The Adventures of Noddy (partially found British children's TV series; 1955-1958)

Title card.

Status: Partially Found

The Adventures of Noddy was the first TV series to feature Enid Blyton's famous character Noddy. It was a string-puppet show that ran on ITV from 1955-1956^[1] and BBC from 1955 to 1963.^[2] The series was narrated by Enid Blyton (author and creator of the Noddy Franchise).

The entire series is preserved within the BBC Archives, and footage occasionally gets used in documentaries and clip shows. Although episodes of other Noddy shows have been found, very little footage of the 1955 series resurfaced online.

In fall of 2017, part of the episode "Noddy's Camera" was found to be shown in a VHS documentary special hosted by Phillip Schofield titled Best Children's TV of the Decade: '60s and '70s. In addition, some footage was also shown in a 1957 TV advert for "Kellogg's Sugar Ricicles" (later changed to "Kellogg's Ricicles" in the late 1960s).

Furthermore, a Youtube user named "Horipet" uploaded two episodes around late 2018. These episodes were "Noddy's Taxi" and "The Enchanted Roller Skates" but without audio. It was not until late 2020 that a team on the Lost Media Wiki undertook finding a 16mm Film reel of "Noddy and The Moon", it was recovered successfully.

On September 5th, 2020, another commercial for "Kellogg's Sugar Ricicles" by "{insert channel name here}" was uploaded showing the same Noddy puppet from the series.

One month later, the same user who had discovered "Noddy's Camera" 2 years prior emerged with 2 more episodes. These episodes were titled "How Noddy Came To Toyland" (which adapted the first book "Noddy Goes To Toyland" from 1949) and "The Runaway Train". “How Noddy Came To Toyland” was eventually released but “The Runaway Train” hasn’t.

Home Releases

The majority of Physical Releases of “The Adventures of Noddy” were done by Walton Home Films, in partner with ITV.

Of the known releases by Walton, there are six.

- How Noddy Came To Toytown

- Noddy's Taxi

- The Runaway Train

- The Flying Bed

- Noddy's Broken Window

- The Enchanted Roller Skates

These releases can be seen in late 60’s ITV catalogues, but disappear along 1970.

Whether or not other distributors sold episodes of “The Adventures of Noddy” is currently unknown.

Characters

Name	Role	Trivia
Noddy	The main character	He is one of the most influential children's book characters of all time, and is sometimes called "The Little Nodding Man." He is kind and charismatic, but often gets into mischief. Between 1955 till 1969, Noddy was voiced by Denise Bryer who provided the voice of the character in various vinyl records and commercials.
Big Ears	Noddy's Best Friend	There's a lot of controversial stuff about Noddy and Big Ears. Such as when series author Enid Blyton depicted them sleeping together. While there is no issue with that, it was highly looked down upon when released in the 1960s. Voiced by Cyril Shaps who voiced Big Ears on various audio adaptations and commercials between the mid 1950s until 1959.
Mr. Plod	Police Officer	As we see in "Noddy's Camera" he is an amiable police officer and is a friend to all. In the 1955 series, he's depicted with sideburns unlike his original book appearance. Peter Hawkins voiced Mr. Plod in the series and would later reprise as Mr. Plod in commercials for "Kellogg's Riciles" and two tie-in records for the cereal.
Tessie Bear	Noddy's friend	Tessie Bear is depicted in the earliest episodes of the show and is the 2nd most important character. During the series' original broadcast, she was a brand new character to the franchise after debuting in the Noddy book "Noddy Gets Into Trouble" in 1954.
Angela Goldenhair	Noddy's friend	Angela Goldenhair is notable for appearing in extremely early Noddy Media, her entire existence is overshadowed by the more popular Tessie Bear.
The Goblins	Antagonists	The Goblins (alongside Big Ears) are the only characters that aren't toys. They enjoy playing tricks and causing trouble with Noddy being the easiest victim. The goblins show up in a few episodes (notably "The Enchanted Roller Skates").
The Golliwogs	Neutral/Antagonists	A group of mischievous dolls that enjoy causing trouble around Noddy and the citizens of ToyTown. The only Gollywog that was friendly was Mr. Golly (the owner of the ToyTown Garage). These characters created controversy due to being based on racist imagery, but they managed to stick around in the Noddy series as late as 1974 before being replaced by The Goblins while Mr. Golly was replaced by Mr. Sparks. One of them appear in the episode "Noddy's Taxi".

