Captain Pugwash

Classic but crudely animated children's series from John Ryan relating the tales of Captain Horatio Pugwash, podgy skipper of The Black Pig. The stories were told over several or more five minute episodes, most of the time Pugwash and his crew were pitted against the notorious, black bearded pirate, Cut Throat Jack. Ryan was later accused of including deliberate sexual innuendo in the scripts, a charge that he strenuously denied. There seems to be something of an urban myth about dubiously named characters such as Master Bate, but closer scrutiny does not bear this out (the character was actually called Master Mate). 

Peter Hawkins supplied the voices for this and several other BBC shows, including Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, and perhaps more famously, the Daleks in Doctor Who. Such was the success of Pugwash that a regular cartoon strip appeared in the Radio Times, the original series was colourised and a new set of 26 episodes were created in 1999 at a cost of £1.5 million!

Published on December 3rd, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.