The Story Concludes…
After Part Two's tales of horse colic, Neil Jordan, Flann O'Brien, Fortycoats, and 'Ould Mr. Brennan'…our story drifts gently towards its ending. My thanks (again) go out to Eugene for agreeing to chat (off the cuff) about this, that, the other, and everything in between.
You've been a great audience, folks. Good night, and safe home. (curtain)
So what's become of the actual wagon now Eugene? The documentary [Pulling the Strings] seemed to suggest that it has become the property of Fossett's Circus….
It used to be outside Telifís Éireann [in Donnybrook] for a long time, literally falling asunder, until Eddie Fossett took it. He then (thankfully) decided to repair it, so he has it in storage now.
Actually, for the second last Late Late Show with Gay Byrne, Gay said he would love to have the wagon on…but nobody knew where it was! Then, by accident, I found out where it was through doing the Punch and Judy Act in the Peter Ustinov film version of The Old Curiosity Shop. I didn't appear myself, but I did (as I say) do the Punch and Judy in it, and there were also some of Eddie Fossett's jugglers and acrobats involved. Anyway, Eddie and I got chatting and he said "You know, I have the wagon!" (laughs) So that’s how I got to find out.
Then, about 4 years ago, we had it up in the National Museum in Collins' Barracks, and we had about five thousand turn up to see it…mostly adults!
So is it back in Fossett's now?
Yes, it's back in Fossett's. It's there and it can be hired out.
You've suggested that you felt that you (and the family) lost control of Wanderly Wagon, somewhat, around the time it made the transition to colour, as it no longer felt like "a live show". How had things changed exactly?
In the early black and white days they couldn't edit the tape, so you did the show from beginning to end and if anything went wrong you had to start again. But then when it went into colour and they started to have editing facilities, they began to do shows simultaneously, so we'd do the interiors (say) for two different shows together. That made continuity very difficult …it became more of a technical show…and it was much more difficult to work like that for me.
I know that Wanderly was one of the first Irish TV shows (if not the first) to use 'Chroma Key' (or 'Colour Separation Overlay'), thus allowing the wagon to enter more fantastical realms (under the sea, outer space etc). What are your memories of working with that technology?
Well there were wonderful things you could do, of course. Suddenly the wagon could fly, and I remember we used helicopter footage that they had, and showed the wagon flying out to Cappagh Hospital, and all the other children's hospitals we used to visit at Christmas.
In general, how much freedom, did you have from RTÉ creatively?
Well we were always allowed to come up with ideas, and I was consulted about the different things we could actually do with puppets. So…over the years we came up with a lot of the puppetry ideas that made the show what it was.
How tight was the schedule in terms of getting the shows finished on time?
We used to rehearse for two days, and then we’d be in the studio for a full day, but it was never enough time, never enough time…
Then there were also sessions doing songs, recording songs and so on with Jim Doherty who used to do the music. There were a lot of different song-writers and composers too, over the years.
Were the mythical/folkloric elements of the show something you personally felt interested in, or did they (instead) spring simply from the imaginations of individual writers?
Well that really only featured in the later episodes like the ones they're after doing for the DVD, and 'Chroma Key' was used a lot in those ones. But we really didn't do that kind of 'Irish folklore' thing too often before that. We had some great episodes, though, in the early years, like 'Upside-Down land'…and…some of the early ones were marvellous really. All done without the special effects too.
I’ve heard that many (if not most) of RTÉ’s Wanderly Wagon tapes were erased/re-used due to cost-cutting techniques prevalent at the time. How much material actually remains in the archives, do you know?
Well they were big, wide tapes and they used to use them over and over. I was originally told that most of the tapes were gone, but there are still quite a few left…probably 150 tapes at least. Of course, we must have done an awful lot more that that over the years…so it's a great shame. But it was common practice at the time, and the BBC used to have the same problem.
For example, for all the years we did Murphy agus a Chairde (5 years) there's none of it left. Well, there's a little 2 minute clip…or it mightn't even be 2 minutes…in the documentary, and that survived because it was on film. It was a documentary about Telifís Éireann that happened to be filming at the time.
But in the coming years they're going to allow me to go through the archives and pick out ones that I'd like. I'll hopefully even be able to get something out of the tapes that are damaged, and I could always link up the fragments with inserts from Judge and myself.
So there'll definitely be more material coming out on DVD?