Episode List

Important note
The information presented here on The Adventures of Noddy is very misconstrued, and needs a lot of work. There are many different sources with opposing information regarding what is listed.

Important Note, as of 10/29/2020
An important distinction came to light upon the discovery of “Noddy and The Moon”. That distinction was the actual length of a Noddy episode. All 6 Walton Home Film Releases that contain Noddy episodes are only 4 minutes in length, while “Noddy and The Moon” was found to have a length of 14 minutes. To summarize, while the Walton Home Film Releases contain complete Noddy episodes, their completeness (or the lack thereof)remains exclusive to those versions; this includes a lack of audio.

Episode Title	First Known Broadcast Date	Second Known Broadcast Date	Home Film Release	Status
Hello Little Noddy	Sept 25th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
How Noddy Came to Toyland	Oct 2nd, 1955	Unknown	Yes	Partially Found
Noddy's New Car	Oct 9th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Taxi	Oct 16th, 1955	Unknown	Yes	Partially Found
Noddy Does Some Gardening	Oct 23rd, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy Goes Shopping	Oct 30th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Big Ears' Smokey Chimney	Nov 13th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Burglar	Nov 20th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Big Ears Leaves Home	Nov 27th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Invisible Paint	Dec 4th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Unlucky Day	Dec 11th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Big-Ears and the Magic Spell	Dec 18th, 1955	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Magic Bicycle	Jan 1st, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Present for Noddy	May 25th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy´s Runaway Train	June 1st, 1956	Unknown	Yes	Partially Found
The Birthday Flowers	June 6th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Boxful of Noddy	June 13th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Lost Cucumber	Jan 29th, 1956	July 14th, 1957	Unknown	Lost
The Big Balloon	July 4th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Buried Treasure	July 11th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Enchanted Roller Skates	Sept 23rd, 1956	Unknown	Yes	Partially Found
Noddy and the Moon	Sept 30th, 1956	Sometime in 1963	Unknown	Found
The House that Wasn't There	Aug 11th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Three P's	Oct 14th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Kennel for Bumpy	March 11th, 1956	Aug 25th, 1957	Unknown	Lost
The Missing Money Box	Oct 28th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Snowy Day	Nov 4th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Cuckoo's Nest	Nov 11th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Snow Goblin	Nov 18th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Sticky Business	Nov 25th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Flying Bed	Dec 2nd, 1956	Unknown	Yes	Partially Found
Mr Plod's Secret	Dec 9th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Bicycle Bother	Dec 16th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Big Bang	Dec 23rd, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
More Invisible Paint	Dec 30th, 1956	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Radio	Jan 6th, 1957	Unknown	Possible	Lost
Noddy Longlegs	Jan 13th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Sports Day	Jan 20th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Dream	Jan 27th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Big Ears Learns to Drive	Feb 3rd, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Moon Rocket	Feb 10th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy Goes to School	April 7th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Visit to Kitchen Village	April 14th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Big Mistake	April 28th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy's Camera	May 12th, 1957	Unknown	Possible	Partially Found
Noddy Spring Cleans	May 19th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
A Box of Spells	May 26th, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Noddy Runs Away	June 2nd, 1957	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Chemistry Set	May 23rd, 1958	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
One Lucky Day	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Kangaroo	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
The Dark Wood	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Lost
Fly Away Cake	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Lost