The Psammead Sings ...
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Uploaded by SeDoBheatha on Apr 18, 2009
The grumpy old sand fairy who has the power to grant wishes to children sings hits from the shows.
It is the summer of 1990, in a sandpit in the south-west of England. There is a pause in the recording of "Five Children and It", a children's television serial for BBC to take still photos. Somebody presses the button to record.
The Psammead ("Sand Fairy" in the US version) was a puppet voiced by Francis Wright who also manipulated the mouth. He was helped by five assistants who articulated the arms, hands, eyes, eyebrows and antennae. They worked in a pit under the puppet which was just big enough to hold them. They saw their performance on video monitors and communicated by microphones and headsets. It was not rehearsed.
- 63 likes, 2 dislikes
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Uploader Comments (SeDoBheatha)
Top Comments
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bring it back you BASTARD hahahah this is legendary
2 years ago 12
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but where is the man controlling him?? under the sand? haha to 1.09!!
1 year ago 4
All Comments (37)
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Looks like my Gran
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Yup, behind the scenes. This was shot on the final day of shooting on location, so they had certainly gelled by then. Actually, they gelled from day one of rehearsal, which was pretty good.
Lots of laughs all the way through, and the kids were superb.
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Wow I take it this is behind the scenes, is it like a test run to see if the 5 puppeteers and controllers can work as one (they can!) and how well the puppet gels with the kids?
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@SeDoBheatha Yes I heard about that! Thats really cool!
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wtf is that....? if that was real i'd be contacting green peace...
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Trot can sing just like he does whilst playing Minecraft. XD
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I find this to be absolutely delightful and I salute you for uploading it :3
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amazing co-ordination - much more character than cgi
5 months ago 3
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5:50 something about a sloppy blowjob?
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I've never seen this before! Where can I see more blooper videos of this guy? He's too much!
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The operators are in a "tank" under the sand. The lead puppeteer, Francis Wright, provided the voice and one hand for the mouth movements. Other operators used wire controls for eye movements, arms, fingers and feelers. They worked from a reverse screen feed of the image relayed from the camera. This whole sequence was performed without rehearsal. Remarkable co-ordination between five guys!
SeDoBheatha 1 year ago 3