The Lampies

The Lampies
Genre	Entertainment
Created by	Dave Bonner
Written by	David Bonner, Jimmy Hibbert
Directed by	Dean Roberts, Mark Marren
Voices of	Jimmy Hibbert Eve Karpf Rob Rackstraw Susan Sheridan
Theme music composer	Mcasso
Composer	Mcasso
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producers	Theresa Plummer-Andrews, James Coldwell
Producer	Morgan Francis
Editors	Mark Edwards, Rory Timoney
Running time	11 minutes
Original release
Network	CBBC

The Lampies is an English children's animated television series created by David Bonner and features a mix of 2D and 3D animation.

Created by David Bonner in conjunction with Uli Meyer Animation Studios and music by Mcasso Music, there are 52 eleven-minute episodes that were originally commissioned by the BBC. Financial issues caused the creative and business drive to falter and momentum was lost. In 2003 The Lampies IP was bought from the receiver by a private investor.

Plot

A group of sprite-like power engineers maintain and defend the lamp post HO32 which is the critical area of the entire Lighting Network. The Roons who live in the sewers below are the creatures who threaten the Lighting Network due to their strong dislike to the presence of light. Sewer rats can also prove to be a pest to the Lampies.

Characters

The Lampies Crew

• Burnout - The laid back Foreman of the Lampies who has to run scheduled switches for the lamp light.
• Matronly Spotlight - The routine inspector of the Lampies.
• Charge - The clumsy, day-dreaming assistant worker of the Lampies.
• Contact - The serious and sensible computer operator of the Lampies.
• Livewire - The cute and feisty young girl of the Lampies, who looks after Dustywugg and is Contact's niece.
• Dustywugg - A furry dog-like sprite who serves as the Lampies pet and mascot.
• Captain Bright Light - The absent-minded captain of the Lampies.

Others

• Brigadier Big Beam - The superior organiser of the Lighting Network.
• Phosphorous - The Brigadier's officer liaison and Charge's love interest.
• Captain Spentflint - Formerly the Lampies' captain and now retired. Criticised as a slave driver.
• Spark - The keeper of a bike light. People like him are called Bikeys.
• Neon - A one-off character for the series 2 opener and the 'Light Up the World For Christmas' Single
• Haywire - A one-off character in series 1 episode 11 'Bouncer' who is Burnout's cousin living in Lamppost HY11 at sector 14.

Episodes

Series 1

#	Title	Summary	Air Date
1	Captain Who	The Roons invade HO32 but the newly recruited Captain Bright Light repels them.	12 October 2000
2	Dustywugg: Space Marine	With the HO32 crew captured by the Roons, Dustywugg inspired by Captain Spectrum, goes superhero.
3	Walkabout	Charge runs off from HO32, Dustywugg following him. They both get lost in the sewers, but Dustywugg finds their way back.
4	The Inspection	The HO32 crew to try to clean for the Brigadier's inspection, when an alien called Jeff arrives with just what they need.
5	Flash By Name	Captain Bright Light dreads a visit from his brother Flash Light. Flash Light is however not what he first appears to be.
6	Dustywuppy	Livewire adopts a Dustywuppy who turns out to be extremely messy. Eventually he is returned to his rightful owners.
7	Birds Nest Oops	As Charge tries to fix a malfunction in HO32, a pigeon mistakes him for her baby. The lampies solve this and fix HO32.
8	Bit of a Jam	Fed up with being pushed around, Livewire runs away and manages to thwart a Roon plot to short circuit HO32.
9	Bikey	A Bikey called Spark visits the Lampies and later that night Livewire pays him an exchange visit.
10	Thunder and Frightening	The Lampies are missing a Denby Attecorn to prevent the worst during a thunderstorm. Contact manages to get one in time to save HO32.
11	Bouncer	On a visit to Burnout's cousin Haywire, Charge rescues a trapped Bouncer, who in turn saves him from a cat.
12	Boris	A Pipistrelle Bat named Boris rests in the lamp. As the Roons make a daytime attack, Boris scares them away.
13	Decoy	The Roons kidnap Brigadier Big Beam. Using a diversion and the Roons' decoy, the Lampies rescue Big Beam.
14	Dick Static	Charge dreams of being "Dick Static: Private Eye", and he suddenly becomes the character from his favourite film thanks to a bump on the head.
15	Too Many Cooks	Burnout builds a cooking robot to help Spotlight, but the robot hardly improves cooking for the Lampies.
16	Striplight	When the lamp falls upon hard times, Captain Bright Light must explore alternate means of fundraising.
17	Tooth of the Matter
18	Chief Beef	Charge wants to get fit, and he goes to a Gym to be trained by Chief Beef, but it turns out Chief Beef isn't all as buff as he seems.
19	Roadworks	Roadworks disrupt HO32's good days rest, but when Livewire is the only one up during a Roon invasion, she manages to trick them into disrupting the workmen's generator.
20	Pinspot	Spotlight has to look after her Niece's child, but when she falls asleep singing lullabies, Baby Pinspot goes out on an inquisitive adventure and shuts down all the lamps on the street.
21	Who Dares Whines
22	Dark and Stormy Night	Separated from her friends, Livewire undergoes a mission to aid Sector 13, which ends successfully.
23	Cyber Lampy	Brigadier Big Beam wants to bring the crew at HO32 up to date and let them relax a little more with a "Cyber Lampy", but after the Brigadier leaves, it goes rouge and starts a hostile takeover of HO32.
24	Return of Geoff	Geoff returns to Earth and helps Burnout Flush some Roons from a Lampie's traffic light and clean a "jammed up" Electric Unit, only to bore the Lampies of HO32 with his holiday slides
25	And That's Magic	Captain Bright Light is practicing magic tricks for his nephew's birthday, he and Burnout are captured by Roons, Livewire becomes a magician with Spotlight as the assistant to help rescue them while distracting the Roons.
26	Shipmate Charge	Contact gets a message from her and Livewire's Uncle Long Beam, saying they can go visit, but when Charge has to go in her place he discovers sea life isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Series 2

