Pingwings is an animated black-and-white children's television series, comprising 18 ten-minute episodes, broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV in three series of six programmes each, between 1961 and 1965. It first aired on Southern Television. Created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin of Smallfilms, it starred a family of penguin-like creatures who lived at the back of a barn on the fictional Berrydown Farm. The Pingwing characters were knitted by Firmin's sister Gloria Wilson, and the animation was achieved using the stop motion technique.
Some of the animated sequences were filmed in the open air. Such sequences were often intercut with live-action sequences, featuring Mr and Mrs Farmer and Gay the Goat. In this way the Pingwing family interacted with their neighbours on the farm. The series was in fact filmed partly "on location": since Peter Firmin and his wife lived in an old farmhouse, and the Smallfilms film studio was located in a disused barn adjacent to it, all the exteriors needed for the series were available literally on their doorstep.[1]
The series was captured on 16mm black-and-white film. All of the voices were provided by Oliver Postgate and Olwen Griffiths.
A short sequence of Pingwings is available on the CD accompanying Oliver Postgate's autobiography, and a DVD of the 18 episodes is also available, from the Dragons' Friendly Society.
The music for the series was composed by Vernon Elliot, and performed by him with the oboist Sidney Sutcliffe.