Yes, [the first volume] was a great success last year with over 30,000 copies sold. I didn't really have that much to do with it, they really only gave it to me to OK, but if I'd had the choice I wouldn't have picked the ones they picked. If I'd had the time I might have chosen something else but by the time they came to me it was already November so…
Anyway, it was EMI that did it and it took a long time to get Telifís Éireann to release the material, but because of the success they're definitely going to do more.
Finally, Eugene, could you tell us a little bit about the 'International Puppetry Festival' you're currently organising?
The puppetry festival is in its 13th year, and we're working hard on it at the moment. We're hoping to have a Russian company, a Mexican company, and a group from Iran would you believe! They're three girl puppeteers from Iran and it would be a great coup if we could get them.
As well as our own theatre we'll also be using the Pavilion this year, for the Russian one. It's not all finalised yet but we're hoping it'll be a very good festival.
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The End
(…More fustar.info interviews [hopefully] coming soon…)
I’ve really enjoyed these three installments. I did watch Wanderly Wagon as a kid and can well remember Sneaky Snake, Judge and the crow (there was a crow, wasn’t there?) but apart from that I don’t remember much. Only that it was the only thing that I watched on RTE as a kid.
On Saturday mornings I used to watch Mike Read and I remember it ended about 12pm, at which stage we’d switch over to Aengus McAnally on Anything Goes (if our mom didn’t make us go upstairs and change out of our pyjamas). All I can remember about Anything Goes was the awful purple backdrop and lots of young Irish kids sitting obediently in the audience. It really was virtually communist - at least that’s the way I remember it - and its production values stood in embarrasingly stark contrast to Mike Read’s show.
Anyway, what I wanted to say, before I began my rant, was that WW was cool and when I’m back in Ireland I’ll go and seek out those DVDs. I have a brother older than me by 3 years and I know he loved it. My memories of Judge are reinforced, I think, by the road-safety campaign he did and the badges that accompanied it (I think).
Anyway, 3 excellent posts.This site kicks ass.
February 12th, 2006 at 1:55 amPaul,
Thanks a lot. Glad you’ve enjoyed it.
There was indeed a crow, who (believe it or not) went by the name of Mr. Crow! I always found that a bit odd…I mean if he’s Mr. Crow, then what are all the other crows in the world called? Mr. Crow 2, Mr. Crow 3…etc?
The “Safe Cross Code” advert featuring Judge is, of course, indelibly burned into the memory of any kid brought up in Ireland “back in the day”.
I think I might have had one of those badges too…
February 12th, 2006 at 2:07 amNo doubt these posts have whetted the appetites of fústarers for the puppetry festival and they will descend in hoards on Monkstown by Dart and wanderly bus.
It’s hard to believe Wanderly Wagon ended when I was only eight. I remember being utterly bereft by its disappearance from the televisual landscape, a feeling recaptured a couple of short (well long due to my child’s perception of the passage of time) years later with the demise of the Michael Praed Robin of Sherwood, not to mention the exhausting of Enid’s source material for the Famous Five.
February 12th, 2006 at 2:12 amMy problem with the Famous Five, Copernicus, is that I saw the programme just before I started reading the books and when I watched the programme I thought George was a boy, because George IS a boy’s name after all, and any proper girl would call herself Georgina, or Gina (my mother’s name), right? Matters weren’t helped by the fact that the actress playing George was extremely boyish. It was very confusing and really I could never concentrate on whatever mystery they were solving, so preoccupied was I with George’s gender status!
February 12th, 2006 at 2:42 amI hear that. The other disconnect with the books is that they were obviously set in the 1930s!
I used to get a new one every week from the television tie-in edition, but my favourite was Five go to Smugglers’ Top, which I had in a tatty old paperback with line drawings featuring the five in knee length shorts, ribbed jumpers and Riddle of the Sandshaircuts.
I wonder where the five from the tv show are now.
February 12th, 2006 at 3:08 amFústar, great series of posts.
February 12th, 2006 at 6:05 pmAs for the five who are no longer famous; Gary Russell, who played Dick, went on to edit Dr Who Magazine. Interestingly enough, according to the IMDb at least, Timmy was played by Toddy Woodgate.
Since when did dogs have surnames?
Since when did dogs have surnames?
Foolhardy, Timmy was not the only one of the five with identity issues.
February 12th, 2006 at 10:08 pmIt’s hard to believe Wanderly Wagon ended when I was only eight.
Yes indeed, those of us born in the early to mid seventies really only caught the tail end of a series that started well before we were born. I’m sure there must have been numerous repeats post 1982…though given RTÉ’s predilection for erasing tapes, this may not have been the case.
