"Rainbows climb, clouds drift by,
     Brollys fly through a magic sky..."
 

    Mr and Mrs Brolly live in a weather house in Harry's bedroom. And they make
    the weather for you and me. At least, that's what the title song tells us, and it's
    the premise for this sunny collection of weather-based stories.

    Harry himself is a weather-fixated young lad in red pyjamas. He sleeps beneath
    an old quilt made up of patchwork weather and sky imagery: clouds and
    rainbows, lightning and stars. And he likes to snuggle up with his toy pals, which
    include a soft toy elephant and hippo called - erm - Elephant and Hippo. There's
    also a nearby draught excluder in the form of a snake, called Snake, and a
    wooden bird figure that sits on his shelving. Yes, you guessed, he calls him
    Bird. Anyways, Harry's main point of focus is that weather house. When the
    weather is going to be bright and sunny Mrs Brolly comes to her door. And when
    the weather is wet and cloudy, it's time for Mr Brolly to appear. Obviously, this
    unfortunate couple can never appear together, but Harry often wonders what
    might happen if they did, and he takes that thought to dreamland with him,
    whereupon, he'll be whisked away to that little wooden house, off on
    another adventure with the Brollys...

    Under Mr and Mrs Brolly's guidance, Harry learns about the wind, he experiences
    fog and lovely sunshine. He learns about the seasons too, and naturally meets a
    number of weather-related characters on the way, including a little plippy-plopping
    thundercloud (Little Cloud) who likes to hide in Mrs Brolly's bag, a quack-quacking
    green duck umbrella who enables him to fly, and Wilkins the sunflower who sits
    and smiles in a pot on the Brollys' back porch. There's icy Jack Frost too, who's
    one to avoid. Oh, and you remember Harry's toy pals, don't you? - Well, they're
    often there as well, sharing in Harry's adventures.
    
    The Brollys' weather house is a wooden cladding construction, painted in rainbow
    shades. They have a rainbow striped boat, and even their garden perennials are
    rainbow bright too. Mrs Brolly likes to stitch new material squares on to Harry's
    weather quilt, and she keeps all sorts of bright weather items in jars and tins in
    her kitchen, each labeled and ready for use as required. Meanwhile, Mr Brolly
    likes to indulge in his penchant for storms, and he utilizes a tetchy weather
    computer in his control room.

        

    "The Brollys" was created by animator Stuart Kettle who has a place reserved in
    the Cult Telly Hall of Fame for having designed the famous zigzagging Tiswas
    logo. The series was produced by Trevor Bond (Bananaman, The Mr Men) and
    although each episode runs for 15mins, the first three minutes includes a protracted
    introductory song section, incorporating live-action weather footage from Oxford
    Scientific Films. This segues into a sequence in Harry's bedroom, showing
    us his weather quilt, and introducing each of his toy friends, before we finally
    drift towards the weather house and our new adventure. The series design is
    chock full of rainbows, which arc around the borders of The Brolly's garden,
    with bubbling, smiling clouds and a big grinning sun beyond...

 

    The Brollys' magic pals

    » Wilkins is actually the first flower of Spring. He was the first and only bloom
        to appear when Mr Brolly conjured up the season in the premier episode
       "Springtime". Any similarity to Weed is, of course, accidental...

    » Little Cloud arrives in that first episode too. He appears quite suddenly,
        from beneath Mr Brolly's hat...

    » In "The Great Storm" Mrs Brollys says there are only three magic umbrellas
        in the whole wide world. She has one, Mr Brolly has one, and now Harry has
        his own duck-handled one which whisks him away with her, into the sky...

         

 

    Hot to conjure up the Spring

    Conjuring up Spring weather is easy. At least, Mr Brolly thinks so:

   "Close your eyes, my boy, and think
    of happiness and sunshine!"

 

    Brollys episodes

   Springtime                A Foggy Day
   The Great Storm        Summer Holiday
   Old Puff and Blow       Rain Forest
   Jack Frost                Changeable Weather
   Hurricane Harry         The Singing Rainbow
   Sunny Spells             Autumn Memories
   Snow

 

    Broadcast info

    "Springtime" premiered on BBC1, Thursday 13th September 1990 at 3.50pm...

 

    a Weatherhouse Production

     created and designed by Stuart Kettle
     produced and directed by Trevor Bond

    associate
     producer:           Theresa Plummer Andrews
    music:                John Kelham
    stories:              Shirley Isherwood
    ink and paint:      Victoria Bond, Noah Rose,
                             Jacqui Millar
    checker:             Annie Cook
    animation:         Thomas Barker
    assisted by:        Pauline Trapmore
    camera:             Jay Holloway, Douglas Weymouth
    editors:              Douglas Weymouth, John Daniels
   
                             special thanks to John Osborn

                             live action films courtesy of
                             Oxford Scientific Films

    storyteller:         David Shaw Parker  

 

      On the web


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