Bertha (TV series)

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Bertha
Format Childrens'
Developed by Eric Charles
Stephen Flewers
Starring Roy Kinnear (voice)
Sheila Walker (voice)
Narrated by Roy Kinnear
Theme music composer Brian Daly
Country of origin United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 13
Production
Producer(s) Ivor Wood
Running time 15 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel BBC 1/BBC 2
Original run 1 April 1985 – 18 June 1986
External links
IMDb profile

Bertha is a British stop motion animated children's television series about a factory machine. It was produced by Woodland Animations and aimed primarily at pre-school children.

Contents

[edit] Story

The series was set in an industrial unit occupied by Spottiswood and Company, a small manufacturing plant which produces a wide range of goods ranging from cuckoo clocks to windmill money depository boxes.

The show focused on an extraordinarily capable factory machine named Bertha. In each episode there would be some sort of daily crisis involved in factory production. With the help of her friends (the factory workers), Bertha invariably solves the problems. It should be noted that, as far as the audience saw, Bertha was also the only machine in Spottiswood factory; except for in the episode "The Best Machine Competition", in which a new machine is introduced. However, it fails to make a toy properly and so Bertha is asked to make the design instead, which she succeeds in doing. After this, the other machine is not seen again.

[edit] Production

Bertha was created by Woodland Animations, who also produced the shows Postman Pat, Charlie Chalk and Gran for the BBC. The show was written by Eric Charles and Stephen Flewers and produced by Ivor Wood.

The Narration was provided by Roy Kinnear, who also provided the voices for the characters, along with Sheila Walker.

[edit] Main characters

  • Mr. Willmake - Manager of the factory
  • Miss McClackerty - Mr. Willmake's assistant
  • Mr. Sprott - Chief designer
  • Tracy - Assistant designer
  • Mr. Duncan - Foreman
  • Ted Turner - Chief machine operator.
  • Roy Willing - Assistant machine operator
  • Mrs. Tupp - The tea lady
  • Panjid - Forklift truck operator
  • Nell and Flo - Packers and Stackers
  • T.O.M. - Talk Operated Machine, a robot built to perform tasks around the factory

[edit] Goods manufactured by Bertha throughout the series

[edit] Original Broadcast Dates

Bertha premiered on BBC 1 with "The Great Painting Job" which was broadcast on 1 April 1985 at 3.55pm. The next six episodes were shown over the following weeks, apart from interruptions for the Easter and May Day holidays.

Episodes eight to eleven were first broadcast at the end of an Autumn rerun. Similarly, the final two episodes premiered in the midst of a third outing in 1986.[1]

[edit] List of episodes and first broadcast dates

  1. "The Great Painting Job" - 1 April 1985 [2]
  2. "The Windmills" - 15 April 1985
  3. "A Mouse in the Works" - 22 April 1985
  4. "The Best Machine Competition" - 29 April 1985
  5. "Tom Gets Lost" - 13 May 1985
  6. "The Flying Bear" - 20 May 1985
  7. "The Tea Nurse" - 03 June 1985
  8. "More Speed, Less Work" - 05 November 1985
  9. "The Big Order" - 12 November 1985
  10. "The Burglars" - 19 November 1985
  11. "Bertha's Birthday Party" - 26 November 1985
  12. "The Big Sneeze" - 16 April 1986
  13. "Tom's New Friend" - 18 June 1986


[edit] External links