Mary, Mungo and Midge Mary, Mungo and Midge is a 60’s Children’s TV cartoon, which was created by John Ryan. It was made by John Ryan Studios Productions, for the BBC. It followed in the same vein as his other shows (such as Captain Pugwash), which was filming cardboard cut-outs being moved around. It’s fascinating to watch and try to work out how they got all the cut-outs to work together to make each scene, it certainly was an art.   Richard Baker, who was known as a news reader at the time, narrated the show, with Isabel Ryan (the daughter of John Ryan) providing the voice of Mary. Jonny Pearson provided the distinct music and the show was written by Daphane Jones.   Mary, Mungo and Midge was designed to show the life of a child living in a town, showing children how things, and people, worked in the outside world. Plus it pointed out the dangers that could be encountered on city streets. They ask ‘Do you live in a town?’. Only 13 episodes were ever made, with the final episode retracing all the places they had visited on the previous episodes, in a dream of Midge’s.     Story  Mary lives in a block of flats in a busy town. Its the flat at the very top, the one with the flower boxes. Here Mary lives here with her mother and father, and her two best friends, Mungo (her dog) and Midge (her pet mouse).   Mungo and Midge likes to take in the sights of the surrounding area, such as the park. When they leave the flats, Midge climbs onto Mungo's nose to press the button to call the lift. Once in the lift they watch the lights in the lift count down to the ground floor, where Midge usually runs off into the outside world, with poor old Mungo trying to catch him up.   Eventually Mungo would find Midge, where he was in the thick of trouble, which Mungo would have to help get him out of it. Mary     (voiced by Isabel Ryan) Mary is a little girl who is always busy and likes playing in her large sunny room with games, picture books and toys. She likes to show Mungo and Midge how to make things, like making potato patterns, and she also teaches them what happens in certain places and about how things work, such as flying machines and what happens on farms. When Mungo and Midge are bickering between each other, it is Mary who steps in to keep the peace. She tries to keep Midge safe, but he is always running off. Mary has had to rescue him a few times, such as the time he was dangling from a tree when he flew up there hanging onto a balloon. Luckily for Midge she is good at climbing and climbed up to save him from falling. Once, she broke her leg and had to go to hospital to get a plaster cast put on it. Mary was told she would have to stay the night, and Midge snook in to see how she was, but ended up staying the night with her, to keep her company (and to have a look around).   Mungo     (voiced by Richard Baker) Mungo is Mary's wise old dog, who likes to help Mary around the flat and play. He likes to read and printing paint patterns with his paws. Mungo likes to go to the park with Mary, as he gets a chance to go to the local play area, where he zooms down the slide many times. He acts like a father figure to Midge and enjoys explaining things to Midge and what they do, such as the crane in the building site. But he also gets cross with Midge when he doesn't listen to him and gets into mischief. He has been known to chase Midge back home to the Flats after he was naughty. Plus he wishes Midge wouldn’t play his flute, as he only knows one tune, which he plays over and over again, much to the annoyance of Mungo. Especially when it wakes him up, as Mungo just likes peace and quiet He's always helpful and is always mindful and even takes himself for a walk by barking at the door to be let out, and he uses his nose to select the right floor in the lift. He always makes sure the lift door closes when he gets out of it. Once, he found himself lost, so found a Policeman for help, who found his name and address from the tag on his collar and took him home. Midge was even worried about him and looked for him at the Mary and her parents even use Mungo to do the shopping for them, by giving him a wicker basket (which he carries in his mouth) together with a note detailing what they want and the money for it. The shopkeepers must have gotten used to this, as they know what to do, and fill Mungo’s basket up with the shopping and take the money. What a useful dog he is, but we think Mary’s family is getting a bit lazy. Midge Mouse     (voiced by Richard Baker) Midge is Mary's pet mouse, who looks quite smart in his bow tie. He loves music and has learnt to play the flute, but he can only play one tune, Three Blind Mice, much to the annoyance of Mungo. Also he tries to ensure he plays it before he goes out anywhere (a bit of OCD?). If you look carefully in the flat, you can see Midge's picture on the wall.   Midge is a very curious mouse, who is always in a hurry, which nearly always gets him into trouble. Normally this happens after he has disappeared from the lift into the outside world. Such as the time he started playing with a Crane in the local building site and hoisted Mungo into the air. He even posted himself in the letter box to see where letters went. He made his way from the letterbox into the sorting office, onto the mail train, to another van, the post office, before arriving at Mary's Grandmothers (Mrs Angus).   Once he sailed Mary's toy yacht (the 'Gypsy Mouse') in the local park's lake. The trouble was that the wind dropped and he was stranded in the middle of the lake. As Midge can't swim, Mungo had to swim out and rescue him. Midge loves to drive things, especially his toy car, but he has a nasty habit of crashing them. He did get the chance to learn more about cars when they stopped to get petrol on their way to a family picnic. He sneaked out of the car into the garage that was fixing cars. He learnt how to tell if the oil was low and how to top it up and that they jack cars up to look underneath them to find faults or change tyres. He became a little expert in cars, but he was a little worried as Mary and her family had driven off without him, luckily they came back for him later when they spotted he was missing. He’s also a bit nieve, as he wanted to know how a cow got into the milk carton dispensing machine. Mungo had to explain that the cow was not inside the machine but was on a farm where the milk is put into cartons and then shipped to the machine. But Midge’s curiosity got the better of him and he climbed into the machine and dispensed all the cartons out onto the floor. Mungo recommended making a hasty retreat. Midge would love Mary to buy him a dolls house, as everything in it is just the right size for him, including a nice snugly bed. It was if it was made for him. Mary, Mungo and Midge Images (click to enlarge) Mary, Mungo and Midge T-Shirts - NONE Mary, Mungo and Midge DVDs Mary, Mungo and Midge Video Intro Mary, Mungo and Midge Episodes Series 1 (1969)  1. The Crane  2. The Letter  3. The Boat  4. Printing  5. Clocks  6. Mungo Lost  7. Machines  8. Toy Shop  9. The Fair  10. Flying  11. The Garage  12. Hospital  13. Seaside © JedisParadise.com Toys & Gifts T-Shirts Bargain DVDs