Original title
Pipkins
Released
1/1/1973
Origin country
GB
Genre
Family, Kids
Production companies
ATV
Status
Returning series
Number of seasons
14
Number of episodes
321
Pipkins was a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981.
Interviews with the cast of Pipkins.
An interview with Susan Pleat, writer of over 200 episodes.
Interviews with the cast members.
This is Mr Pipkin's Workshop. Come on in and look around. See all those puppets ? Well, Mr Pipkin made them and they are rather special, for they can dance and sing just like humans.
Mr Pipkin and Johnny have finished making a monkey puppet, but as Hartley Hare points out, it doesn’t move...
Now that the monkey can move, Mr Pipkin and Johnny think very hard for a name, they even ask Tortoise for help. What can they call the newcomer ?
Mr Pipkin’s nephew, Fred, visits the workshop and tells his uncle that he is entering a bicycle race, but funny things seem to happen to Fred…
Hartley cannot find his glasses. Are they lost, or has someone hidden them? Poor Hartley is in for a worrying time…
Mr Pipkin, Johnny, Hartley, Tortoise and even naughty Topov are all going away to the seaside for a holiday. Dr Stethoscope is going with them to make sure that no one, especially Hartley, gets a cold.
Inigo Pipkin has problems. When he had a telephone put into the workshop, he didn’t realize the trouble it would cause…
Topov keeps getting his beard in the cornflakes…
Bertha sets out for the workshop to see Johnny but when she arrives Mr Pipkin and Johnny are out. Although she’s a bit cross, she decides to clean up while they are out. Hartley helps out, but finds the vacuum cleaner too loud for his big ears!
A new puppet has been made and it’s nearly ready to be shown. But Hartley can’t wait. He wants to see it now, and it’s through trying to take peep at it that he has an accident.
The new puppet makes snorting noises. He also eats all the time, often rather strange things. Hartley puts up with this for a while, until he finds drawings of food among his own pictures…
A dustman calls to take away the old junk, but Mr Pipkin wants to keep it. He can make animals out of things that people throw away. The dustman is so excited by what he sees in the workshop that he gets left behind by the dust cart.
Charlie the dustman brings some "useful junk" round to Mr Pipkin...
It's Hartley's birthday - and there are lots of surprises. He doesn't know he's going to have a party, a present and a surprise telephone call!
Johnny is now in charge but without Mr Pipkin to teach him to make puppets, how will he earn money to buy food ? He has an idea…
Johnny, Hartley, Tortoise, Topov and co start up in business as 'Pipkins', the help people. Hartley answers the phone in the office, while Pig and Topov go out in the van to help people…
With everyone working, who is going to do the housework ? The only one who could do it is Octavia but she breaks everything with her feet. So they advertise for a housekeeper…
Mrs P, the new Penguin housekeeper, feels she should not be asked to sleep in the kitchen sink. So Johnny gets a new kitchen sink unit and puts it out in the yard.
Tortoise can’t go on keeping money under the settee, he needs somewhere special to put it. Charlie the dustman comes to the rescue with an idea.
Bertha tries to help run the office but she upsets Hartley’s way of doing things. However she does find a quick way of planting potatoes…
Uncle Hare takes Mrs P into town and finds he likes his own hollow much better. But Mrs P likes one place they visit... where they keep fish on ice!
Hartley feels poorly, but he’s in good hands as Charlie is looking after him. However as Hartley recovers, strange things start to happen to Charlie…
Pig, Topov and Hartley all have very different ideas on how to spend the money they have saved from their work.
It's holiday time for Pipkins, and they are camping in the woods. Everyone has a job to do, and they are all happy. At least, almost everyone... Octavia can’t stand the mud!
Pipkins - the help people, have another job to do. A man who looks after elephants is unhappy with his bath...
Topov wants to know why an eggshell breaks if you kick it - his football never does. He also wants to know why all sorts of other things happen...
Topov wants to know why he can't play with the typewriter, mess about with Tortoise's lift and have fun with his toy spider. Nobody tells him. They just say, "Don't"
Uncle Hare comes up from the country and discovers a public library: a place where they lend you books - even picture books for Topov who can’t read...
Charlie asks Pipkins to look after a homeless dog. But he doesn’t tell them that the dog is enormous. Uncle Hare, however comes to the rescue…
Pig learns that if you eat too much you need more money to pay for the food, and to get more money you have to do more work. Isn’t life unfair ?
