Willo the Wisp

Willo the Wisp
Willo the Wisp Titles (BBC Series)
Genre	Children's Animation
Written by	Nick Spargo (1981 series) Bobby Spargo (2005 series)
Voices of	Kenneth Williams (1981 series) James Dreyfus (2005 series)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	Two
No. of episodes	52
Production
Running time	5 minutes
Production company(s)	Nicholas Cartoon Films (1981 series), Spargo Films & Double:Take (2005 series)
Release
Original network	BBC1 (1981 series) Playhouse Disney (2005 series)
First shown in	14 September 1981
Original release	14 September 1981 – 7 December 2005

Willo the Wisp is a British cartoon series originally produced in 1981.

First series (1981)

In the first series, Kenneth Williams provided voices for all of the characters, which included these main characters:

• Willo the Wisp, the narrator. A blue floating ghost-like creature, Willo had a long pointed nose which caricatured that of Williams. The name refers to the ghostly light will-o'-the-wisp from folklore.
• Arthur the caterpillar (as a gruff cockney).
• Mavis Cruet (known by Arthur as Mave), a plump clumsy fairy with erratic magical powers.
• Evil Edna, a witch in the form of a walking, talking television set who could zap people with her aerials.
• Carwash, a snooty bespectacled cat with a character based on Noël Coward.
• The Moog, a supposed "dog" who is unable to think for himself.
• Twit, a small bird.
• The Beast, who began life as the dim Prince Humbert The Handsome, who can't pronounce the letter r correctly; an unfortunate encounter with Edna ended up with his transformation into a hairy shambling creature. In this encounter, he crashed into Edna on his bicycle and called her, "Vewy dangewous. And what a wotten pwogwamme." Edna replied, "I'll 'wotten-pwogwamme' him!" and transformed him into The Beast.

Other recurring characters include:

• Gnomes, one of which Mavis takes a liking to.
• The Astrognats, explorers of space with a mushroom-shaped spaceship.
• The Bookworm, a very clever intelligent worm who eats facts from books as a source of knowledge.
• A regiment of toy soldiers.
• A bat.

The series was written and directed by Nick Spargo and produced by Nicholas Cartoon Films in association with the BBC and Tellytales Enterprises. The character of Willo the Wisp originated in an educational animation created by Nick Spargo for British Gas plc in 1975 and the stories were set in Doyley Woods, a small beech wood in Oxfordshire, near the director's home.

Each of the original 26 episodes lasted approximately 5 minutes and were broadcast at 5:35pm on BBC1, a tradition as short cartoons were always shown between the end of the main children's BBC drama or sitcom for that afternoon, and the BBC Evening news at 5:40pm. The series was repeated on satellite channel Galaxy in 1989 and on Channel 4 during the early 1990s.

Episodes

1. The Bridegroom
2. Edna's Secret
3. Food For Thought
4. Holidays
5. The Dragon
6. The Wishbone
7. The Chrysalis
8. The Magnet
9. Wugged Wocks
10. The Flight of Mavis
11. The Thoughts of Moog
12. The Joys of Spring
13. Games With Edna
14. The Hot Hot Day
15. Halloween
16. The Gnome
17. Boring Old Edna
18. The 'You Know What'
19. The Bean-Stalk
20. Cats and Dogs
21. The Midas Touch
22. The Viqueen
23. The Potion
24. The Beauty Contest
25. Magic Golf
26. Christmas Box

On the Kult Kidz Gold DVD there was an extra video "Do Not Touch" which featured the last part of Cats and Dogs, where Evil Edna makes the screen black.

Credits

• The Voices of: Kenneth Williams
• Music by: Tony Kinsey
• Script and Direction: Nicholas Spargo
• Animation: Ron Murdoch, Ted Percival, Mike Pocock
• Devised and Designed by: Nick Spargo
• Editor: Michael Crane
• Backgrounds: Mary Spargo
• Camera: Chris King
• Production Assistant: Andrea Fontaine
• Trace & Paint: Lynne Sachs & Ian Sachs
• Produced by: Nicholas Cartoon Films Ltd
• Processed by: Rank Film Laboratories Ltd

Second series (2005)

A second series of 26 episodes (5 minutes each) was produced by Bobby Spargo in 2005, and voiced by James Dreyfus. Although it maintains the style of the original, alterations include:

• Willo no longer being a caricature of Williams.
• Mavis being slimmer (although still too heavy to fly).
• Evil Edna being a widescreen television, with a wheeled stand instead of the original's metal legs.

The second series aired on Playhouse Disney in the UK.

Episodes

1. Moon on a Stick
2. The Toothache
3. The Nature Walk
4. Feed the Birds
5. The Magic Bone
6. The Knotted Handkerchief
7. The Little Cloud
8. The Mind Reader
9. The Fancy Dress Ball
10. Bowling for Carwash
11. The Knee-Knocking Tree
12. The Best Friend
13. The Tiddle Me Wink
14. The Makeover
15. The Miracle
16. The Love Bug
17. The Wobbly Wood
18. The Doyley Hunt
19. The Cocoa Demon
20. The Beauty Spot
21. The Curse of Celebrity
22. The Lost City of Polenta
23. The Woodwind
24. The Vegetable Garden
25. The Art Class
26. Here Comes the Judge

External links

• www.willo-the-wisp.co.uk
• Willo The Wisp at the Internet Movie Database