Huxley Pig

Huxley Pig is a British stop motion animated children's television series based on a series of picture books authored by Rodney Peppé.

The series was produced by FilmFair for Central TV, with narration by Martin Jarvis. 26 episodes aired between 5 June 1989 and 11 December 1990.

General theme
The main character, Huxley Pig, was always dreaming of adventure, exciting professions and encounters. At the start of each episode Huxley would be in his bedroom talking to Sam the squawking seagull and wondering about something. He would open his big suitcase of dress-up clothes, try something on and say, "Hmmm, I wonder". The picture would fade and be taken away into his daydreams for the rest of the story.

In the dream, Sam the Seagull would be able to speak, in a Cockney accent, and there were many other varied characters such as:
 * Vile Vincent, the vampire pig-butler
 * Horace, a hamster and something of a con artist
 * Cuddles, a fanged green beast
 * Sidney, a snake with a lisp
 * The Ringmaster, the ringmaster pig who runs the Circus
 * Ethel, Gloria and Myrtle, The 3 Girls
 * Lady Agatha Porker, The Lady who lives at the Hall
 * The Zoo Keeper, the zoo keeper pig who only appeared in Huxley Pig at the restaurant

The adventures took Huxley and the gang to many places, as long as there was food nearby. Food was close to Huxley's heart. Upon the conclusion of the daydream, Huxley would return to reality and find a memento from the story had mysteriously returned with him.

DVD releases
So far, two DVDs of the series have been released in Region 2.

Huxley Pig at the Circus Contains the following episodes:
 * 1) The Circus
 * 2) Haunted House
 * 3) Desert Island
 * 4) The Beach
 * 5) The Clown

Something's Cooking Contains the following episodes:
 * 1) Something Cooking, Huxley Pig
 * 2) Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster
 * 3) Huxley Pig Goes Flying
 * 4) Huxley Pig Goes Camping
 * 5) Huxley Pig and the Abominable Snowpig

Despite the show never aired America, the first five episodes of series 1 and the first five episodes of series 2 appeared as bonus episodes on the Paddington Bear: The Complete Classic Series DVD released by Mill Creek Entertainment for Region 1 on 15 February 2011.

UK VHS releases
Since their broadcast on ITV in 1989, episodes of the first series were released on three videos by Tempo Video except for "Huxley Pig Goes Camping" that went as part of the Video Treats for Toddlers compilation tape released by Collins Video in 1990 along with Babar, The Adventures of Parsley and The Care Bears Family.

On 11 February 1991. Tempo Kids Club (distributed by Abbey Home Entertainment) released a single video with two episodes from Series 1 of Huxley Pig which were "Huxley Pig Goes Camping" and "Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster" (Cat. No. 9). NOTE: An extended version of this video was released with an extra episode which is "Huxley Pig the Hairdresser" from Season 2 of Huxley Pig which was broadcast on ITV in 1990.

In about July 1991, Tempo Pre-School (distributed by Abbey Home Entertainment) released a bumper video with four episodes from the second series of Huxley Pig which were previously broadcast on ITV in 1990 along with two previously released episodes from the first Huxley Pig series

In Autumn 1991, a single Huxley Pig video was released and exclusively sold and distributed under license from Abbey Home Entertainment by Entertainment UK Ltd (in its "Starvision" and "Funhouse" range of children's videos) with three single episodes (one debuted episode from Season 2 which is "Huxley Pig Goes Fishing", one previously released episode from Season 2 which is "Huxley Pig In Space" and one previously released episode from Season 1 which is "Huxley Pig at the Restaurant").

Production staff

 * Director of Animation : Martin Pullen
 * Producer : Jo Pullen
 * Executive Producers : Barrie Edwards, David Yates, Lewis Rudd
 * Music : Herbert Chappell
 * Animators : John Gilluley
 * Camera Assistant : Paul Street
 * Model Makers : Alan Murphy
 * Costumes : Lizzie Agnew, Mark Hall, Brian Cosgrove
 * Puppet Makers : Justin Exley, Pauline London
 * Production Manager : Kath Swain
 * Editors : Andi Sloss, Robert Dunbar
 * Assistant Editor : Jackie Cockie
 * Voices : Martin Jarvis

Finnish
Songs in the Finnish dub were sung by the actors of YLE Import re-using the De Angelis's music but with new Finnish lyrics. In the Finnish dub some scenes are cut, which includes musical numbers in some episodes.

Spinoffs
A computer game was released by Alternative Software in 1990 for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC and in 1991 for the ZX Spectrum.