Fimbles

Lore & Background

The Fimbles are Fimbo (yellow with green stripes), Florrie (blue with purple stripes), and Baby Pom (green with pink stripes). They are portrayed by 'skin' actors in complex, fluffy animatronic suits. When the Tinkling Tree tinkles, the Fimbles get the 'Fimbling Feeling'—a twitch in their nose, fingers, or topknot—signaling they will find something, such as a natural phenomenon, an everyday object, or something inexplicable like a puddle of blue 'galoo'. Other characters include Bessie the plump pink bird, Roly Mo the mole with an underground library, Rockit the blue tree frog, and Ribble the orange fluffball chick.

Reader's Guide

Fimbles was a staple of early CBeebies programming, known for its gentle, exploratory format that encouraged creative play. The show's design was based on characters from the book 'Lucy Anna and the Finders' by Sarah Hayes, though the Fimbles differ significantly from the book's antagonists. The series spawned spin-offs including 'The Roly Mo Show' (focusing on literacy), 'Fimbly Songtime', a radio series 'Rockit's Pocket', and a live touring show 'Fimbles Live! - It's A Party'. Merchandise was handled by Fisher-Price under a master toy deal with BBC Worldwide. The show achieved notable international success, particularly in South Korea where it was dubbed and broadcast on KBS 2TV, and in China on HAHA TV with a lengthened format.

Did You Know?

• The Fimbles' appearance was based on the antagonists of the book 'Lucy Anna and the Finders' by Sarah Hayes.
• The show was filmed at Bray Studios in Berkshire.
• A live touring show titled 'Fimbles Live! - It's A Party' toured the UK from April to November 2006.
• In China, the 19-minute episodes were lengthened by 5 minutes for broadcast on HAHA TV.

The Fimbling Feeling and the Art of Discovery

At the heart of Fimbles lies a whimsical mechanism that drives every single episode: the Fimbling Feeling. When the Tinkling Tree in Fimble Valley shakes its bell-like blossoms, the nose, fingers, and topknot of one or more Fimbles begin to twitch, signalling that a discovery is imminent. What they find ranges from the mundane—a patch of sunlight, a tambourine, a sock—to the utterly inexplicable, such as a puddle of blue "galoo" that has no place in the real world. Whatever is uncovered becomes the spark for the episode's adventures and the Fimbles' creative play. The three Fimbles themselves are portrayed by "skin" actors working inside complex, fluffy animatronic suits, giving them a snouted, concentrically-ringed appearance. They resemble a hybrid of hippopotamus, pig, and tapir, and are distinguished from one another primarily by colour and size. Large-scale puppets populate the world alongside them, typically assisting the Fimbles with whatever task the episode demands. The entire setting is a bright, lush, and colourful valley designed to feel both familiar and fantastical to a young audience.

The Trio and Their Supporting Cast

The three Fimbles each carry a distinct personality within their shared visual family. Fimbo, the yellow-and-green-striped eldest and the only male, is the tallest of the group and takes pleasure in playing his Shimmi Shaker and eating crumble crackers. Florrie, blue with purple stripes, is the musical soul of the trio, frequently singing and keeping close to a small Fimble-shaped doll she calls "Little One." Baby Pom, green with pink stripes, is the youngest and smallest, behaving much like a toddler as she trails after her companions and pushes a yellow wagon named the Trundle Truck. Beyond the trio, the valley is populated by memorable supporting characters: Bessie, a plump pink bird who narrates episode summaries and reveals what the Fimbles have found; Roly Mo, a purple-and-green striped mole who maintains a vast underground library; Rockit, an energetic blue tree frog; and Ribble, Bessie's orange fluffball chick son who communicates through squeaks. Each of these puppets is operated by dedicated puppeteers and given a voice by the show's voice cast.

Production, Broadcast, and Global Audience

Fimbles was created and produced by Novel Entertainment as a commission for the BBC, with filming taking place at Bray Studios in Berkshire. The series ran to a total of 200 episodes across two seasons, with the first broadcast on September 23, 2002, and the final new episode airing on September 24, 2004. Each episode is titled after the object or phenomenon the Fimbles discover, from "Suitcase" and "Tambourine" to "Yodelling Echo" and "Squiggle." After its initial run, the programme continued to find audiences through repeats on CBeebies, which kept the show on screen until early 2012. The show's reach extended far beyond the United Kingdom: it was broadcast in over 100 countries, including Canada, China, and every nation in mainland Europe. This wide distribution made Fimbles a familiar presence in children's programming schedules across multiple continents and cultures, cementing its status as one of the BBC's most internationally circulated preschool series of the early 2000s.

Literary Roots and the Roly Mo Spin-off

The visual design of the Fimbles—snouted, concentrically ringed, and vaguely hybrid—owes a debt to an unexpected literary source. The characters were based on the eponymous antagonists from Lucy Anna and the Finders, a book written and illustrated by Sarah Hayes. In that story, the Finders are implacably omnivorous creatures who spend the narrative threatening to devour the young protagonist. Beyond their shared appearance, the book's Finders have nothing in common with the gentle, curious Fimbles of the television series. Hayes is credited in Fimbles and was involved in adapting the characters for the screen, bridging the gap between the threatening literary originals and their friendly televised counterparts. The show's legacy also extended into spin-off territory: in 2004, The Roly Mo Show began airing on CBeebies, giving the purple-and-green striped mole his own dedicated programme. This expansion of the Fimble Valley universe demonstrated the franchise's staying power and the audience appetite for more of its gentle, discovery-driven storytelling.