Sooty denies Bill and Ben their place in history

Bill the Flowerpot Man is very upset.  Flobadob.  And he’s sure that Ben would be too: were he still alive.

Sooty - 'Izzy Wizzy, let's get Busy'.

The famous duo with the engaging flopadob way of talking have been left off the Royal Mail’s latest stamps, which feature favourite children’s TV characters of the past five decades, in favour of Sooty.  And Bill Wright, aged 78, a retired florist greengrocer who, with his brother Ben, inspired the characters, thinks it’s a ‘blooming disgrace’.

Ben Wright died in 1987, aged 62, but the Royal Mail’s decision has angered Little Weed, Bill’s younger sister, Phyllis, as well as the creator of the original stores, their elder sister, Hilda Brabbas, now 82 and living in Lewes, Sussex.  Mrs Brabbas wrote three stories about the childhood antics of her brothers and they were broadcast on the children’s radio programme, Listen with Mother, in 1951.  The TV version, adapted by Frieda Lingstrom, appeared a year later.

Muffin

Yesterday the Royal Mail said that the stamps, which also feature Muffin the Mule, the Clangers, Stingray and Dangermouse, represented five decades of children’s TV and Sooty was considered to be the more enduring character.  But Mr Wright said: ‘I think it’s shame.  People say: Who’s Muffin the Mule?  Just a tool.  And Sooty is a bit tooty.  But mention Bill and Ben and everyones’Flobadob’’.

Bill and Ben and Little Weed

He said that the origin of that was when he and his brother broke wind in the bath.  ‘The water made a sort of ‘flobadob’ noise.  That was also where the cry of: ‘Was it Bill or was it Ben?’ came from.  My mother would say it when either of us did anything naughty.

Article written by Robin Young, several years ago.

Episode of Bill and Ben from 1953: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6zNwBTLSWU

and while we're bathing in nostalgia here's my favourite The Wooden Tops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_WJCv_Xyg