The Adventures of Rupert Bear

The Adventures of Rupert Bear
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 156
Production
Running time 11 min.
Release
Original network ITV
Original release 28 October 1970 – 24 August 1977

The Adventures of Rupert Bear (My Little Rupert in the US) was a live-action puppet television series, based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, produced by ATV. It aired from 28 October 1970 to 24 August 1977 on the ITV network, with 156 11-minute episodes produced over four series.

Production

The characters were all puppets, although the opening sequence featured a toy version of Rupert Bear sitting in a live-action child's bedroom. Rupert's friends and flying chariot appeared just as they had in the pages of the Daily Express, although he was joined by some new friends, including a sprite called Willy Wisp. One of the most-remembered elements of the series was the catchy theme song, which was written by Len Beadle and Ron Roker, sung by Jackie Lee, which reached No. 14 in the United Kingdom charts in 1971. The song includes the erroneous lyric "Rupert the Bear", even though Rupert has never had the definite article in his name. The narrator of the stories was Judy Bennett.

Archival status

Of the 156 episodes made, for many years only 75 were known to exist in their original colour film format, with a further 16 duplicated on black-and-white 16mm film. The remaining episodes were thought to be missing. On 21 April 2017, it was announced by Network Distributing that all 156 episodes had been found on their original film elements, and were to be released on DVD in three volumes, the first comprising the first 52 episodes.

DVD release

In April 2017, Network Distributing announced it would be releasing the first 52 episodes from the first two series on DVD (Region 2, PAL format). http://networkonair.com/exclusives/2626-adventures-of-rupert-bear-the-volume-1

The set was made available only directly through Network's site.

A second volume containing the 52 episodes from series 3 was released soon afterward, again exclusive to the Network DVD site and in the same format. http://networkonair.com/exclusives/2686-adventures-of-rupert-bear-the-volume-2

Later, a third volume containing all 52 episodes from series 4 was released, once again exclusive to the Network DVD site and in the same format as the other volumes. http://networkonair.com/all-products/2715-adventures-of-rupert-bear-the-volume-3

All four series were later released as a complete set in October 2017, available from all major retailers.


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