Flower Pot Men

Flower Pot Men features the story of Bill and Ben, two men made of terracotta flower pots who live at the bottom of an English garden. A third character, Little Weed, of indeterminate species resembling either a sunflower or a dandelion with a smiling face, is shown growing between two large flowerpots. The three are also sometimes visited by a tortoise called Slowcoach and, in one particular episode, the trio meet a faintly mysterious character made out of potatoes, Dan the Potato Man.

Typically, while the "man who worked in the garden" would be away having his dinner, the two flower pot men, Bill and Ben, would emerge from their pots. After a minor adventure, a slight mishap would occur, for which someone would then take the blame: "Which of these two flowerpot men, was it Bill or was it Ben?" the narrator would trill in a quavering soprano; the culprit would then confess, before the gardener's footsteps would be heard coming up the garden path; the flower pot men then would vanish into their pots and the "Goodbye" screen would appear. The final punch-line was, "..and I think the little house knew something about it; don't you?".

According to her adopted daughter Alison Gassier, Freda Lingstrom got the idea for the show after spending time in her woodshed with a flowerpot.{{cite episode |title=The 1950s |series=Children’s TV on Trial}} She assembled the production crew, which consisted mainly of those who had worked on her previous show Andy Pandy: her associate Maria Bird, puppeteers Audrey Atterbury and Molly Gibson, and opera singer Gladys Whitred.{{efn|There has been no confirmation of Maria and Gladys's roles within the series. Radio Times listings feature Maria as the narrator, with Gladys singing the songs (including Little Weed's "Was It Bill Or Was it Ben?"); however when Bill and Ben appeared on Six Fifty-Five Special and The Time of Your Life, Gladys said she narrated, as well as voicing Weed. In Children's TV on Trial Julia Whitaker (nee Williams), claimed to have voiced Weed uncredited, while obituaries for Denise Bryer claimed that she voiced her.}} The only new member was Peter Hawkins, who voiced both Bill and Ben, inventing their gibberish language, named Oddle-Poddle. He based the language on select words such as "Slogalog" (Slowcoach the Tortoise) and "Haddap" (Hello).{{cite web

|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XrBzOvlNEs4&pp=ygUWc2l4IGZpZnR5IGZpdmUgc3BlY2lhbA%3D%3D

|title=Six Fifty-Five Special - Puppets|website=YouTube }}

The puppets were made to look as if they were made from flowerpots. Cupcake holders were used for their hats, which sometimes caught onto their strings. Peter particularly praised Audrey's puppetry for being very precise.{{cite web

|url=https://twitter.com/Radiojottings/status/1604503000776572932?cxt=HHwWiICwpc2-q8QsAAAA

|title=Andy Walmsley (18th December 2022) "70 years ago today BBC tv airs the first showing of Bill and Ben 'The Flower Pot Men'. Actor Peter Hawkins and puppeteer Audrey Atterbury talk to Jane Markham in 1989" - Twitter}} The scripts were written in English, with Peter translating them into Oddle-Poddle.{{cite web

|url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9aEkfGZVzdw&pp=ygUPVHJ1bXB0b24gUmlvdHMg

|title=Trumpton Riots - Pugwash, Windy and Barney McGrew|website=YouTube |date=February 2014 }}

{{Episode table |series= |title= |airdate= |episodes=

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 1

| Title = Seeds

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1952|12|18|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 2

| Title = Musical Vegetables

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1952|12|25|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 3

| Title = Cabbages

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|01|1|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 4

| Title = The Potato Man

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|01|8|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 5

| Title = Tiny Men

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|01|15|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 6

| Title = Stickmen

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|01|22|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 7

| Title = Shavings Men

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|01|29|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 8

| Title = Stilts

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|02|5|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 9

| Title = Steamroller

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|02|12|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 10

| Title = Scarecrow

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|02|19|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 11

| Title = Slowcoach Flies

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|02|26|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 12

