The Flowerpot Men

1 9 5 2 - 1 9 7 0 (UK)
Approx 120 x 15 minute episodes

Wednesday's Watch With Mother featured the twin pot-dwellers Bill and Ben. Andy Pandy might have had Teddy and Looby Loo (who was never alive whenever any body was around anyway!) but The Flowerpot Men had Little Weed who stood between them and kept watch for the evil "man who worked in the garden".

The two puppet men had legs made out of upside-down flowerpots and over-sized gloves and boots. They spoke gibberish - The "flobbadob" language, which was invented by Peter Hawkins (who also supplied the voices for Bill and Ben and had worked on Captain Pugwash and later provided the 'voices' for The Daleks on Dr Who).

The producers of The Flowerpot Men were criticized by some parents for promoting immaturity (primarily due to the constant "flobbadobb-ing!). I personally found them scary little buggers when I was a wee nipper for the very same reason!

The Flowerpot Men made a TV comeback in 2001. The pair were given a makeover in a bid to compete with modern children's favourites like The Teletubbies and The Tweenies. The newly commissioned 26 part series, which also includes Bill and Ben's floral mentor Little Weed, was shown in 2001 in the UK on the BBC. Although the two characters have kept their "flobbalobbalob" language, a narrator now translates their gibberish so viewers can understand them.

Bill and Ben have been given larger faces and now wear lime green bow ties with green gloves.  There are no strings attached to the pair, as the characters have been created using computer animation.  Little Weed has also changed her image, sporting sunglasses and taking on a role as "earth mother". Known in the past only for her trademark "weeeeeeeed" catchphrase, she now has a more expanded vocabulary.  A host of new characters have also joined the series, including a hedgehog and a worm.  Why can't they leave well enough alone?

And now in glorious nostalgia-vision, an excerpt from an all-time classic piece of kiddies television:

"Once upon a time there was a little house. All around the house was a beautiful garden. And down at the bottom of the garden was a place where the man who worked in the garden left his things when he went into the house to have his dinner.

One day, when he'd gone into the house to have his dinner, he left behind an old glue pot, some seed boxes and some packets of seeds. There were other things lying about and flowerpots; Two little ones, two middle-sized ones and two great big ones. 

And just behind the big flowerpots was a little weed: "wee-eed wee-eeed"

And there they all were lying quietly in the sunshine. The little weed looked all about her, and when she saw that everything was quiet she knocked gently on the two big flowerpots and said: "wee-eed wee-eeed". 

And slowly, out of the flowerpots came the flowerpot men. First out came their little faces, smiling all over, then their little hands with big garden gloves on; they both turned round and saw each other: *ooh flobbalobbalob flobbalob*

Then they said hello to the little weed in their flowerpot way of talking.

*flobbablob ullo little weed etc . . .

And the little weed laughed and said: "wee-eed weee-eeed"

And the flowerpot men thought she meant that someone was coming so they popped down into their flowerpots again and all was quiet and drowsy in the sunshine and the little weed stayed in between the flowerpots and said nothing.

After a time, one of the flowerpot men thought "surely there's nobody about" and he popped his head up for a minute to have a look around. Then the other flowerpot man thought "surely there's no one about" and he popped his head up to have a look around. And they went on like this for quite a long time."