Fireman Sam

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Fireman Sam
Format Children's
Created by Dave Gingell
Dave Jones
Written by Nia Ceidiog
Narrated by John Alderton
Country of origin Wales
Production
Producer(s) Ian Frampton
John Walker
Running time 10 minutes (one episode 20 minute Christmas special)
Broadcast
Original channel Flag of Wales S4C (in Welsh)
Flag of the United Kingdom BBC1 (in English)
Original run Flag of Wales December 26, 1985
Flag of the United Kingdom November 17, 1987 – Flag of Wales June 20, 1994
Flag of the United Kingdom November 17, 1994

Fireman Sam (Welsh: Sam Tân) is a Welsh stop-motion animation children's television series about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other townspeople in the Welsh town of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and Tonypandy, which are situated approximately 5 miles apart in the South Wales valleys). The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from Kent. They took their idea to S4C who saw the potential in the series and commissioned it.

Fireman Sam first appeared in his native Welsh language on S4C in 1985 and later in English throughout the United Kingdom on BBC1 in 1987. The series finished in 1994 but remains popular well over a decade after the last episode was aired. The series was also shown dubbed in Gaelic in Scotland, where it was known as Sam Smalaidh. The series has been sold to over 40 countries, from Australia to Norway and is used across the UK to promote fire safety.

Contents

[edit] Original English-language series

The series originally comprised 32 ten-minute episodes and a 20-minute Christmas special. The narration and character voices were done by John Alderton.

Sam is the protagonist in the show, and interacts with both colleagues at the fire station and local townspeople.

In the original television series produced by Bumper Films between 1986 and 1994 the firefighters had yellow and black clothes, whereas in the new television series produced by HIT Entertainment in 2003 and 2005 they were yellow and blue.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Firefighters

  • Fireman Sam Jones is referred to as the "hero next door". He is the archetypal fireman, who remains composed in an emergency and unfailingly offers assistance to all those in need. Sam is not married, but maintains a close relationship with his nephew, James, and niece, Sarah. Sam spends his spare time in his "inventing shed", in which he makes devices ranging from a potato picker made from old bicycle parts to a machine capable of replacing the town band. On occasion his inventive streak can undermine his emphasis on fire safety. His catchphrase is "Great fires of London!"
  • Firefighter Elvis Cridlington provides a contrast to Sam in both competency and demeanour. Elvis is an exuberant rock 'n' roll fan and an appalling cook. He failed his 11+ exam at school. His catchphrase is "Great balls of fire!"
  • Station officer Basil Steele is the chief of Pontypandy Fire Station. As a former army officer, he insists upon a high standard of both hygiene and efficiency in the station. His catchphrase in the old series was "Now who need the fire service?" but in the new series it is "Action stations men!" Basil may be married to Doris, a character who does not appear but whom Basil mentions in Telly Trouble (Series 2) and Barn Fire (Series 1).
  • Firefighter Penny Morris is the only female member of the Pontypandy fire brigade. In the original series, she only visited occasionally (hailing from Newtown fire station), although in the new series, she seems to work at Pontypandy full time. Penny doubles as a mechanic. Her ideas are often unconventional and at odds with her male colleagues, but she usually turns out to have been right. Penny is often known to go on adventures with the town's children; James and Sarah.
  • Auxiliary fireman Trevor Evans is an auxiliary fireman with the brigade. His other job is the town's bus driver. He is known for his awkward manner and general bad luck streak, but nonetheless exhibits a great devotion to the welfare of others (especially Dilys). In the new series Trevor is no longer an auxiliary firefighter but he is still the bus driver, but still shows affection to Dilys. His catchphrase when things go wrong is "Oh, bother!"

[edit] Townspeople

  • Dilys Price runs the town grocery store. She is a well known gossip, and has great affection for Trevor, the bus driver. Dilys is the mother of town mischief-maker Norman Price, but is frequently blind to her son's troublesome ways. She dotes on her only child, or 'Mummy's Little Darling' as she sometimes calls him
  • Bella Lasagne is the absent-minded town cafe owner, originally from Italy. She is not in the 2008 season.
  • Helen Flood, Caribbean born nurse and mother of Mandy Flood. (2005 season)
  • Mike Flood, handyman husband of Helen and father of Mandy. (2005 season)
  • Tom Thomas, a mountain rescue worker who hails from Australia. Tom is most often seen flying to the rescue in his helicopter or driving his SUV (2005 season).
  • Charlie Jones, a fisherman, husband of Bronwyn, Sam's brother, father of Sarah and James (2008 season).
  • Bronwyn Jones, runs the fish and chip shop/cafe, wife of Charlie, mother of Sarah and James (2008 season).

