Willo the Wisp

For similarly spelled terms, see Will-o'-the-wisp (disambiguation).

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
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)
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC1 (1981 series) Playhouse Disney (2005 series)

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, 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 Noel 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 Humbart 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-progwamme' him!" and transformed him into The Beast.

Other recurring characters include:

• Gnomes, one of them of whom 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 5:35 in the evening 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 5:40. This tradition ended with the first of two major reshufflings of the BBC1 schedules within 6 months of Michael Grade becoming the head of BBC1. This first reshuffle occurred in September 1984, with the BBC Evening News being moved to 6 o'clock, and the regional news programmes at 6:30, vacating a 25-minute slot between 5:35 and 6:00, filled with various programmes until Australian soap Neighbours was chosen to fill that gap.

The series was repeated on Channel 4 during the early 90s and satellite channel Galaxy Kids Club (aka Sky Kids) in 1989 before Channel 4.

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 & 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.

External links

• http://www.willo-the-wisp.co.uk/
• Willo The Wisp at IMDB