Going Swimming. George, Zippy, Bungle and Geoffrey are looking after a friend's goldfish, and it's the perfect time to discuss which animals swim, and that humans have to learn. That's also the subject of Rod, Jane and Freddy's song, while Duggie Brown drops in to read us the story Frank Fillet's Finest Hour. Also, Zippy gets zipped. This episode (if I've identified it correctly) was originally broadcast on Friday, 5th August, 1983.
A couple of silly notes: the first is during the 'Once I caught a fish alive' song. Notice how George and Zippy alternate lines as they sing? That's because it's the same guy - Roy Skelton, who, incidentally, wrote this episode - doing both voices all in one go. On a similar subject, do you notice anything about George and Zippy as they demonstrate their pretend swimming strokes around the four-minute mark? Of course not. Look again, and then scroll down for the answer...
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They've each suddenly got two arms! That takes two puppeteers, so I suspect Ronnie Le Drew and Malcolm Lord both worked on both for that scene. That's probably why we don't see both George and Zippy in the same shot, to allow for a rare mid-sequence edit.
Am I taking this too seriously?
Grateful thanks to Lee for providing this recording.
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