Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub
Trumpton creator who died last week was from Wandsworth
Gordon Murray, the creator of Trumpton who died last Thursday, was born and bred in Wandsworth. Most famous for The Trumptonshire Trilogy, the children's television animator created Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley in the 1960s.
He went on to become a producer in the early years of the BBC's children's department with such shows as Captain Pugwash and the Sketch Club.
Born in Wandsworth Common on May 3 1921 he was the youngest of four children. He was a pupil at Emanuel School which he left in 1937 to become a journalist. However his first love was always puppeteering and after a stint as a private in the London Scottish Territorials followed by some acting work, he set up his own puppet company, Murray Marionettes.
That led to a job pulling the strings of Spotty Dog for the BBC's new toddler show The Wooden Tops, leading to work on The Flowerpot Men and Toytown.
Murray devised new puppet techniques specifically for TV and wrote accompanying scripts.
During this time he als married the ballet dancer Enid Martin, had two daughters and eventually set up his own idependent company in a converted church in Crouch End.
Murray's iconic inventions continued to appeal to audiences. In the late '80s he recreated his Trumptonshire characters for a Hovis advert, and after clearing out his attic in 2011 he found old reels of the shows which were digitally restored and re-released in 2012. "I'd love to see the people who first watched it back in the '60s enjoying it again," he explained.
Gordon Murray died on June 30th aged 95.
July 4, 2016