Budgie the Little Helicopter
A little helicopter and his airfield friends.
Budgie the Little Helicopter is a British animated television series based on children's books by Sarah Ferguson. The show was co-produced for HTV West and Scottish Television and originally aired on CITV in 1994. It follows a fictional helicopter and his friends at Harefield Airfield.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Animated series
- Creator
- Sarah Ferguson
- Narrator
- Jeff Rawle
- Writer
- Brian Trueman
- Director
- Gary Blatchford
- Theme music
- Paul K. Joyce
- Composer
- Dennis C. Brown
- Country
- United Kingdom, Ireland
Facts from the source article.
Main characters
Budgie, voiced by Richard Pearce, is a helicopter with a large baseball cap covering his airframe and a small tuft of hair underneath. He carries a teddy bear named Snowy in a pocket on his starboard side, lives and works at Harefield Airfield, and is best friends with Pippa. His catchphrase is "Rocketing rotors!" Pippa, voiced by Abigail MacVean, is a single-engined monoplane with a tuft of hair and a large bow on her roof; she and Budgie initially compete but become best friends. Chuck, voiced by Kerry Shale, is the largest aircraft at Harefield, an American Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter who wears a cap with a visible crew cut. Lionel, voiced by Jeremy Nicholas, is the senior helicopter in charge, sporting a modern-era pilot's cap, moustache, and collar, with the catchphrase "Juddering joysticks!" Other characters include Dell the baggage cart tow truck (voiced by Jeff Rawle, who also narrates), Smokey the fire engine, Don the stairs lorry, Backhoe the backhoe loader, Nosey the driller, Ernest the tractor, an unseen control tower operator, twin children Ben and Lucy Kitchen, their mother Mrs. Nancy Kitchen, and mechanics Ken Wrench and Mike Sprocket.
Home video releases
In the UK, First Independent Films put the series out on VHS. A DVD called "The Air Show," with the same episodes as that VHS, came from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment in 2004 via the Universal Columbia Alliance. Right Entertainment and Universal Pictures Video later released a single DVD, "Pippa Arrives," in 2006, featuring five episodes from the first series. In the US, UAV Entertainment offered some episodes on separate VHS tapes in 1997. Jigsaw Entertainment made the full series available on DVD in Australia and New Zealand in 2007.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Budgie the Little Helicopter are there?
Budgie the Little Helicopter has 39 episodes across 3 seasons.
When did Budgie the Little Helicopter first air?
Budgie the Little Helicopter first aired on 4 January 1994.
When did Budgie the Little Helicopter end?
Budgie the Little Helicopter last aired on 25 March 1996.
More in Television Shows Produced by Scottish Television
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