Torchy the
 Battery Boy 
       puppets: marionette puppets
  episodes: 52 x 15mins b/w

                      SERIES ONE
                      Pelham Films
                      AP Films / ABC Weekend TV
                      1958 / 26 x 15mins

                      SERIES TWO
                      Pelham Films / Associated British-Pathe
                      1959 / 26 x 15mins

  
   "Torchy, Torchy the battery boy
    I'm a walkie-talkie toy!"
 

    Torchy is a battery-powered toy boy with a lamp in his hat, and an on-off
    switch on his chest. He lives with old Mr Bumbedrop and his straight-haired
    poodle Pom-Pom in a little cottage with a large garden that's always full of
    children. Torchy's lamp is magic. He can shine it away into the night and
    talk to people far away, like the toys who live in Topsy Turvy Land.
    Mr Bumbledrop has built Torchy his very own space rocket too, which can
    whisk him away to this amazing realm where the toys frolic in lollipop
    fields and cream buns grow on trees, and there are lots of exciting things
    to do and to discover in Frutown, if your battery doesn't run down...

       

    "Torchy" was created and produced by Roberta Leigh via her new production
    company Pelham Films, and the first series of twenty-six episodes utilised
    the talents of Gerry Anderson and AP Films. It was a continuation of the
    production relationship they had on The Adventures of Twizzle, and it
    was made with almost double the budget, with each episode coming in
    at around £27,000. The two firms parted company after the first series
    was concluded, but it was an amicable split and Roberta Leigh held
    on to all rights for the show, its music, puppets and sets. She also took
    Arthur Provis with her. She produced the second series with Associated
    British-Pathe, and you can't see the join between them. You can see the
    strings, however, because this series bridged the gap between traditional
    TV marionettes and the future puppet series Roberta Leigh and Gerry
    Anderson went on to produce.

    "I wish I had a little boy of me own
     who would help me..."

    We find out the whys and wherefores of young Torchy in the very first episode
    "Pompom and the Toys". The children, Bossy Boots and Bogie, are playing
    with kites in Mr Bumbledrop's garden when, in a somewhat rash act, they
    decide to tie a bunch of toys and - yikes! - Pompom the dog to their kite
    strings, and away they sail, off into the sky, ne'er to be seen again.

    Poor Mr Bumbledrop is quite heartbroken at the loss of his beloved pet,
    so he has the inspired idea to to create a his very own "toy boy" to help him
    look for the critter. He settles down to work at two o'clock, and by six o'clock,
    he's built young Torchy. After a brief interlude in which the duo look for the
    old man's glasses, we head outside and watch as Torchy shines his magic
    torch light. And there, his beam illuminates the toys and Pom-Pom, safe
    and well on a twinkling star in the night sky. But how is he to get them back?
    Mr Bumbledrop is once more inspired, and the next day he builds Torchy
    a great fizzing rocket ship which takes him to Topsy Turvy Land.

    By the end of the second episode, Torchy has met and played with the toys
    who have decided to stay on the star to avoid any further incidents with the
    the children in Mr Bumbledrop's garden, and subsequent stories see
    Torchy and the kids shuttling backwards and forwards from the earth to
    this extraordinary place, and Bossy Boots and Bogie are taught several
    life lessons along the way...

    "Hello, dear old Bumble-wumble-drop,
     I'm so glad you've made me!"

    "Torchy" proved to be very popular with its contemporary young audience,
    and folks of a certain age still look back at it with nostalgic affection. It was
    packed full of whimsy, with all sorts of a fantastic occurrences taking place
    in Topsy Turvy Land. And from a historical perspective this was an important
    series, involving as it did so many key figures in British TV puppet circles. It
    was another stepping stone to greatness after "Twizzle", and you can
    clearly see the progression as the production team honed their puppet
    construction skills, and developed their skills with in-camera effects.    

    Roberta Leigh subsequently brought us "Sarah & Hoppity" (1962), the sci-fi
    extravaganza that was "Space Patrol" (1963-1964), and more.

    As for Gerry Anderson and AP Films, well, we all know what they got
    up to over the next decade. What is particularly interesting here is the way
    in which both production teams forged ahead with ever-more dynamic and
    unique supermarionated adventures and indeed, AP Films made their
    change of direction apparent within a few short months, when the team
    headed out West with Tex Tucker and the posse in Four Feather Falls.
    All that tough talk and trigger-happy gunplay really is a world away from 
    Torchy's battery-operated whimsy...

    Beam me up

    Torchy's magic beam only works if he recites the following request:

   "Magic beam that is so bright,
    will you shine your lovely light!"

  

    broadcast info

    The series first aired regionally, on the ITV network. It premiered in the
    Midlands and the North on Sunday, 11th January 1959, and was aired
    on a bi-weekly basis...

    It took a full twelve months for Torchy to reach London, when the series
    was included as part of ITV's "Small Time" line-up, premiering on 23rd
    February 1960...

 

   Torchy episodes

 

     Torchy on DVD


      Torchy the Battery Boy: The Complete First Series
                Region 2 / Network / April 2005

      Torchy the Battery Boy: The Complete Second Series
                Region 2 / Network / September 2005

 

    Series One credits

    by Roberta Leigh

    made by APF Maidenhead
    a Pelham Films production