HOMELY BROOD OF northern-accented pompoms with limbs and varying forms of headgear get up to various garden/housebound adventures, usually resolved in pithy song or fable. Father (woolly hat, tache); Mother (headscarf, rolling pin); Grandad (knotted hanky, glasses); Posy (bow); Perkin (again with the hat); and the tiny, adenoidal Pootle (bobble hat), who was deemed “too small” to have roller skates like Posy and Perkin, so Dad made him a trolley to put his things in. Titles involved whole clan peeping over wall and wiggling fingers in a bizarre manner to jolly ooompah trumpet theme. Songs (sung by mother from a big songbook) included “Balloons” and “Wheels Turning Round”. Also on hand: the Flumpet (knackered-looking trumpet/tuba-type thing) and the Flumpcycle (“Looks like the whole family’s on wheels today!”)

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. THX 1139

    September 2, 2018 at 2:28 pm

    The one where a grumpy Perkin literally gets a cloud over his head is probably the best. A lot of the reason this was so charming was because of Gay Soper’s narration and singing, doing all the voices – her Pootle was really good. The previous year, your dad could have seen her stark raving naked in The Ups and Downs of a Handyman at the pictures.

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