Rag, Tag and Bobtail and other Magical Stories

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The later form 'raggle-taggle' is an extension of 'rag-tag'. This was in use from the end of the 19th century, for example, in Sabine Baring-Gould's novel, Urith: a tale of Dartmoor, 1891:

In the early 2000s, the shows Andy Pandy and Flower Pot Men were remade as stop motion animations (the latter as Bill and Ben), which aired on CBeebies. Rag, Tag and Bobtail is a BBC children's television programme that ran from 1953 to 1965 as the Thursday programme in the weekly cycle of Watch With Mother. The scripts were written by Louise Cochrane, [3] and the series was produced by Freda Lingstrom and David Boisseau. Narration was by Charles E. Stidwell, David Enders, and James Urquhart. [1]A bobtail was the tail a horse which was cut short. Shakespeare makes reference to the word in King Lear, 1605. Soon after that it was used by John Fletcher, in Monsieur Thomas, 1619, as slang for a cur or contemptible rascal. A tag was a piece of torn, hanging-down cloth. Those were combined with rag to form the earlier version of the phrase - tag, rag and bobtail. This was recorded by Samuel Pepys in his Diary for 6th March 1659: One of the puppeteers with the London Marionette Theatre was Jan Bussell. He formed Hogarth Puppets in 1932 with Ann Hogarth, and they subsequently married. Bussell became a BBC television producer, and began televised puppet shows in 1937, with the Hogarth Puppet Cabaret, although several other puppet companies were broadcast as well before the Second World War. During this period there were no regular children’s programmes on television, but there were performances of puppet shows for adults as well. Watch with Mother was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a development of BBC radio's equivalent Listen with Mother, which had begun two years earlier. In accordance with its intended target audience of pre-school children viewing with their mothers, Watch with Mother was initially broadcast between 3:45pm and 4:00pm, post-afternoon nap and before the older children came home from school. [1] UK folk of a certain age will remember Rag, Tag and Bobtail as characters from the eponymous BBC children's television programme. On the face of it we could be forgiven for thinking that the names were made up for the show, but, like Andy Pandy - which was clearly influenced by the name namby-pamby, Rag, Tag and Bobtail derives from an earlier phrase. The children's television On 1 September 1953 a live programme called Watch with Mother was broadcast in the evening on BBC television, in which Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird presented excerpts from Andy Pandy, Flower Pot Men and a new show, Rag, Tag and Bobtail, which began transmitting on 10 September 1953. Rag, Tag and Bobtail was narrated by Charles E. Stidwell, and later David Enders and then James Urquhart, and used different puppeteers, Sam and Elizabeth Williams – because its characters were glove puppets rather than marionettes.

That 'Rag, Tag and Bobtail', as well as shows like 'Andy Pandy', 'Flower Pot Men' and 'The Woodentops' (all made in similar time frames and also puppet animated and strong on childhood innocence), are not better known today is in my mind not just a shame but somewhat criminal too. While vastly inferior shows with very little quality and charm air regularly on accessible time slots on channels that have not been the same for a long time. Andy Pandy made his first appearance on Tuesday 11 July 1950, as part of an experimental run of four programmes. The narrator was Maria Bird, who also wrote the script and music, and designed the sets. In the first few episodes Janet Ferber sang the songs, then Gladys Whitred took over. The first puppeteer was Audrey Atterbury, and the puppet of Andy Pandy was based on her son Paul (in later years one of the experts on Antiques Roadshow). In later episodes she was joined by Molly Gibson, to help operate Andy and his friends Teddy and Looby Loo.The choice of Watch with Mother for the title of the series was intended "to deflect fears that television might become a nursemaid to children and encourage bad mothering". [2] Show cycles [ edit ] Although Andy Pandy had been regularly broadcast every week since mid-1950 (normally on Tuesdays), [3] and was joined by Flower Pot Men in December 1952 (normally on Wednesdays), [4] the name Watch with Mother was not adopted until April 1953, [5] shortly before the programming was expanded to three afternoons a week with the addition of Rag, Tag and Bobtail that September. [6] The "classic" cycle of shows was in place by September 1955, with the first showing of The Woodentops. [2]