Fingerbobs

Did You Know?

• The memorable theme tune was composed by Michael Jessett.
• The theme tune lyrics began: 'Yoffy lifts a finger, and a mouse is there'.

Programme

Presented by the mime artist Yoffy, played by Canadian actor Rick Jones, each ten-minute episode revolved around a paper finger puppet animal. The plot typically involved gathering objects like pebbles or feathers to assemble something new by the end. The puppets, each with their own theme song, included Fingermouse, a grey paper cone head with paper ears and whiskers atop a grey glove body; Gulliver, a seagull with a white ping-pong ball head over a thumb and white gloves for wings; Scampi, multiple scampi made from purple gloves with red heads on each finger; and Flash, a tortoise with a paper shell.

Other animals, such as Enoch the woodpecker, Scaredy the crow, Louise the squirrel, Prickly Friend the hedgehog, and Gloria the white mouse—who appeared in the final episode as Fingermouse’s girlfriend—made only occasional appearances and lacked their own songs. Just thirteen episodes were produced, repeated regularly until December 1984. After the last episode wrapped, Jones destroyed the mouse puppet while the camera kept rolling. Fingermouse later got his own series in 1985, with a new puppeteer, Iain Lauchlan from Play School, in a show called The Music Man. That series placed greater emphasis on musical instruments and also consisted of thirteen programmes.