All at sea with Captain Pugwash
Dec. 2nd, 2018 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe 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:
durham_rambler booked tickets online, which was supposed to result in a confirmation e-mail: then he phoned to say the e-mail hadn't arrived, and a helpful person found him on the system and confirmed our booking. The talk was at two o' clock, so we could fit in a swim afterwards. At the reception desk, a very pleasant volunteer ("A talk? Oh, yes, there's a talk...") had to find a colleague to show her where there was an envelope addressed to us. We found the café, and had a quick lunch (excellent parsnip soup, good sandwiches) and a quick tour of the exhibition. We failed to spot the room off the corridor in which there was a much more detailed exhibition of Ryan's cartoons for the Catholic Herald, which was irritating as we didn't really have time to do more than glance at it afterwards. We sat for a little while in the wrong place before coming to the conclusion that this was not where the talk would be happening. and having to dash back to reception to find the right place (which we had passed on our way to the café, and there was no indication that anything would happen there).
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!
One detail from the exhibition intrigued me. In this close-up, what is the bird on the gallant captain's shoulder? (No, not the standard-issue parrot, the other bird!) Black back and wings, white underside, bright red and yellow striped beak, orange webbed feet: surely that's a puffin? ("It's not a very realistic puffin," saysdurham_rambler, but then Pugwash isn't a very realistic pirate.) And, aha! it is indeed a puffin: specifically, it is Smudge, the mascot of the Junior Puffin Club. I'm glad we've got that sorted out.
durham_rambler booked tickets online, which was supposed to result in a confirmation e-mail: then he phoned to say the e-mail hadn't arrived, and a helpful person found him on the system and confirmed our booking. The talk was at two o' clock, so we could fit in a swim afterwards. At the reception desk, a very pleasant volunteer ("A talk? Oh, yes, there's a talk...") had to find a colleague to show her where there was an envelope addressed to us. We found the café, and had a quick lunch (excellent parsnip soup, good sandwiches) and a quick tour of the exhibition. We failed to spot the room off the corridor in which there was a much more detailed exhibition of Ryan's cartoons for the Catholic Herald, which was irritating as we didn't really have time to do more than glance at it afterwards. We sat for a little while in the wrong place before coming to the conclusion that this was not where the talk would be happening. and having to dash back to reception to find the right place (which we had passed on our way to the café, and there was no indication that anything would happen there).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!
One detail from the exhibition intrigued me. In this close-up, what is the bird on the gallant captain's shoulder? (No, not the standard-issue parrot, the other bird!) Black back and wings, white underside, bright red and yellow striped beak, orange webbed feet: surely that's a puffin? ("It's not a very realistic puffin," says
durham_rambler, but then Pugwash isn't a very realistic pirate.) And, aha! it is indeed a puffin: specifically, it is Smudge, the mascot of the Junior Puffin Club. I'm glad we've got that sorted out.
