The Lampies

The Lampies
Genre	Entertainment
Created by	Dave Bonner
Written by	David Bonner, Jimmy Hibbert
Directed by	Dean Roberts, Mark Marren
Voices of	Jimmy Hibbert, Eve Karpf, Rob Rackstraw, Susan Sheridan
Theme music composer	Mcasso
Composer(s)	Mcasso overseas
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producer(s)	Theresa Plummer-Andrews, James Coldwell
Producer(s)	Morgan Francis
Editor(s)	Mark Edwards, Rory Timoney
Running time	11 Min
Release
Original network	CBBC

The Lampies is an English children's animated television series created by David Bonner and features a mix of 2D animation and 3D animation.

Created by David Bonner in conjunction with Uli Meyer Animation Studios and music by Mcasso Music, there are 52 eleven-minute episodes that were originally commissioned by the BBC. Financial issues caused the creative and business drive to falter and momentum was lost. In 2003 The Lampies IP was bought from the receiver by a private investor.

Plot

A group of sprite-like power engineers maintain and defend the lamp post HO32 which is the critical area of the entire Lighting Network. The Roons who live in the sewers below are the creatures who threaten the Lighting Network due to their strong dislike to the presence of light. Sewer rats can also prove to be a pest to the Lampies.

Characters

The Lampies Crew

• Burnout - The laid back Foreman of the Lampies who has to run scheduled switches for the lamp light.
• Matronly Spotlight - The routine inspector of the Lampies.
• Charge - The clumsy, day-dreaming assistant worker of the Lampies.
• Contact - The serious and sensible computer operator of the Lampies.
• Livewire - The cute and feisty young girl of the Lampies, who looks after Dustywugg and is Contact's niece.
• Dustywugg - A furry dog-like sprite who serves as the Lampies pet and mascot.
• Captain Bright Light - The absent-minded captain of the Lampies.

Others

• Brigadier Big Beam - The superior organiser of the Lighting Network.
• Phosphorous - The Brigadier's officer liaison and Charge's love interest.
• Captain Spentflint - Formerly the Lampies' captain and now retired. Criticised as a slave driver.
• Spark - The keeper of a bike light. People like him are called Bikeys.

Episodes

Series 1

#	Title	Summary	Air Date
1	Captain Who	The Roons invade HO32 but the newly recruited Captain Bright Light repels them.
2	Dustywugg: Space Marine	With the HO32 crew captured by the Roons, Dustywugg inspired by Captain Spectrum, goes superhero.
3	Walkabout	Charge runs off from HO32, Dustywugg following him. They both get lost in the sewers, but Dustywugg finds their way back.
4	The Inspection	The HO32 crew to try to clean for the Brigadier's inspection, when an alien called Jeff arrives with just what they need.
5	Flash By Name	Captain Bright Light dreads a visit from his brother Flash Light. Flash Light is however not what he first appears to be.
6	Dustywuppy	Livewire adopts a Dustywuppy who turns out to be extremely messy. Eventually he is returned to his rightful owners.
7	Birds Nest Oops	As Charge tries to fix a malfunction in HO32, a pigeon mistakes him for her baby. The lampies solve this and fix HO32.
8	Bit of a Jam	Fed up with being pushed around, Livewire runs away and manages to thwart a Roon plot to short circuit HO32.
9	Bikey	A Bikey called Spark visits the Lampies and later that night Livewire pays him an exchange visit.
10	Thunder and Frightening	The Lampies are missing a Denby Attecorn to prevent the worst during a thunderstorm. Contact manages to get one in time to save HO32.
11	Bouncer	On a visit to Burnout's cousin Haywire, Charge rescues a trapped Bouncer, who in turn saves him from a cat.
12	Boris	A Pipistrelle Bat named Boris rests in the lamp. As the Roons make a daytime attack, Boris scares them away.
13	Decoy	The Roons kidnap Brigadier Big Beam. Using a diversion and the Roons' decoy, the Lampies rescue Big Beam.
14	Dick Static
15	Too Many Cooks	Burnout builds a cooking robot to help Spotlight, but the robot hardly improves cooking for the Lampies.
16	Striplight
17	Tooth of the Matter
18	Chief Beef
19	Roadworks
20	Pinspot
21	Who Dares Whines
22	Dark and Stormy Night	Separated from her friends, Livewire undergoes a mission to aid Sector 13, which ends successfully.
23	Cyber Lampy
24	Return of Geoff
25	And That's Magic
26	Shipmate Charge

Series 2

#	Title	Summary	Air Date
1	Neon
2	Save By the Bikey
3	The Boy Who Could See Lampies	PJ, a boy who can see Lampies gets friendly with Spark, Livewire and Dustywugg.
4	Space Walk
5	Boogie Lights
6	Pump it up
7	Charge's Sausage Mole
8	Sacked
9	Roon Goo Attack
10	HO32 Squadron	Spark drives a remote controlled airplane to rescue Dustywugg, causing chaos in a hardware store.
11	Bike Gone
12	Moth Magic
13	Football Roonigans
14	Lampies Unplugged
15	An Open and Shut Case
16	The Haunted Lamp
17	Lights on Legs
18	House Call
19	The Vacation
20	Watching Over Lois
21	Red Light at Night	The Roons topple the HO32 lamp post. The Lampies try to find an exit before the lamp is crushed at the dump.
22	The Goon Roon
23	All That Glitters
24	A Day at the Movies
25	Roon Alert
26	Bright Light in Love

Music

The Lampies theme tune was one of the most popular on CBBC, and helped the show gain popularity. It won first place in an International Songwriting Competition in 2006. Written by Mike Connaris of London-based Mcasso Music, the Lampies Title song won the Children's category against huge International competition. The judges included Tom Waits, Chris Hillman, John Mayall and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Lampies released a Christmas single called "Light Up the World for Christmas" in 2001. There is an extended version of the song, which is over two minutes.

Reception

TV distribution rights for Series One were sold into 33 countries. When series one was broadcast in 2001 it regularly achieved over 40% of target viewing audience. This figure reached over 50% during 2002. Series two of The Lampies was completed in March 2002 and generated similar audience figures with prime slots on BBC 1 and 2.

Releases

HIT Entertainment had released a single UK only VHS release of the programme entitled "Captain Who and other stories" in 2001. An introductory DVD - SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES was launched on 7 April 2008. The first full DVD, Disc 1 Series One - A BIT OF A JAM AND OTHER STORIES was launched on 19 May 2008. LP Productions formed a partnership with Save the Children in 2008. £2 from the sale of each SWITCH ON TO THE LAMPIES DVD will go towards the Save the Children protection work with very vulnerable children in Mongolia.

External links

• The Lampies at IMDb
• The Lampies official website
• The Lampies at toonhound.com
• Uli Meyer Animation Studios (TV section)