Rag, Tag and Bobtail

Rag, Tag and Bobtail first appeared on British television in September 1953, slipping neatly into the newly named Watch with Mother cycle as the Thursday programme. It was created by Freda Lingstrom and David Boisseau and written by Louise Cochrane, with narration provided over the years by Charles E. Stidwell, David Enders, and James Urquhart, offering young viewers a gentle, unhurried glimpse into the lives of three woodland creatures.

By 1947, Freda Lingstrom had risen to Assistant Head of BBC Schools Broadcasting, where she created the much-loved lunchtime radio programme Listen with Mother. Soon after, Mary Adams, Head of Television Talks and one of the few people then overseeing children’s programming, asked her to devise something for an experimental slot aimed at very young viewers. Lingstrom and her close collaborator and partner Maria Bird had already founded Westerham Arts—named after the Kent village where they lived—and through it produced the first pre-filmed version of Andy Pandy, which made its debut on 11 July 1950. Two years later, in May 1951, Lingstrom was appointed Director of BBC Children’s Television, and with Bird she went on to create the Flowerpot Men in 1952. The following spring, in April 1953, the afternoon block for children was officially renamed Watch with Mother, and that September Rag, Tag and Bobtail joined the line-up.

The stars of the show were three glove puppets: Rag the hedgehog, Tag the mouse, and Bobtail the rabbit. Occasionally Bobtail’s five baby rabbits would scamper into the action. Unlike Andy Pandy or Flowerpot Men, which were string puppets, these characters were operated by Sam and Elizabeth Williams as glove puppets. The production was deliberately simple. Each of the 26 episodes—the first two of which were never broadcast—ran for about twelve minutes and was filmed in a single take. The camera moved only from left to right across a countryside set, with no close-ups or cutaways. The narration carried the whole story, providing both description and character voices. There were no songs, no dances, and no catchphrases—just quiet, observational tales of woodland life.

That simplicity was part of its charm. Where other programmes in the cycle leaned on whimsy or memorable phrases, Rag, Tag and Bobtail offered something more restrained. It was calm, predictable, and reassuring, a pastoral world that unfolded at a pace perfectly suited to very young children.

Even the title carried a sense of history. At first glance it might seem like a playful invention, but in fact it comes from the old English phrase “tag, rag and bobtail,” used since the seventeenth century to describe the common crowd. A bobtail was originally the docked tail of a horse, mentioned by Shakespeare in King Lear in 1605, and later used by John Fletcher in 1619 as slang for a rascal. A tag was a torn piece of cloth hanging down. Combined with rag, the phrase was recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary entry of 6 March 1659: “The dining-room… was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking.” Just as Andy Pandy drew on the nursery-like cadence of “namby-pamby,” Rag, Tag and Bobtail was rooted in a much older linguistic tradition.

Although only a single series of episodes were made, it remained in the Watch with Mother cycle until 1965 thanks to repeat screenings. It may not have had the enduring fame of Andy Pandy or the catchphrases of Bill and Ben, but its gentle woodland tales left a lasting impression. In many ways it epitomised Lingstrom’s philosophy: children’s programmes should be nurturing, thoughtful, and rooted in tradition. Looking back, Rag, Tag and Bobtail feels like a quiet but important part of Britain’s television heritage, remembered fondly for the calm companionship it offered to a generation of young viewers.