Penny Crayon

Penny Crayon
Created by	Peter Maddocks
Voices of	Su Pollard Peter Hawkins Tabitha St. Germain French Tickner Stevie Vallance Garry Chalk
Opening theme	"Penny Crayon"
Ending theme	"Penny Crayon" (Instrumental)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producers	Maddocks Animation Parkfield Publishing
Running time	10 minutes per episode (approx.)
Original release
Network	BBC1 YTV TV2 BBC Kids BFBS SSVC Television
Release	14 September 1989 (1989-09-14) – 1 October 1990 (1990-10-01)
Related
Jimbo and the Jet-Set The Family-Ness

Penny Crayon is a 1989 children's television series that tells the adventures of a very intellectual and well-meaning (but occasionally mischievous) school-girl who loves to draw, and her escapades accompanied by her best friend, Dennis. Using the magic crayons that she always carries with her, she brings everything that she ever draws to life, to either help them on their adventures or to get them out of tricky situations, and usually creating a world of chaos until it is either erased or washed away.

The origins of Penny's crayons was never explained or hinted at in the series; however series creator Peter Maddocks released a prequel story, along with an adaptation of the episode 'Dickens of a Mess', in digital format in 2012, which told the story of how Penny came to have her magic crayons.

Characters

• Penny Crayon is a highly intelligent and resourceful schoolgirl, with a Northern accent and who loves drawing. She has magic crayons and pencils that can draw on any surface including brick walls, cave interiors and even the inside of a whale's mouth. She is voiced by comedy actress Su Pollard, whose face Penny visually resembles, In the US Version, She is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain (credited as Paulina Gillis).
• Dennis Pillbeam (his surname is never given on-screen but is mentioned in literature accompanying the series) is Penny's best friend, an excitable, good-natured simple boy who can often to be heard praising Penny's cleverness or bravery. The only other regular character in the series, he is voiced by Peter Hawkins, who had also done voice-work for Maddocks Animation's previous television series, In the US Version, He's voiced by Garry Chalk, Who would later voice Grounder from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Pollard and Hawkins voice all other characters in the UK, Whilst Stevie Vallance and French Tickner provides Additional Voices for the US Version, Several episodes feature Cousin Tara (also voiced by Pollard), Penny's nemesis who owns a magic rubber that can erase Penny's drawings.

Origin and production

Penny Crayon was produced for the BBC in the United Kingdom and YTV in Canada. first broadcast weekly as part of Children's BBC on BBC One from 14 September 1989. It was made by Maddocks Animation, which had previously produced Jimbo and the Jet-Set and The Family-Ness, and utilized much of the same production staff, as well as featuring the vocal talents of Peter Hawkins in all three series.

Twelve episodes were produced in a single production run, although spread across two separate broadcast runs in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The series was subsequently repeated a number of times, airing into the early 2000s and was also later repeated on GMTV2 with Bertha.

Penny Crayon had first appeared read as a story in an early episode of Playdays (broadcast at that time under its original title of Playbus, and before the show's rotation of stories featuring recurring characters had fully set in place). In that story, not animated but read out over static images drawn by Peter Maddocks, when a school trip to the zoo is rained off, Penny tries to entertain her disappointed classmates stuck inside school by drawing zoo animals on the walls of the school hall (including a Tyrannosaurus Rex), which come to life and cause havoc around the school. When she and Dennis can't catch them to erase them, she eventually draws a huge cage to put them all in, thus allowing her to rub them out. This early version of Penny had darker hair - she was given blonde hair in the following series to match that of Su Pollard, and both her and Dennis' appearance was modified for the subsequent series. One of Dennis' lines ("Mum will be furious when we get home and she hears about this!") suggests that Penny and Dennis might be siblings, though this was never mentioned in the series. The story was one of several submitted by independent writers for the new daily series, and although a selection of rotating story characters was soon picked for Playbus, it was well-enough received that then-Head of Children's Programmes Anna Home recommended that Hawkins might develop it as a series.

Due to the original Penny Crayon story appearing on Playbus, some episode guides to the series erroneously list thirteen episodes.

Episodes

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"The Tower of London"	14 September 1989 (1989-09-14)
2	"The Cookery Class"	21 September 1989 (1989-09-21)
3	"A Circus Lion"	28 September 1989 (1989-09-28)
Note: This was the first episode produced; and shares some story elements of the original Penny Crayon story read on Playbus.
4	"An Amusement Park"	5 October 1989 (1989-10-05)
5	"The Waxworks Museum"	12 October 1989 (1989-10-12)
6	"The Pantomime"	19 October 1989 (1989-10-19)
7	"A Haunted House"	26 October 1989 (1989-10-26)
8	"A Silly Day-Dream"	2 November 1989 (1989-11-02)
9	"The Camping Holiday"	10 September 1989 (1989-09-10)
10	"The Treasure Hunt"	17 September 1989 (1989-09-17)
11	"A Dickens of A Mess"	24 September 1989 (1989-09-24)
12	"The Dog Show"	1 October 1989 (1989-10-01)

Home releases

In 1989, Parkfield Publishing released two video cassettes from the first Penny Crayon series.

VHS video title	Year of release	Episodes
Penny Crayon: Volume 1 (MKC 0001)	1989	The Circus Lion, Waxworks Museum, Cookery Class, Pantomime,
Penny Crayon: Volume 2 (MKC 0002)	1989	Tower of London, Amusement Park, Camping Holiday, Treasure Hunt

In 1992, Tring Video UK released three Penny Crayon videos with four episodes on each tape.

VHS video title	Year of release	Episodes
The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Camping Holiday	1992	Camping Holiday,
The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Dog Show	1992	Dog Show, A Dickens of a Mess, Pantomime, Tower of London
The Adventures of Penny Crayon: Treasure Hunt	1992	Treasure Hunt, Amusement Park, Circus Lion, Silly Daydream

In 1994, Carlton Home Entertainment released a single video with only four episodes.

VHS video title	Year of release	Episodes
Penny Crayon: As Seen on TV (30073401430)	1994	Camping Holiday, Waxworks Museum, Haunted House, and The Cookery Class

Several book adaptations and a 1990 annual were also released.

External links

• Toonhound
• Penny Crayon at IMDb