With Wanderly’s demise we were left to enjoy imported fare that ran from the old to the ancient: Mr. Ed, I Love Lucy, The Little Rascals and, of course, Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:44 amI was going to mention that in my comment, fustar. That only three or four contemporary programmes stood out probably makes the point just as well.
They say the past is another country, but it wasn’t for Irish kids growing up in 1 and subsequently 2 channel land. Perhaps it’s part of the reason the generation born after 1970 have yet to produce a stand out literary or film talent.
I totally stand to be corrected on that by the way, but I haven’t seen anything distinctive myself.
(Shamefully, I haven’t seen the Beauty Queen of Linane, but I think it’s noteworthy that it’s not a contemporary setting - my own private attempts at fiction always seem to end up being set in the past too, unless it’s comic book ideas which are always pretty much American. Odd)
It’s kind of weird to have been thrust from a cultural landscape established before our parents were born and not long thereafter almost straight into postmodernity, after all.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:46 amthe shift from wanderly wagon to, well wanderly wagon the dvd, was certainly swift. for those of us in two channel land especially the shock of the new was genuinely awesome - from the angelus last thing at night to 24 hour broadband was a pretty swift 15 years or so.
can this really have caused a collective creative paralysis though? shouldn’t radical change have triggered an outburst of creativity across a range of sectors - from the arts, to science, politics and the law?
after all between 1850 and 1870 ireland moved from hyper-mortality into a situation of radical economic and political change - and within a generation of that had produced what are still its foremost prose and poetry masters as well as two competing generatons of radical political and legal reformers - and the foundation of most of the national and local media titles still being read today - (fústar of course being an honourable exception).
have the changes from 1950 to 2006 really been of a comporable scale to those between 1850 and 1906?
oddly one of the few instances of popular fiction really engaging with the post-wanderly wagon generation was batchelor’s walk - which despite being set in contemporary Dublin had a genuinely wistful air about it.
oddly enough it often seems to me that contemporary ireland has the satisfied but frustrated, jaded air of edwardian england - something it never was at the time - a place of ennui and nostalgia where despite the economic and technological changes, the culture consists of endlessly recycled styles and constantly restoked and reinvented memories.
February 13th, 2006 at 4:59 pmI really loved the wagon and its wanderly ways although CHiPs also became a favourite during my national school days. I even had the uniform, which had the added advantage of gaining me free admission to Village People concerts. Shortly thereafter came Mr Bad Attitude Baracus and chums and, of course, the ever-resourceful MacGyver. Let us also not forget Automan, Knight Rider, Charlie’s Angels, Scarecrow and Mrs King, and the utterly fantastic Magnum P.I.
February 13th, 2006 at 5:25 pmNot to mention wagons of Get Smart re-runs.
I think a problem with fostering Irish talent is our proximity to the much more opportunity rich environs of London town et al where, given potential audience numbers alone, one is much more likely to get away with something less formulaic (i.e. The Office) and production companies are more likely to take risks.
Ireland is small and there’s not a lot that can be done about that and this fact, I think, discourages people from going out on a limb and encourages the more creative among us to bugger off (I’m talking about film and tv here - with our tax system only an idiot would leave to become a novelist). Perhaps with the advent of the internet we will witness the sea change we all seem to be waiting for.
Another point I can’t resist making is the sad fact that RTÉ seems to have a remarkable talent for avoiding talent. A prime example is something like Don’t Feed the Gondolas which, in my opinion, was truly awful. If those guys were the funniest Irish people RTÉ could find then they clearly didn’t look to hard. It’s insulting frankly.
February 13th, 2006 at 5:59 pmYou left out the Virginian, a personal fave, Manimal, a personal fave of yours, Wonder Woman, the Six Million Dollar Man and the Fall Guy, foolhardy.
Londoner, we seem to disagree as you describe cotemporary Ireland as satisfied, frustrated and suffused with Edwardian ennui. Not exactly a crucible of dreams, and yet…
Something will have to give. It just might take this generation a little longer to mature creatively.
It might be something to do with the fact that people traditionally found an outlet in London, but haven’t had to leave Ireland due to the Tygger economy; alas, they haven’t been inspired by staying at home.
The current revisionism about Ireland’s Georgian past is kind of weird. We’re all guilty of it to an extent. When we were growing up, Georgian architecture was kind of like Mary Woolstoncraft’s white garments, beautiful to look at but sinister in what it represented in terms of exploitation, Corn laws and all the rest.
