The Adventures of Rupert Bear

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.

The Adventures of Rupert Bear
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series4
No. of episodes156
Production
Running time11 min.
Release
Original networkITV
Original release28 October 1970 –
24 August 1977

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 theme song, which was written by Len Beadle and Ron Roker, sung by Jackie Lee, and reached No. 14 in the United Kingdom charts in 1971. The song includes the erroneous lyric "Rupert the Bear" (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 lost. On 21 April 2017, it was announced by the Network imprint that original film elements for all 156 episodes had been located, and were to be released on DVD in three volumes, with the first release comprising the earliest 52 episodes.

DVD release

In April 2017, Network 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 website.

A second volume containing the 52 episodes from series 3 was released soon afterward, again exclusive to the Network DVD website 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 website 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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