By 'eck! - The Flumps were a family of sweet-natured furballs with distinct Yorkshire accents. There were six characters, Father Flump, Mother Flump, Grandfather and the three children, Perkin, Posie and young Pootle and stories focused on such gentle premises as getting vegetables to grow, fun with magnets, lending a hand, roller-skating, and keeping secrets. Grandfather was renowned for his ability to play his Flumpet, it was a cross between a trumpet and a horn which parped like a tuba. When he wasn't flumpeting, Grandfather would inevitably be dozing with his moustache breezing and his toes rippling with contentment as he snoozed. Perkin, meanwhile, was renowned for his moods, and was regularly heard sounding-off about the other Flumps, or situations. Indeed, in the episode called "The Cloud" Pootle's "umptiness" causes a little cloud of gloom to follow him around everywhere for the day...

The Flumps were created by Julie Holder & the series was produced by David Yates whose busy CV includes such animated favourites as Bod and Pigeon Street. Gay Soper provided the voices and sung the songs that accompanied the tales. With their strong dialect, flat caps, brass music, head scarves and knitted beanies The Flumps were true Working Class stars. Their ramshackle garden was quite dour, with its crumbling brick walls, fence stumps and discoloured vegetation but The Flumps called it "home" and showed extraordinary invention and resilience. And that same resilience has seen their popularity hold up through nigh-on thirty years of children's television. We may have more technically proficient shows now, but just like those SmallFilms productions of Bagpuss and The Clangers and the rest, carefully structured simplicity will always work best...