#	Title	Summary	Air Date
1	Neon	A musician named Neon has arrived at HO32, and Livewire, Dustywug and Spark get to play backup for him.
2	Save By the Bikey	Spark officially joins the team as a member of HO32 and becomes a Lampie
3	The Boy Who Could See Lampies	PJ, a boy who can see Lampies gets friendly with Spark, Livewire and Dustywugg.
4	Space Walk
5	Boogie Lights
6	Pump it up
7	Charge's Sausage Mole
8	Sacked	The Lampies of HO32 face being sacked by Brigadier Big Beam
9	Roon Goo Attack	The Roons plan to stop the Lampies once and for all by using their patent "Roon Goo", which could bring about the end of HO32 permanently.
10	HO32 Squadron	Spark drives a remote controlled airplane to rescue Dustywugg, causing chaos in a hardware store.
11	Bike Gone	Spark earns his own bike, but after the Roons steal it he and Livewire go on a mission to recover it.
12	Moth Magic	Livewire looks after a Moth which burns its wings on the Lamp, meanwhile the Roons attack the Lampies of HO32 with Honeycomb.
13	Football Roonigans
14	Lampies Unplugged
15	An Open and Shut Case	Two undercover agents visiting HO32 are captured with Charge by Roons, and Spotlight saves them posing as the Arch Roon's mother.
16	The Haunted Lamp	Charge's past sins catch up with him as he learns that you can't run from your mistakes... or bury them.
17	Lights on Legs
18	House Call
19	The Vacation
20	Watching Over Lois
21	Red Light at Night	The Roons topple the HO32 lamp post. The Lampies try to find an exit before the lamp is crushed at the dump.
22	The Goon Roon
23	All That Glitters
24	A Day at the Movies
25	Roon Alert	With a nationwide blackout in progress, the crew of HO32 must make it through 48 hours of total Roon Apocalypse alive.
26	Bright Light in Love

Reception

TV distribution rights for Series One were sold into 33 countries."International Songwriting Competition Results". 2006. When series one was broadcast in 2001 it regularly achieved over 40% of target viewing audience. This figure reached over 50% during 2002. Series two of The Lampies was completed in March 2002 and generated similar audience figures with prime slots on BBC 1 and 2.

Releases

HIT Entertainment had released a single UK only VHS release of the programme entitled "Captain Who and other stories" in 2001. An introductory DVD - SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES was launched on 7 April 2008. The first full DVD, Disc 1 Series One - A BIT OF A JAM AND OTHER STORIES was launched on 19 May 2008. LP Productions formed a partnership with Save the Children in 2008. £2 from the sale of each SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES DVD will go towards the Save the Children protection work with very vulnerable children in Mongolia.

External links

• The Lampies at IMDb
• The Lampies official website
• The Lampies at toonhound.com
• Uli Meyer Animation Studios (TV section)