Bertha (TV series)

Plot

The series is set in an industrial estate occupied by the Spottiswood & Company factory, a small manufacturing plant producing a wide range of goods ranging from cuckoo clocks to Windmill money boxes. Each episode focuses on a machine called Bertha that can produce any item requested of her. In each episode the factory experiences a crisis affecting its daily production schedule, which Bertha invariably solves with the help of her factory worker friends.

Production

Bertha was created by Woodland Animations, who also produced the shows Postman Pat, Charlie Chalk and Gran for the BBC. Episodes were written by Eric Charles and Stephen Flewers, and designed, produced and directed by Ivor Wood, co-founder of the Woodland company. Roy Kinnear and Sheila Walker voiced the characters, and Kinnear narrated. The main title music featured the singing of Guy Fletcher. The songs "Tracy's robot Song", "Mrs Tupp" and "Isn't it Nice?" from the Bertha 12-inch vinyl record feature the vocals of Stefanie de Sykes.

Main characters

Goods manufactured by Bertha throughout the series

Original broadcast dates

The first episode of Bertha premiered on BBC1 on 1 April 1985 at 3:55pm. Episodes 2-7 were shown over the following weeks, omitting the Easter and May Day holidays, and episodes 8–11 were first broadcast at the end of an autumn rerun. The BBC did not comply with an ordered schedule for the airing of the program, and the last two episodes premiered in 1986 during a third run at 1:45pm and 1:30pm.

Merchandise

Merchandise for the programme was, and is, very minuscule, the merchandise listed are the only items that have been discovered.

UK VHS and DVD releases

On 13 April 1987, after the episodes were shown on TV, the BBC released one video of the show.

At some point during 1985, Bertha was featured on a Marks and Spencer (St. Michael) exclusive VHS release called 'Cartoon Favourites' along with The Family-Ness, Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and Pigeon Street, the "Mouse in the Works" episode of Bertha is on this release.

On 6 November 1989 one episode of Bertha was on the VHS release which was exclusive to W.H.Smith 'Postman Pat and Friends' alongside Postman Pat and Charlie Chalk

On 4 November 1991, one episode of Bertha was featured on the BBC VHS release 'Postman Pat and Company' alongside Postman Pat and Charlie Chalk

Hallmark and Carlton Home Entertainment released the first four episodes on a single video in 1994.

In 2004 Entertainment Rights released a DVD of the show containing 3 of the same episodes as the Hallmark/Carlton Release, albeit replacing the Best Machine Competition with 'More Speed, Less Work (albeit mistitled the best machine competition)':

In 2011, Classic Media released a DVD entitled "Fun with Friends: Volume One" Containing one Episode of Bertha:

Australian DVD releases

While there are no known Australian VHS' of the programme, there have been two DVD releases of the entire series released by Reel Entertainment, on the DVD cover, it claimed that the show was made by "The Makers of Postman Pat and Thomas and Friends." However this is only true for Charlie Chalk (since the slogan was used on all the Woodland Animations DVD's in Australia), because Jocelyn Stevenson (Writer of Charlie Chalk), became the executive producer on Thomas and Friends from the Seventh Season onwards

Photobooks

In 1985, to accompany the Programme, Some Photobooks were released with altered titles to fit the style of the books, these were very similar to the Postman Pat photobooks, where the front cover would be an original illustration and all pictures within the book were images from the TV Programme:

- Bertha and the Great Painting Job (The Great Painting Job)

- Bertha and the Windmills (The Windmills)

- Bertha and the Mouse in the Works (A Mouse in the works)

- Bertha and the Best Machine Competition (The Best Machine Competition)

- Bertha and the Lost TOM (T.O.M Get's Lost)

- Bertha and the Flying Bear (The Flying Bear)

Vinyl record

In 1986, after Broadcast ended, the BBC's record label released a 12" vinyl record containing songs from the TV Series:

All tracks written by Bryan Daly.

Tracks marked with an * did not feature in the TV Series, however it is possible that the song 'Mr. Duncan' was to feature in the episode "More Speed, Less Work" but was not included due to it making the episode too long, the same case with 'Mr. Willmake' possibly featuring in the episode 'Bertha's Birthday'

The album was also released on cassette with the reference number of: ZCR 585, however the cassette has never surfaced

Board game

In 1987, Falcon released a board game using illustrations similar to those seen on the front covers of the photobooks. The Game itself does not differ much from the Monopoly series of board games, but with this, if a player lands on T.O.M, they are allowed to ask Bertha to make an item for them. one of these was recently sold on eBay for £15.00 (approx $30)

Advent calendar

In 1985, an Advent calendar using the same profile image as the vinyl record was released, one of these was recently sold on eBay for the price of £49.99 (approx $98.00), not much is known about this item

Annuals

During 1985 to 1988, Bertha featured in a total of four annuals:

- Bertha annual 1985

- Bertha annual 1986

- Buttons (Based on Children's BBC) annual 1987 (along with Postman Pat, King Rollo, Towser, Henry's Cat and Jimbo and the Jet Set)

- Buttons annual 1988 (Along with Postman Pat, Charlie Chalk, Henry's Cat, Towser, King Rollo and Spot)

Credits