Bill and Ben, Flower Pot Men
Bill & Ben Flowerpot men is a 50’s children’s TV puppet
show, which was invented by Freda Lingstrom who also
wrote the scripts.
Bill & Ben were made by Kim Allen and Maria Bird was
responsible for the music and narration.
Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson were the puppeteers
and the man behind the voices of Bill & Ben was Peter
Hawkins with Gladys Whitred as Little Weed.
Twenty-six 15 minute black and white episodes were
produced and
shown on
'Watch with
Mother' on
Wednesdays.
The original programmes, produced between 1952 and
1954, were repeated through the 1950s and 1960s.
The original Bill & Ben puppets are on permanent
display at The Museum of London.
Story
Each episode started with -
'Once upon a time there was a little house.
And all round the house was a beautiful garden.
And down at the bottom of the garden was a place where the man who worked in the garden left
his things while he went into the house to have his dinner...'
Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men lived at the bottom of the garden in their own 'especially large'
flower pots. They spoke their very own special language called 'Oddle-poddle', which was not
popular with mothers of the time who were trying to teach their children to speak properly. Their
co-star was Little Weed.
In each episode they would be joined at the bottom of
the garden by an assortment of weird and wonderful
things including musical vegetables, flying boots, a
Potato Man and Slowcoach the tortoise.
Each episode ended with -
'Goodbye Bill, Goodbye Ben. Bill & Ben, Bill & Ben,
Flower Pot Men.'
Bill and Ben Images
(click to enlarge)
Bill and Ben Episodes
Series 1 (1952)
1. Seeds
2. Musical Vegetables
3. Cabbages
4. The Potato Man
5. Tiny Men
6. Stick Men
7. Shavings Man
8. Stilts
9. Steamroller
10. Scarecrow
11. Slowcoach Flies
12. Mud Pies
13. Bath in Hat
14. Babies
15. Babies Grow Up
16. Live Chicks
17. Icicles
18. Boot Race
19. Acrobats
20. Bellows
21. Water Lillies
22. Turnip Faces
23. Umbrella
24. Fairy Queen
25. Weathercock
26. Flying Boots
Bill and Ben Video Intro
Bill and Ben
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