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All at sea with Captain Pugwash
Dec. 2nd, 2018 05:38 pmWe knew there was a Captain Pugwash exhibition at Ushaw College - actually, Ushaw having been until not so very long ago a catholic seminary, an exhibition of the work of John Ryan, creator of Captain Pugwash and long-time cartoonist for the Catholic Herald - and had every intention of visiting it, sooner or later. Then, on Wednesday, I received an e-mail: sorry about the misinformation in the previous e-mail, Isabel Ryan will be lecturing on her father's work on 29th NOVEMBER.... I hadn't seen any previous e-mail, and the 29th was the next day, but we decided to go for it - and I'm glad we did, because the exhibition was charming but, let's say "minimalist", and the talk was excellent and provided all sorts of material that wasn't in the exhibition. So, here's the Captain Pugwash exhibition website, and here's the exhibition at Ushaw:
( Things could have been better organised. )
However. The talk itself was joyful. My memories of Captain Pugwash are of the television series (and accompanied by the Trumpet Hornpipe, known in this household as 'the Black Pig', after Captain Pugwash's ship). I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that it started out as a comic. The first Captain Pugwash strip appeared in the first issue of the Eagle, but after a few weeks, Eagle decided that Pugwash was 'too childish' for them, so Ryan drew them Harris Tweed instead. Him i do remember as a comic, and Lettice Leefe, too, though I don't think I ever connected them with Captain Pugwash.
Meanwhile, the Pugwash strip found a home in the Radio Times, and from there it was a small step to the BBC asking for a television version. It seems to have been Ryan's idea to animate this by combining static images with a limited number of moving parts - eyes, mouths, arms, a ship at sea - which could be operated using cardboard levers, in time with the soundtrack. Amazingly, the first episodes were broadcast live, with Ryan and his wife frantically pulling and pushing the cardboard tabs, and trying not to giggle as Peter Hawkins played all the voices. This must have been absolutely chaotic, and they soon started to film the show. Isabel Ryan had brought some examples of scenes with moving parts, for her audience to try out; she told us that on her much delayed train to Durham the previous day she had had an entire carriage of travellers acting out scenes, and so caught up in the process that when they finally saw a train pass their windows, they cried in unison no, it's the scenery that's moving!
( Captain Pugwash's puffin? )
( Things could have been better organised. )
However. The talk itself was joyful. My memories of Captain Pugwash are of the television series (and accompanied by the Trumpet Hornpipe, known in this household as 'the Black Pig', after Captain Pugwash's ship). I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that it started out as a comic. The first Captain Pugwash strip appeared in the first issue of the Eagle, but after a few weeks, Eagle decided that Pugwash was 'too childish' for them, so Ryan drew them Harris Tweed instead. Him i do remember as a comic, and Lettice Leefe, too, though I don't think I ever connected them with Captain Pugwash.
Meanwhile, the Pugwash strip found a home in the Radio Times, and from there it was a small step to the BBC asking for a television version. It seems to have been Ryan's idea to animate this by combining static images with a limited number of moving parts - eyes, mouths, arms, a ship at sea - which could be operated using cardboard levers, in time with the soundtrack. Amazingly, the first episodes were broadcast live, with Ryan and his wife frantically pulling and pushing the cardboard tabs, and trying not to giggle as Peter Hawkins played all the voices. This must have been absolutely chaotic, and they soon started to film the show. Isabel Ryan had brought some examples of scenes with moving parts, for her audience to try out; she told us that on her much delayed train to Durham the previous day she had had an entire carriage of travellers acting out scenes, and so caught up in the process that when they finally saw a train pass their windows, they cried in unison no, it's the scenery that's moving!
( Captain Pugwash's puffin? )