Johnny and Hartley are going to make a garden swing for a child they know. They’re not too keen on Pig helping them, but yet when it comes to solving their biggest problem, Pig proves to be surprisingly helpful.
Bertha brings a present for Johnny, but before Johnny gets back from work, the present has disappeared. Where did it go ? And could Hartley have had anything to do with it ?
Johnny finds out the hard way that there are some things you just can’t mend yourself. You need a special machine to do it or send it back to the factory where it was made…
Pipkins set off in a boat along the canal to work for the lock keeper.
Topov is supposed to telephone Hartley to tell him where he is when he’s out working, but naughty Topov doesn’t do this… yet, somehow Hartley finds out… how ?
Johnny has a cold, so Charlie comes round and does a few little jobs to help out. Hartley makes Johnny feel worse by saying that Charlie is so much better than Johnny, and Topov makes a complete mess of things by trying to copy Charlie…
Charlie wants to go to a party with Johnny but has difficulty over his clothing…
Hartley’s uncle lives in a hollow in a hay field. One day the farmer decides to cut the hay. Can the Pipkins save the hollow in time ?
Hartley and Johnny are tired of being given fish for every meal, even if Mrs P does say that it is good for them. Bertha comes along and tries to help but all she manages to do is make Mrs P very angry…
Have Pipkins really forgotten Mrs P’s birthday, as she thinks ? Or are they planning a surprise for her ?
Hartley has become a secret sweet eater. He has secret hiding places in every room and eats sweets all the time, but nobody can catch him at it…
Pipkins try to keep the air clean by not using their van, but this leads them into trouble, and bad tempers…
The Pipkins make toys for children in hospital and Hartley learns to be careful when using glue...
Hartley has become too bossy. He won’t even let the others speak for themselves - he always knows best. So Pig and Topov find a way to make him look really silly...
Charlie, on his way to a children’s party calls in to show them a few of his tricks. All except Pig are impressed by his magic. His last trick is so clever, even Pig can’t think how he did it...
When Bertha does the washing, she’d be better off without Topov’s help…
Everyone is going for a picnic in the woods. Hartley prepares delicious things to eat while Topov plans to bring all his toys and comics. but it’s too much to carry on one bike, as Topov learns…
Everyone wants something that belongs to somebody else. Why is it that other people’s things seem nicer than yours ?
Topov doesn’t know what a scrap man does… until he gets a chance to do the job…
Hartley enjoys the things he can make a glove puppet do, but nobody else does…
The bottom has fallen out of Tortoise's world because a flower pot has fallen on his drum and broken it. Can his friends make him happy again ?
If you eat too many bananas, do you turn into one ? Most people think not, but Topov isn’t so sure…
Hartley wants to be the leader…
Johnny decides that if everyone wants to play at cowboys they should do it at playtime, which they do, but Topov doesn't quite get the hang of what's supposed to be done...
Hartley wakes up in a good mood. He wants everyone to be happy and laugh with him but when they do, he suspects they are laughing at him. He gets angry because he doesn't like being a figure of fun...
The trouble with a washing line is that when it is high enough to dry the clothes, it's too high to reach when you want to get them down. Pig comes to the rescue with one of his machines, but creates more problems in the process...
Johnny brings home a pet goldfish. Everyone is fond of him, but sadly, he dies. Hartley wants to buy another one. Johnny won't though, until they find out more about how to look after fish...
Octavia decides her singing is so beautiful that the whole world should have the chance to hear her. She can't get the whole world to listen, but some people in the park, who do, have their doubts...
Uncle comes to have his hoe mended at the workshop. Hartley is worried that Uncle will miss the country, so he produces a rather unusual cow and bird...
When Johnny tells the others to go away, he only wants to be left alone to read. But Hartley misunderstands and thinks that they all have to go as far away as buses and trains will take them...
It all started as a game - instead of talking to each other you sing to each other. This leads to a Pipkins play, with singing instead of talking...
Grannies aren't usually strong enough to lift heavy weights - even if they can roller skate. But Hartley discovers differently in this episode...
Playing at market stalls is fun. It's even more enjoyable if someone else plays at buying items from your market stall. But no one seems prepared to buy anything from Hartley...
Topov thinks it's unfair that he should have to go to bed first just because he is the youngest. But he soon changes his mind when he goes to bed late...
Not every Hare has a dog in the yard, but Hartley finds one there. He decides that if the dog is to come and live with them, it might as well be trained to do something useful...
