Little Red Tractor
Stop-motion preschool series about a little red tractor.
Little Red Tractor is a British stop-motion children's show for preschoolers, made by The Little Entertainment Company with Entertainment Rights helping on its first two seasons. Each episode runs ten minutes and was shown on CBeebies. The detailed models and sets are voiced by Stephen Tompkinson and Derek Griffiths. The characters come from Colin Reeder's books, which Brian Glover and Richard Briers narrated on video in the mid-1990s.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Children's television series
- Creator
- Colin Reeder
- Director
- Russell Haigh
- Voices
- Stephen Tompkinson
- Derek Griffiths
- Jimmy Hibbert
- Shireen Shah
- Florence Jones
- Stewart Majkowski
- Euan Dick
- Theme music
- Michael Cross; Stan Cullimore
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- 3
Facts from the source article.
History
Little Red Tractor Projects Limited owned the original Little Red Tractor video series, which achieved top ten children's video chart placement and sold over 300,000 copies without television exposure. Contender, the distributor, sought to replicate that success, but television rights were sold to Keith Littler's Little Entertainment Group because director/writer Peter Tye preferred their stop frame animation expertise and empathy with the original. Contender subsequently produced their own similar series, CITV's Tractor Tom, though Little Red Tractor features more realistic story-lines, a larger human cast, and no surreal livestock behaviour.
Characters
Stan, voiced by Stephen Tompkinson, is Little Red Tractor's driver and constant companion, living at Gosling Farm with two cows named Daisy and Veronica, and two pigs. Little Red Tractor is a small, old but reliable red farm tractor, mute but capable of expressing emotions, restored by Stan to new condition. Patch is Stan's dog, depicted as male in the television series, though female in the original stories. Mr. Jones, voiced by Derek Griffiths, is Stan's neighbour and owner of Big Blue Tractor and Harvey; he lives at Beech Farm and is often selfish or materialistic but socially inept rather than unpleasant, with his first name revealed as Jasper. Big Blue Tractor is a large, updated blue tractor owned by Mr. Jones, lacking humanised traits but able to blow its horn independently; in the original stories it was named Big Fred. Harvey is an orange combine harvester owned by Mr. Jones but sometimes borrowed by Stan. Thomas is Mr. Jones' nephew who stays at Beech Farm occasionally, learning to like country life after initially preferring computer games. Stumpy, voiced by Jimmy Hibbert, is the friendly, mildly eccentric and clumsy miller who drives his purple quadbike Nipper badly and plays in Walter's band; his wife is Elsie. Ryan is Stan's youngest neighbour who, with his sister Amy, likes to play with Little Red Tractor and help out. Mr. Turvey, voiced by Jimmy Hibbert, is Ryan and Amy's father who likes to run and plays keyboards in Walter's band; Mrs. Turvey, voiced by Shireen Shah, likes to paint and do arts and crafts. Walter, voiced by Derek Griffiths, is an African-British mechanic running the Babblebrook garage who likes rock and roll and is lead singer and guitarist for his band Walter and the Wolverines; his daughter Nicola, voiced by Shireen Shah, also runs the garage and is more sensible than her father, playing an instrument in the band. Leo is Walter's nephew who becomes a friend of Ryan and Amy and is a competent drummer standing in for Nicola in Walter's band.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Little Red Tractor are there?
Little Red Tractor has 78 episodes across 3 seasons.
When did Little Red Tractor first air?
Little Red Tractor first aired on 5 January 2004.
When did Little Red Tractor end?
Little Red Tractor last aired on 29 April 2007.
More in British Children's Animated Fantasy Television Series
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