Gran was a children's stop motion

Stop motion

Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...

 animation television series narrated by Patricia Hayes

Patricia Hayes

Patricia Lawlor Hayes, OBE was an English comedy actress.Hayes was born in Streatham, London. As a child Hayes attended Sacred Heart School in Wandsworth....

 and directed by Ivor Wood

Ivor Wood

Ivor Wood was a prolific Anglo-French stop motion director, producer, animator and writer known for his work on children's television series....

. There were only two main characters, namely Gran and her grandson, Jim.

The programme was made at Woodland Animations and was written by Michael and Joanne Cole. Ivor Wood created thirteen five-minute episodes in 1982

1982 in television

The year 1982 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1982.For the American TV schedule, see: 1982-83 American network television schedule.-Events:...

. The series was broadcast on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 between 17 February 1983 and 12 May 1983, and was repeated in both 1986

1986 in television

The year 1986 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1986.For the American network television schedule, please see 1986-87 American network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:*September 6 –...

 and 1992. A children's book based on the series was also released in 1983. The shorts were also shown in the U.S. as part of the Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

 series Eureeka's Castle

Eureeka's Castle

Eureeka's Castle is an American children's television series that aired on Nickelodeon from September 4, 1989 to June 30, 1995.-Synopsis:The show follows various puppet characters , including Eureeka, a sorceress in training. She and her friends live in a wind-up castle music box owned by a...

.

Despite moderate popularity with young audiences in the mid-1980s, the series has not been seen on UK television since being repeated in 1992, and no further episodes were made; however, Series 1 was released on Region 2 DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in the U.K. on 7 March 2005.

Synopsis

At first glance you may think Gran is like any other Grandma, but she's not. Along with the grandson Jim, she is taking part in different crazy adventure. Each episode sees Gran performing weird and wacky tasks - growing her runner beans up a dinosaurs skeleton, hand glading, knitting a giant scarf to wrap around her house in the winter and cross country motorbike racing. But one thing's for sure - she'll always be wearing her pink slippers.

Episode list

#	Title	Date of TV Debut	Summary
1	Gran's old bones	17 March 1983	Gran and Jim dig up some strange bean poles in the garden. They visit the museum, convinced that they've found dinosaur bones.
2	Gran gliding	17 February 1983	Jim visits his Gran and persuades her to come with him to fly his kite. But something else called a 'hand-glider' catches Gran's eye
3	Gran knits	24 February 1983	Gran may not be very good at knitting, but when she gets going there's no stopping her, and the whole house is soon protected from the winter cold.
4	Gran's pets	3 March 1983	Gran makes up for all the time she has lived without animals after she visits the zoo and takes a shine to the monkeys.
5	Gran's a goalie	10 March 1983	Gran soon learns from Jim how to save goals before going to watch the local team to end up as a goalkeeper for it.
6	Gran's gadgets	24 March 1983	Gran thinks how to make life around the house a bit easier.
7	Gran's good news	31 March 1983	Gran doesn't like watching the depressing weather forecasts on TV, so she gets her own show only giving the good news
8	Gran's bike	7 April 1983	Gran likes the look of Jim's pushbike but, being Gran, she takes up cross-country motor biking instead after taking a tumble in the garden with the shopping.
9	Gran the camper	14 April 1983	Jim goes on a school camping trip in the hills, but when he gets to the top, he finds someone is already camping there- guess who?.
10	Snow Gran	21 April 1983	Gran finds tobogganing too tame and takes up skiing that suddenly doesn't go well by skiing in the garden to crsh into the snowman.
11	Gran's rare bird	28 April 1983	Gran and Jim go bird watching. Gran is so determined to spot a rare bird that Jim decides to help her out.
12	Grandmother clock	5 May 1983	Gran repairs a clock, and from then on everything goes like clockwork with many clocks.
13	Gran's goat	12 May 1983	Gran gets some goats to keep her grass down- but they get her down too.

Theme tune lyrics

The theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

had the following lyrics:

Hello Gran, how are you?

How do you feel today?

I just came by to see if I could be of help in any way?

I always like to come and spend my time with you

You somehow seem to think of something great to do

You really are the most

I think that I can boast

You really are the most surprising Gran!

Credits

• Created by: Joanne & Michael Cole
• Narration by: Patricia Hayes
• Series Designed & Directed by: Ivor Wood
• Animation by: Derek Mogford
• Music & Lyrics by: Bryan Daly
• Sung by: Duncan Cargill
• Film Editor: Martin Bohan
• Sound: Clive Pendry
• Produced by: Woodland Animations Ltd
• © Woodland Animations Ltd / Joanne Cole MDCCCCLXXXII