ROOBARB An illuminated biogwoofy

Roobarb is a British children's television series, animated and originally shown on BBC 1 in 1974, before the early evening news.

Forty years on and with a further series, Roobarb and Custard Too, the iconic team is still entertaining kids and their families.

Created and written by Grange Calveley and directed by Bob Godfrey, each story is narrated by Richard Briers; the films are five minutes duration and originally, thirty episodes were made – each introduced with Johnny Hawksworth’s now famous theme tune.

The stories revolve around Roobarb, a green dog, Custard, a pink cat, brightly coloured birds and numerous other wacky walk-on characters.

This book tells how Real Dog Roobarb escaped from prison, how his antics inspired Grange Calveley to write and illustrate the stories and how he met Bob Godfrey. Read why, during production of the films, Bob used to sneak into his own studio at night, find out how Johnny Hawksworth and his Double Bass dodged parking fines, why Custard speaks the way he does and why Richard Briers recorded an episode from inside a metal bin.

Packed with illustrations and lots of ’behind the scenes’ snippets, this newly edited book is a great read for Roobarb fans young and old.