[edit] Children

  • Sarah and James are the relatively well-behaved five-year-old daughter and son of Charlie, niece and nephew of Fireman Sam. They are often more sensible in an emergency than Norman. When they grow up they want to be firefighters like their uncle Sam.
  • Norman Price is a seven-year-old boy with a love of practical jokes and skateboarding. Unfortunately, Norman regularly fails to set appropriate limits on his own behaviour, and has been known to cause mischief and sometimes causes havoc at the fire station, for many of Pontypandy's residents.
  • Mandy Flood, Norman's best friend. She is sort of a bridge between naughty Norman and the well behaved Sarah and James. (2005 season)

[edit] Vehicles

  • Jupiter is a bright red fire engine driven by Fireman Sam and based on a 1974 Bedford TK and is also based on a 1990 Bedford 6x4 (2005 season). It is always taken to rescues.
  • Venus is a rescue tender driven by Penny Morris based on a 1982 Range Rover. It sometimes taken to a rescue to carry Penny if the entire crew is going, or it is simply additionaly taken along.
  • Nurse Flood's car is driven by Nurse Helen Flood, but has an unknown base. (2005 season)
  • Wallaby One is a helicopter flown by Tom Thomas and based on a 1980 Bell 222. (2005 season)
  • Rescue Jeep is also driven and owned by Tom Thomas, based on a 1976 Range Rover jeep. (2005 season)
  • The Bus is driven by Trevor Evans, and based on a 1975 Ford Transit Dormobile.
  • Neptune is driven by Penny, it is a rigid inflatable lifeboat. (2008 season)

[edit] Animals

  • Rosa is Bella's temperamental cat.
  • Dusty is a stray dog, usually found hanging around the fire station. (2005 season)
  • Woolly is a lamb who Norman Price adopts after they were rescued from a mountainside. Rather bouncy and playful (2005 season)
  • Lion is Bronwyn's pet cat. (2008 season)
  • Radar The fire station's own fire dog, a dalmatian (2008 season)

[edit] Places

[edit] Fireman Sam's residence

Sam lives in a two-story house with several windows, a red door and the small bell at outside. It contains seldom seen rooms:

  • Hall: The hall has a big shelf, a very large hanger, and a big mirror on the wall. The walls are yellow. There are also the stairs, which connect the ground floor with first floor.
  • Dining room: This room has a big table with several chairs, a shelf with photos and a phone, and the big clock.
  • Kitchen: The small kitchen has a very big refrigerator, several shelves and a modern oven. There is also the big table with several chairs.
  • Bathroom: The bathroom contains a big washing machine, a small shelf, a vane, a toilet, and a big mirror in the wall.
  • Sam's bedroom: Sam has a large bedroom of his own. The walls are white. Sam's bed lies underneath the window. Next to the bed, there are several shelves. The first shelf contains a black and white photograph, and a large red alarm clock with two blue lighters on the bells, which light when it rings. On the second shelf there is a big night lamp. The last shelf holds Sam's civilian clothes. The wood-framed bed is covered by white sheets and two pillows, and has an orange blanket with white edging. Sam's room is seen during the introductory sequence of the show.

[edit] Dilys's shop

Dilys Price runs the local grocery and general store, with its stocks of canned goods, outdoor displays of fruits and vegetables, and various treats and snacks. The shop contains seldon seen rooms:

  • Dilys's bedroom: Dilys's room contains a shelf with a big mirror and photo, a shelf an electrical alarm clock and night lamp, a shelf with Dilys' clothes, and the wood-framed bed with pillows and a yellow blanket with white edging.
  • Norman's room: Norman's room has several shelves, toys, computer and a wood-framed bed with pillows. The bed also has an orange-pink blanket with white edging.

[edit] Bella's café

Bella's restaurant contains a large pizza oven, which is the source of at least one fire due to inadequate chimney sweeping (a birds' nest falls into the oven from the chimney and catches fire on the day the oven is installed). Bella's restaurant serves mostly Italian food, along with pastries and desserts.

[edit] Wholefish Cafe

Bronwyn and Charlies fish and chip shop cafe, which is the source of at least one fire due to sarah placing her wet coat over an electric fire (2008 season).

