Fireman Sam In Action

Fireman Sam In Action
Directed by Vivienne Cozens
Charles Savage (stage)
Produced by Sue Kerr (executive producer)
Written by Charles Savage
Starring Gary Lucas
Ian Sinclair
Mark Frederick
Victoria Edwards
Joe Vera
Sarah Dyall
Sarah Carleton
Music by Ben Heneghan
Ian Lawson
Nick Sexton (producer, additional music and lyrics)
Distributed by BBC
Release dates
 1 April 1996
Running time
 62 minutes
Language English

Fireman Sam In Action is a 1996 live-action stage play and a 62-minute film featuring three stories, Fire Station Flood Alert, Dilys’ Attic Fire and Pontypandy Fireworks Party. It was especially filmed for video, based on the Welsh stop-motion TV series, Fireman Sam. The film was released on 1 April 1996 on BBC Video.[1][2][3] The opening sequence of this film was filmed on location at Aldenham Country Park, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. It features children from Parkside School learning fire safety with Fireman Sam played by Gary Lucas. The show, created by Paragraph International (based at Pinewood Studios) toured worldwide with Writer and Director, Charles Savage for 7 years along with a Postman Pat Musical.

Plot

The video is combined of three separate stories. They are essentially live action versions of stories from the animated series, with a few significant changes. Penny Morris appears in all three stories, though she only appeared in one of the cartoon versions. Also, each story includes a subplot which wasn't in the cartoon- Elvis being sacked as Fire Station cook, the training film, and Norman's pet hedgehog were all created for the stage play. Bella Lasagna is not introduced until the second story, because Bentley the Robot is played by the same actress.

Fire Station Flood Alert

Station Officer Steele fires Elvis as the station cook. It gives Fireman Sam an idea. He invents Pancake Prototype One and a robot called Bentley to be Elvis’ replacement, ("Gently, Bentley"). Whilst spring-cleaning, Elvis, exasperated with Bentley's constant whistling, decides to put his Elvis Presley cassette in the robot. He goes crazy and ends up breaking the stopcock causing a flood in the whole fire station. When it’s all sorted, they start to have what Bentley’s cooked, bangers and mash. It turns out that Bentley isn’t a good cook after all and everyone decides Elvis should be reinstated, ("Elvis Cooks The Lunch").

Dilys’ Attic Fire

A few weeks later, the fire station crew start making a training film with Norman Price as Trevor’s gopher. Production of the training film begins. Norman gets bored of being a gopher, so Penny suggests he play a victim in their staged rescue, along with Sam's niece and nephew Sarah and James . Later Dilys looks for treasure in the attic, after reading a magazine article, but the candle that is her torch sets fire in the house. When she’s getting rescued, she argues about not letting go of a valuable vase that she found and could be in danger of breaking and it ends up in Trevor’s hands. Dilys lavishly praises the fire brigade, but they say it's all in a day's work, ("By Jupiter, By Jupiter").

Pontypandy Fireworks Party

On 5 November, the crew are preparing a bonfire for Bonfire Night, under the command of Station Officer Steele, ("The Person In Charge Is Station Officer Steele"). Norman is dressed as a tree and pinches Bella and Dilys’ bottoms. His plan is foiled by some railings which he ends up getting stuck in. After the crew rescue him from the railings, the whole village chastises him, ("Naughty Norman Price"). Norman introduces his pet hedgehog which he calls Brian. Brian scampers into the bonfire and Norman panics to get him out. The crew set up the guy and light the bonfire but Norman who is searching for Brian is in danger of being killed. After he’s rescued, it’s revealed that Brian was a girl hedgehog and has just had babies. Sam re-christens the hedgehog Bronwyn, but advises Norman to let the hedgehogs go back into their natural habitat. Trevor and Elvis light the bonfire, and the celebrations get underway, ("Remember, Remember The Fifth of November").

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released as Fireman Sam "Ready For Action" was released on an audio cassette by Sony Wonder Records. The audio cassette is no longer available.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Fireman Sam In Action VHS". Amazon (United Kingdom). Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  2. ↑ "Fireman Sam In Action VHS 2". LittleToons (United Kingdom). Retrieved 30 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Fireman Sam In Action VHS 2". 10pregnancy (United Kingdom). Retrieved 30 August 2011.
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