The Wombles
The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968.
The characters gained a higher national profile in the UK in the mid-1970s as a result of the popularity of a BBC-commissioned children's television show which used stop-motion animation.
Beresford's original book describes them as "a bit like teddy bears to look at but they have real claws and live beneath Wimbledon Common".
Their size and physical appearance has changed somewhat over the years: in the original editions of the books, Wombles are pictured as bear-like and between 3 and 5 feet (about 1–1.5 metres) in height, making them only slightly smaller than adult humans.
This changed with the TV series, in which they were portrayed as being about knee-high to humans, with pointy snouts like those of hedgehogs.
In the book and film Wombling Free, they are described as "short, fat, and furry", roughly between three or four feet (about 1 metre) in height.
They eat a variety of plants, fungi, and tree products that human beings cannot (or will not) eat, so daisy buns, moss pie, acorn juice, fir-cone soufflé, elm bark casserole, and grass bread sandwiches are part of the Womble menu – augmented by any food left behind on the Common by human beings.
[8] They then leave Miss Adelaide's "Womblegarten" and join in the communal work of the burrow, which is mostly clearing up and recycling human refuse.
A CGI animated series of 52 episodes, under the guidance of Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions, who bought the rights to The Wombles for Channel 5's preschool slot Milkshake!, was intended for airing in 2015.
[12] Songwriter and producer Mike Batt wrote the series' theme tune, but negotiated the musical rights to the characters in place of the traditional composer's fee.
Stop-motion animation is an expensive means of making a programme, due to the amount of time required.
Prior to Star Wars, the story had come first and its popularity led to the commissioning of a TV series, followed by merchandise.
Products include stuffed toys along with stationery, stickers, small figurines, bath soap, night lights, lamp shades, chocolate bars, gelatin pudding kits, posters, games, shirts, badges (buttons), cloth patches, and other items.
The revival of the series in the late 1990s brought with it another wave of merchandise which included lunch boxes, umbrellas, flannels (face cloths), hot water bottle covers, slippers, a Steiff doll, and a set of postage stamps for Alderney, a Channel Island that served as the name for one of the Wombles and the home of Beresford until her death.
More recently, the Wombles were part of a set of UK postage stamps honouring classic British children's TV programmes.
After a naming competition in which the final name was chosen by Elisabeth Beresford herself, AFC Wimbledon announced that the new Womble would be known as "Haydon", after Haydons Road, the nearest railway station to Wimbledon's original home ground, Plough Lane.
Twelve years later, the club announced plans to return to their original neighbourhood; Haydons Road is also the closest station to their new ground.
Later Wellington (who was not introduced until the second book) took over the role of "new boy", and even later on, Shansi takes Bungo's place as the youngest working Womble.
Alderney and Miss Adelaide appeared in the earlier books but were not included in the original 1970s TV series.
The Wombles are parodied (as Rumbles - haughty, rat-like creatures that can't pronounce their 'R's) in Michael de Larrabeiti's novel The Borribles.
