Huxley Pig was a stop-motion animated children's television series

Children's television series

Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...

 from 1989 and 1990.

Based on the picture books by Rodney Peppe, the series was produced by FilmFair

FilmFair

FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced stop motion children's television series and animated cartoons from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s...

 for Central TV

Central Independent Television

Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

 .

General Theme

The main character, Huxley Pig, was always dreaming of adventure, exciting professions and encounters. At the start of each episode Huxley would be in his bedroom talking to Sam the squawking seagull and wondering about something. He would open his big suitcase of dress-up clothes, try something on and say, "Hmmm, I wonder". The picture would fade and be taken away into his daydreams for the rest of the story.

In the dream, Sam the Seagull would be able to speak, in a Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

 accent, and there were many other varied characters such as:

• Vile Vincent, the vampire pig-butler
• Horace, a hamster and something of a con artist
• Cuddles, a fanged green beast
• Sydney, a snake with a lisp

The adventures took Huxley and the gang to many places, as long as there was food nearby. Food was close to Huxley's heart.

What is curious about the show is that while Sam the Seagull is, as in reality, only able to speak English in dream sequences Huxley, who is clearly a pig, is able to speak in everyday life.

Huxley Pig episodes

SERIES 1 (1989)

#	Title	Broadcast Date	Summary
1	The Circus	5 June 1989	Huxley Pig rumages through his clothes and pulls out a clown suit and dreams about being at the circus by sharing six 'Knock, Knock' jokes with Horace and struggles on the high wire but doesn't do too bad in the end.
2	The Haunted House	12 June 1989	Huxley Pig looks through a picture book about a haunted house and dreams of him and Sam visiting one called Holiday Haunts, where they meet Horace the rodent agent, the vampire-butler Vile Vincent, Cuddles the big green monster who cooks them 'Monster Burgers' to which they didn't really like, but it hurts Cuddles's feelings, then they play 'Swallow My Leader' to cheer Cuddles up.
3	The Desert Island	19 June 1989
4	The Beach	26 June 1989
5	The Big Top	3 July 1989
6	The Restaurant	10 July 1989
7	The Sea Monster	17 July 1989
8	Going Flying	24 July 1989
9	Going Camping	31 July 1989
10	The Abominable Snowpig	7 August 1989
11	The Burglar	14 August 1989
12	Making a Movie	21 August 1989
13	Huxley Pig's Cinderella	28 August 1989

SERIES 2 (1990)

#	Title	Broadcast Date	Summary
1	The Magican	25 October 1990
2	The Reporter	2 October 1990
3	Stone Age Huxley	9 October 1990
4	Huxley Pig in Space	16 October 1990
5	Going Fishing	23 October 1990
6	Home Movie	30 October 1990
7	The Smugglers	6 November 1990
8'	Desert Explorer	13 November 1990
9	The Decorator	20 November 1990
10	The Hairdresser	27 November 1990
11	The Village Fete	4 December 1990
12	Going Skiing	11 December 1990	Huxley Pig wins a 'Free Skiing Holiday' in the post and dreams about a skiing holiday of which the 'rotten' rodent instructor Horace becomes a fruad by seeing Vile Vincent's badges and certificates that he won since for 'Ski Fruad Squad' all the other skiiers failed, then when dream is over he finds a 'Ski Fraud Squad' badge in his lunchbox as a 'free gift'

DVD Releases

So far, two DVDs of the series have been released in Region 2.

Huxley Pig At The Circus


Contains the following episodes:

1. The Circus
2. Haunted House
3. Desert Island
4. The Beach
5. The Clown

Something's Cooking


Contains the following episodes:

1. Something Cooking, Huxley Pig
2. Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster
3. Huxley Pig Goes Flying
4. Huxley Pig Goes Camping
5. Huxley Pig and the Abominable Snowpig

VHS Releases

Since their broadcast on ITV in 1989, episodes of the first series were released on three videos by Tempo Video except for Huxley Pig Goes Camping that went as part of the Video Treats for Toddlers compilation tape released by Collins Video in 1990 along with Babar

Babar (TV series)

Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international...

, Adventures of Parsley the Lion  and The Care Bears

VHS video title	Year of release	Episodes
Here Comes Huxley Pig (92492)	1989	Huxley Pig at the Circus, Huxley Pig and the Haunted House, Huxley Pig at the Restaurant and Huxley Pig on a Desert Island
The Adventures of Huxley Pig (92502)	1989	Huxley Pig at the Beach, Huxley Pig at the Big Top, Huxley Pig and the Sea Monster and Huxley Pig Meets the Snow Monster
Huxley Pig Goes Flying (93682)	1990	Huxley Pig Goes Flying, Huxley Pig and the Burglar, Huxley Pig's Cinderella and Huxley Pig Makes a Movie

Production Staff

Director of Animation : Martin Pullen
Producer : Jo Pullen
Executive Producers : Barrie Edwards, David Yates, Lewis Rudd
Music : Herbert Chappell
Animators : John Gilluley, David Johnson
Camera Assistant : Paul Street
Model Makers : Alan Murphy, Heather Boucher
Costumes : Lizzie Agnew
Puppet Makers : Justin Exley, Pauline London
Production Manager : Kath Swain
Editors : Andi Sloss, Robert Dunbar
Assistant Editor : Jackie Munro
Voices : Martin Jarvis

Spinoffs

A computer game for the Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 and ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

was released in 1990 by Alternative SW.