[edit] Fire station

Sam, Trevor (only in the classic series), Penny, station officer Steele, and Elvis (who also does the cooking at Pontypandy Firestation) work in the fire station. It contains the following rooms:

  • Main room: This room contains the big oven, a table with several chairs, TV and a shelf with firefighters' clothes. On the wall there is the fire bell.
  • Steele's office: Officer Steele has a big office. It contains several shelves, a big table with papers and a phone on it, a chair, and a small table with a teleprinter. On the wall is the fire bell.

[edit] Boat House

The home of neptune, on the quayside. (2008 season)

[edit] Commercial availability

The entire classic series was released on DVD in April 2007. Prior to that, only two other DVDs were available: Action Stations, containing what are believed to be some of the better episodes, and Snow Business, containing the Christmas special (which was noticeably absent in the classic series boxset) and two other episodes: "Safe with Sam", which emphasizes fire safety and which has not been shown by the BBC since November 1990, and "Rich and Famous". A further DVD of original episodes was available from the newspaper The Sunday Mirror in 2006, but only contained two episodes. The majority of the 2005 season has been released in several DVD's.

Most of the original episodes have been made available on VHS previously (in the United Kingdom by BBC Video and in the United States and Canada by Family Home Entertainment), but apart from a VHS version of Action Stations, these are all now out of print. Here is a list of the UK releases.

VHS Title Release Date Episodes
Fireman Sam - The Hero Next Door (BBCV 4101) 1987 Kite, Flat Tyre, Trevor's Training, Norman's Tricky Day
Fireman Sam 2 - Lost Cat (BBCV 4137) 1987 Lost Cat, Telly Trouble, Camping, Barn Fire
Fireman Sam 3 - Sam's Day Off (BBCV 4197) 1988 Sam's Day Off, Treasure Hunt, Thief in Pontypandy, Chemistry Set
Fireman Sam 4 - Snow Business (BBCV 4268) 1989 Snow Business, The Great Inventor, The Wishing Well
Fireman Sam 5 - Norman's Pitfall (BBCV 4428) 1990 Norman's Pitfall, Dilys's Forgetful Day, Lost Ring, Spot of Bother
Fireman Sam 6 - All In A Good Cause (BBCV 4470) 1991 All In A Good Cause, Brass Band, Lost in the Fog, Bentley the Robot
The New Adventures of Fireman Sam (BBCV 5404) 1994 Deep Trouble for Sam, Quarry Rescue, Rich and Famous, Home from Rome
The New Adventures of Fireman Sam - Disaster for Dinner (BBCV 5625) 1995 Disaster for Dinner, Steele Under Par, Trevor's Bus Boot Sale, What Goes Up

[edit] New series

Between 2003 and 2005, a new "Fireman Sam" series was produced by Siriol Productions (now known as Calon TV), comprising twenty-six episodes, each ten minutes in length. These episodes used more modern techniques of stop-motion animation. The new series features all the original characters, but also adds some new faces, such as Tom Thomas, the Australian pilot of rescue helicopter Wallaby One.

Unlike the original series, in which all of the characters were voiced by one person, the new series employed three principal voice artists; however, original voice-actor John Alderton was not one of them. In the new series, the voice of Sam and other male characters was provided by comedian John Sparkes. The other voice artists were Joanna Ruiz and Sarah Hadland.

[edit] Even newer series

In 2009, a new computer-generated series has been released.

Pontypandy is now a seaside town instead of a village set deep in the hills as in the early series. Another change in this series is that the twins' parents appear for the first time they are a new-age mother, Bronwyn, and a fisherman father Charlie, who run a cafe/fish-and-chip shop - The Whole Fish Cafe. Charlie is the brother of Fireman sam.

Other changes include the removal of Bella and her cafe. It seems the fish and chip shop have replaced this. Penny also now has another string to her bow she is a trained lifeguard and the driver of Neptune (the town's lifeboat). A feature length movie titled The great fire of Pontypandy is set to come out in 2009.

[edit] Theme tune

The series had a theme tune composed by Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson. The lyrics were written by Robin Lyons, and sung by Maldwyn Pope. A full-length version was also released on BBC Records.

The verse of the song alternates between notes a fifth apart - the intention being to suggest the sound of a fire engine siren.

The same composers wrote a new arrangement of the theme tune for the 2005 remake, although this time in straight quavers rather than the 'swung' twelve-eight of the original theme. Robin Lyons also updated the lyrics. This version was sung by Cameron Stewart, singer and lead guitarist with the Cardiff-based band Session.[1]

Ben Heneghan and Ian Lawson also wrote a number of other Fireman Sam-related songs that were released on a cassette by BBC Records. These songs were later used in the touring stage show.

