The Adventures of Twizzle

The Adventures of Twizzle is a British children's television series produced by AP Films (APF) which premiered on the ITV network in 1957. Conceived by author Roberta Leigh, later a co-producer, it was filmed between July 1957 and January 1958. The series follows a young boy named Twizzle and his companions on various adventures. Twizzle has the ability to extend his arms and legs. Fifty-two episodes were filmed, of which all but the first are lost. The sole surviving episode was released on the Space Patrol DVD box set. Twizzle was one of the first series to use the intricate puppetry that would prove important in later shows developed by APF. Overview Twizzle's legs looked like drinking straws with lines around them in a swirling pattern and appear to extend up into his body with the "Twizzle" effect happening when the puppet body is raised while the feet aren't. In the first episode, Twizzle originally lived in a toy shop and cost two shillings and six pence (12.5p) and was nearly sold to a naughty girl named Sally Cross but he hid and escaped that night before the child returned the following day to buy him. He travelled some distance and the next night hid in a dog kennel where he found Footso, a cat who had run away from home as the children made fun of his big feet. Twizzle proved useful in a fire by saving a child on a high window when no ladder was available for which he was given a racing car as a reward but after crashing it he swapped it for a breakdown truck which he uses for rescuing toys. Footso had large feet which sometimes trip him up, hence his name. Later came Jiffy the Broomstick Man (a cross between a broom made of twigs and a suit wearing man who could sweep the floor on his own) who Twizzle and Footso rescued from the clutches of a stereotypical evil witch (who had threatened to burn him) when he flew up the chimney to escape her. The witch returned in a later episode and there was another narrow escape by all. Jiffy could fly by lying horizontal and would fly other people out of trouble. Twizzle and Footso built Straytown where stray toys (misfits) could live and lived in a cabin there. This theme was later carried over to Torchy the Battery Boy. Both ideas bear a resemblance to Peter Pan and Neverneverland.