Rainbow (TV series)

File:Rainbow television.jpg

Rainbow was a children's television programme in the United Kingdom which ran on the ITV network from 1972 to 1992. It was intended to develop language and number skills for pre-school children.

It came to an end when Thames Television lost its ITV franchise in 1992. Since then, it has gained cult status and continues to get frequent mentions on radio and television.

On 28 February 2006 BBC News reported that digital children's channel Nick Jnr would be showing repeats of Rainbow (dating from 1982), on Mondays.

The show won the Society of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Children's Programme in 1975.

Premise

Each episode of Rainbow revolved around a particular activity or situation that would arise in the Rainbow House, where the main characters lived. Usually it would involve some kind of squabble or dispute between the puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, and Geoffrey's attempts to calm them down and keep the peace. The main story would be interspersed with songs (usually from Rod, Jane and Freddy, although guest singers would occasionally take their place), animations, and stories read from the Rainbow storybook, usually by Geoffrey. Some episodes would focus on a particular theme, such as sounds or opposites, and would consist mainly of short sketches or exchanges between the main characters, rather than a consistent storyline.

Characters

Rainbow featured the following characters, each with their own character style:

• Bungle - a brown male bear, inquisitive but also clumsy. (a costume; played by John Leeson, Stanley Bates, Malcolm Lord, Paul Cullinan)
• Zippy - loud and domineering, who was actually a rugby ball (though with a body attached). (puppet; originally voiced and operated by Peter Hawkins, then voiced by Roy Skelton - best known for being the voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who) - and operated by Ronnie Le Drew.
• George - a shy pink hippo. (puppet; voiced by Roy Skelton and operated by Malcolm Lord, Tony Holtham and later Craig Crane)
• Sunshine and Moony - optimistic Sunshine (yellow with a red hat) and her more gloomy friend Moony (brown with a tuft of yellow hair) were the original 'stars' of the programme, but soon became little more than foils to the more popular Zippy; they were phased out by 1973, in favour of greater roles for Bungle and (especially) George.
• The presenter - a real person (first David Cook, then the best known presenter Geoffrey Hayes - not Chris Tarrant as occasionally stated, although there is a great resemblance between them in their looks and voices), who brought them to order or gave them something to do.
• Rod, Jane and Freddy, a group of musicians who regularly featured on the programme. Originally known as Rod, Matt and Jane when they debuted on the show in 1974, Freddy's position being held by Matthew Corbett (of The Sooty Show fame), and Roger Walker from 1977-80 before Freddy took over.
• Telltale, a six-piece group who provided the music in the early days of the show before Rod, Jane and Freddy took over.
• Zippo, Zippy's cousin, identical in appearance to Zippy, who would make the occasional guest appearance. Originally portrayed as an eloquent Frenchman, but a later episode depicted him as an American-accented rapper with loud, flashy clothing.
• Dawn, the next-door neighbour, played by Dawn Bowden, who was introduced in the show's later years, first appearing in 1986.

Aunty, played by numerous actresses, was the aunty of one of the characters, probably Geoffrey. She came along roughly once a year and always let herself in. She was mainly a tool for teaching stories or morals, as she was a very boring woman.

Generally speaking, George and Zippy represented two 'types' of child, the quiet, shy, and unconfident type, and the hyperactive and destructive type. George was usually vindicated, but Zippy got his comeuppance. While they were apparently young 'children', Bungle was an older 'child', and differed from them in being a costume, rather than a hand puppet. Geoffrey's relationship to them was unclear, other than being a kind of father figure. Apart from Jane and (in the early days) Sunshine, females rarely appeared on the programme, despite some ambiguity concerning the often effeminate (and permanently pink) George.

In 1989, Rod, Jane and Freddy left the show to concentrate on touring, pantomime appearances and their own separate TV show. This meant that Dawn Bowden was introduced as a regular female character in place of Jane, while the songs were generally provided by guest singers, a notable one being Christopher Lillicrap.

The revival

Although the original Rainbow stopped in 1992, it did come back in 1994 and 1995. This new show centred on the slightly-redesigned puppet characters (without a presenter) running a toy shop. A new character was introduced, a Scouse-sounding blue rabbit named Cleo (voiced by Gillian Robic). This version of the show, however, was short-lived.

It came back again in 1996 and 1997 as a series of short 10-minute shows entitled Rainbow Days, presented by Dale Superville, however, neither of the two revivals were as well received as the shows fronted by Haines.

The 'adult' version

In 1979 the cast and crew of Rainbow made a special edition for the Thames TV staff Christmas tape. This show, called 'Rainbow Days', featured plenty of intended sexual innuendo and although not shown at the time (as it was never intended to air), it has since been aired for the amusement of those who grew up with the show. The clip became famous after being aired on Victor Lewis Smith's Channel 4 programme TV Offal (1997) and was jokingly reffered to as "the pilot episode", which is clearly wasn't as Geoffrey Haines was presenter at the time. (It should be noted that the external page linked below erroneously claims that the episode was publicly broadcast as a regular episode).

There is also an overdubbed episode with frequent swearing done in a same way as Postman Pat [1].

External links

• Rainbow at IMDb
• Transcript of the adult version
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Fan website
• Watch the adult episode at Ebaum's World.
• BBC News, 28th Feb 2006