Since my post yesterday bemoaning my broken Sooty eggcup, it has come to my attention that some of my wordpress friends have not heard of Sooty (stands back in horror…!)  This seems astonishing to me, but then, he has been around in England since before I was born (blimey..I hear you say…), created by Harry Corbett in 1948.  His TV show has been aired since the early fifties.

Sooty is a glove puppet (don’t tell him.. he thinks he’s a teddy bear…) who attempts magic with his magic wand, and is an occasional xylophone player.  Together with his friend Sweep, and the goody-two-shoes panda, Soo, he gets into all sorts of mischief without saying a word – Sadly Sooty is mute. Sweep does squeak, and Soo speaks in an annoying school-marm voice (I never did like Soo). I’ve pinched the show’s catch-phrase for the title of this post – Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy,which was always accompanied by a wave of Sooty’s wand of course.

When Harry Corbett retired in 1976, his son Matthew took over Sooty’s errmmm…glove, and on his retirement in 1998 he found a replacement in Richard Cadell who is still to be found on TV with his puppety friends.  These day’s Sooty is quite modern and even has his own website http://www.thesootyshow.com/

I’ve had fun browsing through some of the old shows to be found on youtube, but think this one pretty much optimises it as I remember it, though as a kid I watched it in black and white.   Simple times….enjoy!