Now we all want to be barristers and live on Elgin Road.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:02 pmI meant, Londoner, that we seemed to “agree”, not “disagree”.
And re the Georgian past, I meant it was a case in point. Reading back, it looks like I started on about it apropos of nothing.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:04 pm‘Now we all want to be barristers and live on Elgin Road’.
Speak for yourself. I’d rather be a chancer and live in M’yo.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:19 pmYou’re such a “nativist” foolhardy. I can get you a job as a ghillie when I grow up to be posh.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:42 pmWasn’t the Scarecrow and Mrs King on RTE? What about Simon & Simon? Matt Houston? Don’t tell me you guys didn’t watch Falcon Crest?
Foolhardy, I loved the A-Team but one thing that used to really get me was in the opening credits, where BA is supposed to come across as really cool as he turns to look at the camera. But then he bangs his elbow off the back of his seat. It completely marred the whole “cool” thing and every time I saw it I’d shake my head in wonder at the A-Team production team and wonder why that shot wasn’t relegated to outtakes.
Re: waiting for the next godot - it takes people much longer to grow up these days. Should be any day now.
February 14th, 2006 at 12:34 amWe weren’t allowed to watch Dallas or Falcon Crest in case we might grow up to get divorced.
Matt Houston was a strange trip; all I can remember is that he had a helicopter and a hottub, both of which words, like his surname, begin with the letter “h”. No coincidence surely.
I’m laughing my arse off at the BA thing.
February 14th, 2006 at 1:16 amThe A-Team, of course, also perfected the “It’s alright kids, they’re not really hurt!” sequence…
Hannibal and Co. fire a hail of bullets out the back of the van at the chasing bad guys. Cut to a chasing car’s tyre bursting, whereupon it flies 50 feet into the air, flips over, and lands on its roof. Cut back to Hannibal and Co. firing even more bullets. Cut back to the boys staggering out of the car, slightly shaken, but otherwise miraculously unscathed.
Boo! I always felt hard done by…
February 14th, 2006 at 1:31 amGreat posts but I still truely
February 14th, 2006 at 8:47 ambelieve Wanderly wagon was crap. Google ‘Wanderly Wagon was shit’ for a definitive
explanation
Oh jesus, Simon and Simon. I’m all awash with nostalgia.
The thing with the A-Team was that they were SO good they were simply playing with their foe “take that baddy, and if you step out of line again I’ll really hurt you”.
Fústar, any chance of getting hold of Larry Hagman for your next interview?
February 14th, 2006 at 10:31 amit hardly seems credible but the A-team, simon and simon, magyver, manimal, scarecrow and mrs king, magnum pi etc., were all prime time shows - if memory holds most of them went out around the 7pm 8pm weekdays. They only much later making their way over to saturday afternoons, after rte 2 had been created.
Copernicus is correct - saturday morning / and daily kids TV was a continuous loop of repeated programmes that covered more or less the entire history of movies and tv from the little rascals, chaplin, harold lloyd and laural and hardy, through mr ed and maxwell smart to wanderly wagon - is there a tom and gerry or bugs bunny cartoon anyone doesn’t know by heart from repeated exposure?
Up to channel 2 coming along saturday afternoon tv was 100% sport and new programmes went out at prime time as family viewing.
To my mind Bring ‘Em Back Alive was the greatest of all these programmes - though The Young Indiana Jones provided even more derring do to a slightly later generation.
February 14th, 2006 at 11:12 amThe only episode of Simon and Simon I remember in any detail is the one where they went to a nudist colony, cue lots of shots of naked shoulders over volleyball nets.
Hilariously, they breached etiquette by walking into the camp restaraunt only to find that the rest of the patrons had dressed for dinner. Ho, ho.
Loved Bring ‘em Back Alive starring Bruce Babylon Boxleitner, which I seem to remember being a Saturday morning joint before the horrendous longueurs of all day sports set in, forcing even this bookish child blinking out into the harsh sun to play war with the local ruffians.
February 14th, 2006 at 11:35 amBob,
Welcome. I’d read your comments on Wanderly before, and while they made me chuckle, I can’t say I was at all convinced! Not a ‘definitive explanation’ by any means I’m afraid. Just some enjoyable bile from an enjoyable source.
Glad you liked the posts though.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:02 pmI’ll try, but I hear he insists on payment up front…6 barrels of crude oil per interview.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:19 pmHe told me 6 barrels of crude and a peroxide blonde!
February 14th, 2006 at 2:28 pm