[edit] Episode list

Series 1 (W: 1985-1986) (1987)

  1. Kite (November 17, 1987)Welsh: 26 December 1985
  2. Barn Fire (November 24, 1987) Welsh: 2 January 1986
  3. Trevor's Training (December 1, 1987) Welsh: 9 January 1986
  4. Flat Tyre (December 8, 1987) Welsh: 16 January 1986
  5. Camping (December 15, 1987) Welsh: 23 January 1986
  6. Norman's Tricky Day (December 22, 1987) Welsh: 30 January 1986

Series 2 (W:1987-1988) (1988)

  1. Lost Cat (October 25, 1988) Welsh: 15 December 1987
  2. Telly Trouble (November 1, 1988) Welsh: 22 December 1987
  3. Treasure Hunt (November 8, 1988) Welsh: 29 December 1987
  4. Sam's Day Off (November 15, 1988) Welsh: 5 January 1988
  5. Chemistry Set (November 22, 1988) Welsh: 12 January 1988
  6. The Wishing Well (November 29, 1988) Welsh: 19 January 1988
  7. The Great Inventor (December 6, 1988) Welsh: 26 January 1988
  8. Thief in Pontypandy (December 13, 1988) Welsh: 2 February 1988
  9. Safe with Sam (December 19, 1988) Welsh: 9 February 1988
  10. Snow Business (December 22, 1988) Welsh: 14 December 1988

Series 3 (W:1990) (1990)

  1. Dilys's Forgetful Day (October 15, 1990) Welsh: 3 May 1990
  2. Spot of Bother (October 22, 1990) Welsh: 10 May 1990
  3. Halloween (October 29, 1990) Welsh: 17 May 1990
  4. Norman's Pitfall (November 5, 1990) Welsh: 24 May 1990
  5. Lost Ring (November 12, 1990) Welsh: 31 May 1990
  6. All in a Good Cause (November 19, 1990) Welsh: 7 June 1990
  7. Brass Band (November 26, 1990) Welsh: 14 June 1990
  8. Lost in the Fog (December 3, 1990) Welsh: 21 June 1990
  9. Bentley the Robot (December 10, 1990) Welsh: 28 June 1990

Series 4 (W: 1994) (1994)

  1. Home from Rome (October 25, 1994) Welsh: 2 May 1994
  2. Rich and Famous (October 27, 1994) Welsh: 9 May 1994
  3. Quarry Rescue (November 1, 1994) Welsh: 16 May 1994
  4. Deep Trouble (November 3, 1994) Welsh: 23 May 1994
  5. Trevor's Boot Sale (November 8, 1994) Welsh: 30 May 1994
  6. What Goes Up (November 10, 1994) Welsh: 6 June 1994
  7. Steele Under Par (November 15, 1994) Welsh: 13 June 1994
  8. Disaster for Dinner (November 17, 1994) Welsh: 20 June 1994

Series 5 (W: 2003-2004) (2005)

  1. Danger Falling Sheep (April 4, 2005)
  2. The Big Freeze (April 5, 2005)
  3. Twist of Fate (April 6, 2005)
  4. A Real Live Wire (April 7, 2005)
  5. Bug Eyed Boy From Venus (April 8, 2005)
  6. Bath Time for Dusty (April 11, 2005)
  7. Neighbourhood Watchout (April 12, 2005)
  8. Twitchers in Trouble (April 13, 2005)
  9. Carnival of Junk (April 14, 2005)
  10. Mummy's Little Pumpkin (April 15, 2005)
  11. Joaker Soaker (April 18, 2005)
  12. Fit For Nothing (April 19, 2005)
  13. Deep Water (April 20, 2005)
  14. Beast of Pontypandy (April 21, 2005)
  15. Pizza Palaver (April 22, 2005)
  16. Fun Run (April 25, 2005)
  17. Trouble and Squeak (April 26, 2005)
  18. King of the Jungle (April 27, 2005)
  19. Norman's Invisible Friend (April 28, 2005)
  20. High Jinx (April 29, 2005)
  21. The Case of the Liquorice Shoelaces (May 3, 2005)
  22. Fiery Finale (May 4, 2005)
  23. Birthday Surprise (May 5, 2005)
  24. Firefighter of Tomorrow (May 6, 2005)
  25. Fields of Fire (May 9, 2005)
  26. Let it Snow (December 26, 2005)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "On track to indie fame". Penarth Times. 2005-06-16. http://archive.penarthtimes.co.uk/2005/6/16/381.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-19. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireman_Sam"
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