Australian
Screen

Clip description

The whistle blows which means its time for Mr Squiggle (voiced by Norman Hetherington) to return home to the moon. Miss Pat (Patricia Lovell) returns her attention to Bill Steamshovel’s problem with his ‘tracks’ which have now shrunk in the wash.

Curator’s notes

Long before Thomas the Tank Engine, the Hetheringtons created strong characters for various inanimate objects. In an interview Norman commented on the birth of Bill: ‘Bill Steamshovel was based on a very old one rattling up and down here digging up water pipes in our street at the time … The producer wanted a puppet who could talk to children in the studio, run competitions with them, then hand them a prize.’

Margaret believed that identifying with character was the most important aspect of any imaginative thing and each character in this clip has its own distinctive personality.

‘Blackboard’, Norman reveals, ‘came as a prop but he stayed as a character – character was generally accidental development. The hurry-up cranky business and so on and Squiggle telling Miss Pat she was such a help: “You’re not holding my hand Miss Pat”. A lot of it was ad libbing that stayed. It worked.’ Luckily for the many generations of children familiar with Blackboard growling 'Hurry up, hurry up!’ and with the clouds of 'smoke’ (actually cough-inducing talcum powder!) pouring out of Bill Steamshovel when he laughed.

Norman attributes the later creation of Gus the snail – with a TV set on his back instead of a shell – to the fact the TV served as a device for dissolving through to other content such as an animation segment. Norman adds that ‘They tried to get rid of Gus a couple of times – thought he was a bad influence or something’ but, as Margaret points out, ‘a lot of kids, they identified with that business of “I’m going to go out and conquer the world”’.

Blackboard gets his moment in clip one but this clip is mostly about the irascible Bill Steamshovel. Norman’s different voices and personalities for Mr Squiggle and Bill clearly and effectively distinguish their characters. The excitable and anxious Mr Squiggle is very different to Old Bill, who has a deeper voice and a propensity to complain and take advantage of Miss Pat’s kindness. The puppets and models also have endearingly quirky design touches, such as the hole in the rocket to accommodate Mr Squiggle’s pencil nose and Old Bill’s checked cap.