This was nearly the sad tale about the fate of the most beautiful marrow ever grown by Hartley's Uncle. But as it turns out, Uncle makes one of the most amazing and wonderful discoveries of his life...
Hartley wants to be an astronomer, but there is more to it than looking through a telescope. You have to know when to look, where to look and it's better if you're not helped by Topov...
Shadows and strange noises can be frightening, unless you know what they are...
Tortoise has his own lift, but something has happened to it. Hartley cannot turn the handle...
Hartley is a poet, so the whole world has to know it, and he soon becomes very boring...
Whose birthday is it ? Even if Hartley can find out, how can he provide a present if no one has any money ?
Octavia is going to give everyone a treat in Pipkins. Everyone, that is who is old enough to enjoy it...
Pipkins look after Mrs McNamarra's plants while she is on holiday...
Everything needs mending in Pipkins but Tortoise says it will cost too much. So they all decide to move to a new place, where things actually work...
Hartley wants to go fishing but everyone else would rather go to the park. How can the problem be solved ?
Witches are about at Pipkins. Doors shut without anyone touching them and there are strange clankings and creakings. It gets so bad that a visitor wishes he had never called...
Hartley knows that birds fly in the sky. He also knows that they sit in the trees and run about in the grass. But when he sets out to do some birdwatching they all vanish...
Tom finds a way of helping Topov get over a bicycle accident - he gives him some special cake and reads him a story. Naturally, Hartley and co go out to get some cake and stories of their own...
Hartley dreams about what he would do if he found a diamond worth a great deal of money...
Hartley is spending a lot of time in his bedroom because he thinks there is a monster in the cellar...
Hartley dresses up and pretends to be someone else, his dressing up costume provides problems though...
Topov's teddy bear has an accident while playing. Can his arm be mended ?
A rather strange thing is happening to Hartley - people don't seem to see him. They look through him as though he isn't actually there...
Hartley finds it difficult to do two things at once - he can't be on the phone in his study and also fetch Pig what he wants from the cellar. Luckily, an unexpected visitor helps out...
Some people are better at some things than others. But nobody is best at everything. Hartley discovers there are people who can actually do things that he can't...
Hartley has trouble learning the words of a song because of all the noise Pig and Tom are making but when he tries to stop the noise, he interrupts the smooth running of Pipkins...
Hartley decides to put on a play, but he soon runs into difficulties because he wants to do everything himself...
Hartley has become too big for his dressing gown. How did it happen and what can he do to make himself smaller again ? Can Pig's intervention solve the problems ?
Pig is making something secret in the cellar and doesn't want anyone to come near. So he orders Topov to guard the gate and keep people out. But Sophie and Hartley find themselves on the wrong side of it...
Uncle Hare's system for stopping the cow from eating his carrots doesn't always work...
When Hartley decides to clean up Pipkins, he throws away more than just rubbish...
Topov is unhappy. He thinks there are better places to live than Pipkins and that everyone else is better off...
Mrs Muddle, Pipkins next door neighbour returns some eggs. Hartley is pleased, as he knows a few tricks with eggs...
Hartley shows Pig that painting is not like a photograph. When you look at a painting, it is just a lot of splodges and blobs. But when you stand back, you see something quite different...
Two visitors arrive at Pipkins, one is Mrs Muddle, but the other is unusual and unexpected...
Peter visits Pipkins and after a few misunderstandings with Hartley soon becomes friends with everyone.
Although Hartley claims to be brilliant at everything, there is one flaw in his boast. He does, occasionally forget things...
Peter is a bit off colour. But Pig and Hartley feel he should not be coughing and sneezing all over Pipkins, so they make other arrangements for him...
Imagine there was once a pirate near Pipkins who had forgotten where he had buried his treasure...
Pipkins' good neighbour is Mrs Muddle, but how much is she prepared to help Hartley and his friends ?
Some things, such as an apple can be shared quite easily with a friend. But even a brilliant hare like Hartley finds it difficult to cut custard in half...
Hartley is not feeling well, so he has Tortoise bring him drinks in bed, but the service is slow. Is Tortoise to blame or could the lift be speeded up ?
Hartley is having problems in his study. His telephone, typewriter, and even his wastepaper basket seem to be making strange noises...
To find someone who is hiding, you look behind and under things. But Topov isn't very good at playing this game. Will he get better ?
When Hartley and his friends are asked to make a toy box, everyone has a different idea of how it should be done...
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