Sooty/The Sooty Show

1 9 5 2 - 1 9 9 2 (UK)

The little orange bear with the sooty ears and nose attached to the end of Harry Corbett's arm, has been a British TV tradition since its TV debut on BBC TV Talent Night in 1952. Sooty was every child's hero - able to misbehave with impunity, and torment the life of poor old Harry Corbett. 

The mischievous little glove puppet delighted in squirting his master with a water pistol, or covering him in flour. But Sooty was born in unlikely circumstances. The original puppet was bought by Harry (then a Bradford businessman with an engineering degree), at the end of Blackpool Pier for 7s 6d in 1948.

The Sooty character was joined by his (equally as naughty) squeaky dog friend Sweep in 1957 and by Soo (Sooty's cute panda girlfriend - voice provided by Marjorie Corbett until 1980 and then by Brenda Longman) in 1964. The bear and the dog made a great double-act, with Sooty's "oofle dust" and Sweep with his endless strings of sausages. "Izzy Wizzy, let's get busy". An early high spot for Sooty came when he turned his water pistol on no less a dignitary than Prince Philip himself.

Other characters followed, such as Kipper the cat, Butch the dog, and Ramsbottom - a snake with a broad northern accent, and after many years appearing on the BBC, Sooty and Corbett moved over to Thames Television in 1968 for a long running half hour series with ITV. Suffering from ill-health, Corbett handed the show over to his son Matthew (who, born in 1948,  is the same age as Sooty) in 1976. The junior Corbett continued until 1998.  

After more than a quarter of a century as the popular and jovial recipient of Sooty's flour-bag, water hose and hammer assaults, Harry Corbett died in 1989. Reflecting on that initial outlay of 7s 6d, Matthew Corbett said: "I think we've got our money back . . ."

In 1998, Sooty inherited a new "right-hand man" in the shape of Richard Cadell who led Sooty & Co on ITV. Sooty has also been seen as an animated cartoon on TV in the UK. There is a Sooty museum in Shipley, Yorkshire.