| Title = Mud Pies

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|03|5|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 13

| Title = Bath in Hat

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|03|12|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 14

| Title = Babies

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|03|19|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 15

| Title = Babies Grow Up

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|03|26|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 16

| Title = Live Chicks

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|04|2|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 17

| Title = Icicles

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|04|9|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 18

| Title = Boot Race

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|04|16|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 19

| Title = Acrobats

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|04|22|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 20

| Title = Bellows

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|04|29|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 21

| Title = Water Lilies

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|05|6|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 22

| Title = Turnip Faces

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|05|13|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 23

| Title = Umbrella

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|05|20|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 24

| Title = Fairy Queen

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|05|27|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

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{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 25

| Title = Weathercock

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|06|3|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

{{Episode list

| EpisodeNumber = 26

| Title = Flying Boots

| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1953|06|10|df=y}}

| ShortSummary =

}}

}}

{{anchor|Controversy}}

Retired headteacher Hilda Brabban created an unrelated set of characters also named Bill and Ben. These have been confused with the Flower Pot Men, including in the initial versions of two obituaries of Brabban, published in The Independent and BBC's in-house magazine Ariel respectively. The confusion also affected the BBC panel show QI, where host Stephen Fry in the 2004 episode Bills mistakenly claimed Brabban had named the Flower Pot Men characters after her younger brothers.{{cite episode|title=Descendants|series=QI|airdate=10 November 2006|season=D|number=8}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/2/10/|title=QI Series B, Episode 10 - Bills|website=British Comedy Guide }} All three sources later corrected their statements. Brabban sold three stories about a Bill and Ben to the BBC in the 1950s; but other than their names, they bore no resemblance to the Flower Pot Men.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/hilda-brabban-obituary-clarification-118062.html|title = Hilda Brabban obituary - a clarification|website = Independent.co.uk|date = 5 February 2003}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk/bill-and-ben-flower-pot-men-1952|title = The Original Flower Pot Men|date = 26 March 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/flobbadob-storm-flowerpot-over-who-sowed-seeds-bill-and-ben-117520.html|title = Flobbadob! Storm in a flowerpot over who sowed the seeds for Bill and Ben|first=James|last=Morrison|website = Independent.co.uk|date = 20 October 2002}} Brabban's stories were broadcast on the radio programme Listen with Mother in 1951; the Bill and Ben of the Flower Pot Men were first seen on the television programme Watch with Mother in 1952. Both programmes were produced by Freda Lingstrom. During her later life Brabban suffered a stroke and later maintained she did invent the characters used in the BBC series; this prompted lawyers, acting on behalf of the estate of the show's creator, Freda Lingstrom, to threaten Brabban with litigation if she appeared on television to propagate this claim.{{Cite web|url=https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/nostalgia-flobberdobberdobberdobber-what-fight-over-bill-and-ben-600758|title = Nostalgia: Flobberdobberdobberdobber... What a fight over Bill and Ben| date=13 May 2017 }}

The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.{{cite web|url=http://www.comicvine.com/bill-and-ben-the-flowerpot-men/4060-59366/|title=Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men|work=comicvine.com}}

The short lived one-hit wonder group, The Flower Pot Men, known for their 1967 song "Let's Go to San Francisco", named the group after the show, although it caused controversies with people suggesting it may have had something to do with marijuana. Bill and Ben themselves may have inspired the names of the twin characters Bill and Ben from Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{BBC programme}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20010716100204/http://www.toonhound.com/flowerpot.htm Toonhound on the Flowerpot Men]
• [http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/watchwm/watchwm.htm Whirligig TV]
• {{IMDb title|0288357}}

{{Watch with Mother}}

Category:1950s British children's television series

Category:1952 British television series debuts

Category:BBC children's television shows

Category:British preschool education television series

Category:British stop-motion animated television series

Category:British television series revived after cancellation

Category:British television shows featuring puppetry

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:Television shows adapted into comics

Category:Television series by BBC Studios