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Little Red Tractor
GenreChildren's television series
Created byColin Reeder
Directed byRussell Haigh
Voices ofStephen Tompkinson
Derek Griffiths
Jimmy Hibbert
Shireen Shah
Florence Jones
Stewart Majkowski
Euan Dick
Theme music composerMichael Cross
Stan Cullimore
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes75
Production
ProducerKeith Littler
EditorFred Tay
Running time10 minutes per episode (approx.)
Production companiesThe Little Entertainment Company[1]
TRACK Productions Limited
Entertainment Rights (Series 1-2)
Original release
NetworkCBeebies
Release5 January 2004 (2004-01-05) –
29 April 2007 (2007-04-29)

Little Red Tractor is a British stop motion animated children's television series produced by The Little Entertainment Company and was co-produced by Entertainment Rights for the first two series.[2] The ten-minute episodes were broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC on the CBeebies channel.[3]

Produced in stop motion model animation, the series is mainly aimed at preschoolers and features unusually detailed sets and models. The series features the popular voices of Stephen Tompkinson and Derek Griffiths. The characters are based on the books by Colin Reeder, which were narrated for video in the mid 1990s by Brian Glover and Richard Briers. The show is mainly aimed at preschoolers.

History

Little Red Tractor Projects Limited owned the original Little Red Tractor video series. Although it didn't have television exposure, Little Red Tractor broke into the top ten children's videos and stayed there for several weeks. In total, the original series sold over 300,000 copies. Contender the distributor wanted to duplicate that success. However, the television rights were sold to Keith Littler's Little Entertainment Group because Peter Tye, the director/writer of the series, preferred their expertise in stop frame animation and empathy with the original. Despite losing the television rights to Little Red Tractor, Contender went ahead and produced their similar series, CITV's Tractor Tom. Despite apparent similarities to Tractor Tom, Little Red Tractor has a completely different style, with more realistic story-lines, a larger human cast, and no surreal livestock behaviour.

Characters

Episodes

Series 1 (2004)

Series 2 (2005)

Series 3 (2007)

Home Media

Several DVD releases of the series have been released. The first five releases were also on VHS as well.

DVD/VHS name Season Episodes Release date Distributor Source
Let's Go! One "Big Bang"
"Garage Sale"
"Tiger Tiger"
"Ladder"
"Making Hay"
"Windy Day"
25 October 2004 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[4]
Winter Lights One "Winter Lights"
"Farm of the Year"
"Mr Fixit"
"Lucky Day"
"Gold Cup"
"Flying"
29 November 2004 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[5]
Happy Birthday One "Happy Birthday"
"Berries"
"The Dam"
"Silence of the Cows"
"Secret Den"
"Mr Big"
18 April 2005 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[6]
Enter the Dragon One "Enter the Dragon"
"The Big Sneeze"
"The Detectives"
"Roof Tops"
"Dog Gone"
"Bye Bye Blue"
18 July 2005 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[7]
Glorious Mud Two "Glorious Mud"
"Water Water"
"Beast of Babblebrook"
"Town Boy"
"Circles in the Corn"
"Spuds"
31 October 2005 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[8]
Hot Hot Hot Two "Hot Hot Hot"
"The New Engine"
"Little Red Rocker"
"The New Addition"
"The Treehouse"
"Traction Trouble"
"Marrow Mangler"
"Buried Treasure"
"The Ghost of Tawny Owl Wood"
"Beech Farm Flyer"
"Paperchase"
"Molehills and Windmills"
16 April 2007 Right Entertainment
Universal Pictures Video
[9]
One Potato, Two Potato... Three "Thunder and Lightning"
"Row Yer Boat"
"Lost"
"Up, Up and Away"
"One Potato, Two Potato..."
"The Show Must Go On"
21 July 2008 Revelation Films Ltd [10]
Topsy Turvey Three "Furry Jumper"
"Topsy Turvy"
"The Map"
"Run!!"
"Movie Madness"
"The Hill"
19 April 2010 Revelation Films Ltd [11]
Down on the Farm Three "The Show Must Go On"
"Up, Up and Away"
"Furry Jumper"
"The Map"
"The Hill"
"Electric Trickery"
"Raindance"
"Welcome Home"
31 August 2015 Abbey Home Media [12]

References

  1. ^ "Toonhound - Little Red Tractor (2004-2007)". www.toonhound.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  2. ^ "Entertainment Rights Hauls Little Red Tractor To Mipcom". Animation World Network. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  3. ^ Donohue, Simon (10 August 2004). "True North's on the right track". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  4. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Lets-VHS/dp/B00066KWL0
  5. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Winter-Lights/dp/B0006467MA
  6. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Happy-Birthday/dp/B0007N1B76/
  7. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Enter-Dragon/dp/B0009KKWHM
  8. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Glorious-Mud/dp/B000BA8E7K/
  9. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Hot-DVD/dp/B000FFJVJQ/
  10. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-One-Potato/dp/B0014VUQMQ/
  11. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Topsy-Turvy/dp/B0036QV8HE/
  12. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Red-Tractor-Down-Farm/dp/B00WUQCU64/