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| Budgie the Little Helicopter | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Genre | Animated series |
| Created by | Sarah, Duchess of York |
| Developed by | The Sleepy Kids Company[1] |
| Written by | Brian Trueman |
| Directed by | Gary Blatchford |
| Voices of |
|
| Narrated by | Jeff Rawle |
| Theme music composer | Paul K. Joyce |
| Composer | Dennis C. Brown |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 39 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producer | Michael Algar |
| Running time | 10 minutes per episode (approx.) |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV (CITV)[3] |
| Release | 4 January 1994 – 25 March 1996 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Budgie the Little Helicopter is a British animated television series, relating to a fictional helicopter and his friends, based on a series of children's books.[4] The characters were based on the books by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.[5] The show was co-produced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin, The Sleepy Kids Company and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York for HTV West and Scottish Television, and originally aired on British television in 1994 on CITV, where it ran for 39 episodes. A range of videos, books, and toys were released under the Budgie label.
The show aired in the United States on FOX as part of the Fox Cubhouse programming block from 1995 to 1996, and moved to the Fox Family Channel in 1998 as part of It's Itsy Bitsy Time.[6] The series was redubbed with North American voices for It’s Itsy Bitsy Time. In Canada, it also aired on Family Channel from 1994-97 and on Treehouse TV from 1999-2003.
On release of the first book, Ferguson was accused by the media of copying the idea for the series from an out-of-print 1960 book Hector the Helicopter, by A.W. Baldwin, which she denied.[7]
The series is legally available on Ferguson's official YouTube channel.[8]
- ^ "Budgie boost for Kids". Independent. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ Eadie, Alison (4 December 1993). "Fergie's Budgie Coming to the US". Sun Sentinel. London. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ Shepherd, John (17 March 1994). "Shares in Sleepy Kids doze". Independent. London. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ Dullea, Georgia (16 February 1994). "AT TEA WITH: The Duchess of York; Mercy, Mischief and a Royal Fiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
- ^ Mallory, Michael (11 July 2013). "Anyone Remember 'Budgie?'". www.animationmagazine.net.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 162. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ "Starting over at 40". 20 January 2000. Archived from the original on 25 November 2011.
- ^ "Budgie the Little Helicopter S1 Ep1 Pippa Arrives". YouTube.