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. The ten-minute episodes were broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC on the CBeebies channel.
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.
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 Stan (voiced by Stephen Tompkinson) is Little Red Tractor's driver and constant companion. Stan lives at Gosling Farm, and keeps two cows Daisy and Veronica, and two pigs. Little Red Tractor (leader) is a small and old but reliable red-coloured farm tractor, mute but capable of expressing emotions. Stan restored him to his farm as in new condition. Patch is Stan's dog. In the television series, Patch is depicted as a male, whereas in the original stories, Patch is depicted as a female. Mr. Jones (voiced by Derek Griffiths) is Stan's neighbour and owner of Big Blue Tractor and Harvey. He often appears selfish, materialistic or otherwise antisocial, but tends to be socially inept or smug rather than actually unpleasant. His first name is revealed to be Jasper and he lives at Beech Farm. Big Blue Tractor (co-leader) is a large, updated, blue-coloured farm tractor owned by Mr. Jones. He has no humanised traits, but can blow his horn by himself. In the original stories he was named Big Fred. Harvey is an orange-coloured combine harvester owned by Mr. Jones but sometimes borrowed by Stan. Thomas is Mr. Jones' nephew who comes to stay at Beech farm with him on occasion since Mr. Jones' sister moved back from the city to the country. Thomas is learning to like the country life which he initially thought was smelly, dirty and not as good as computer games. Stumpy (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert) is the miller. He appears friendly, mildly eccentric and clumsy. He drives his quadbike, "Nipper" very badly. Stumpy plays in Walter's band. Elsie is Stumpy's wife. Nipper is a purple-coloured quadbike ridden by Stumpy. Ryan is the youngest neighbour of Stan. He and his sister like to play with Little Red Tractor and help out. Amy is Ryan's sister. Mr. Turvey (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert) is Ryan and Amy's father. He likes to run and plays keyboards in Walter's band. Mrs. Turvey (voiced by Shireen Shah) is Ryan and Amy's mother. She likes to paint and does arts and crafts. Walter (voiced by Derek Griffiths) is an African-British mechanic who runs the Babblebrook garage and likes to play rock and roll. Walter is easily led astray. Walter is lead singer and plays the guitar for his band called Walter and the Wolverines. Nicola (voiced by Shireen Shah) is Walter's daughter who also runs the garage. She tends to be far more sensible than her father. Nicola also plays an instrument in her father's band. Leo is Walter's nephew, becomes a friend of Ryan and Amy. He is a more than competent drummer who stands in for Nicola in Walter's Band. Sparky is a yellow and blue-coloured tow truck which Nicola and Walter drive. Rusty is Walter's burgundy-coloured unreliable car and restoration project who unfortunately breaks down regularly.
Episodes Series 1 (2004) 1. The Big Bang 2. The Ladder 3. The Gold Cup 4. Little Red Tractor's Birthday 5. Dog Gone 6. The Lucky Day 7. Berries 8. Mr. Fixit 9. Flying 10. The Garage Sale 11. Tiger, Tiger 12. The Windy Day 13. Farm of the Year 14. Making Hay 15. The Silence of the Cows 16. The Big Sneeze 17. The Secret Den 18. Mr. Big 19. The Detectives 20. Roof Tops 21. Winter Lights 22. The Dam 23. Bye Bye, Blue 24. Enter the Dragon 25. Water Water 26. The Party
Series 2 (2005) 27. The Beast of Babble-Brook 28. The New Engine 29. The Town Boy 30. Circles in the Corn 31. Spuds 32. Little Red Rocker 33. Glorious Mud 34. The New Addition 35. The Tree House 36. Traction Trouble 37. Gone With the Wind 38. Llama Drama 39. Read All About It 40. Marrow Mangler 41. Buried Treasure 42. The Ghost of Tawny Owl Wood 43. The Beech Farm Flyer 44. Paper Chase 45. Molehills and Windmills 46. May Day 47. Scrambled Eggs 48. Farm Games 49. Double Trouble 50. Hot Hot Hot 51. Cheesed Off 52. Magic Hat
Series 3 (2007) 53. Thunder and Dancing 54. Row Yer Boat 55. Lost! 56. Up, Up and Away 57. One Potato, Two Potato 58. The Show Must Go On 59. Too Cold for Snow 60. Furry Jumper 61. Topsy Turvey 62. The Map 63. The Hill 64. Run 65. Movie Madness 66. Kart Race 67. What's Up, Duck? 68. Rambling Rabbits 69. Milkshake 70. Electric Trickery 71. An Unwanted Tractor 72. Raindance 73. Bubblegum 74. Countryside Code 75. Welcome Home
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 EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video Winter Lights One"Winter Lights""Farm of the Year""Mr Fixit""Lucky Day""Gold Cup""Flying" 29 November 2004 Right EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video Happy Birthday One "Happy Birthday""Berries""The Dam""Silence of the Cows""Secret Den""Mr Big" 18 April 2005 Right EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video Enter the Dragon One"Enter the Dragon""The Big Sneeze""The Detectives""Roof Tops""Dog Gone""Bye Bye Blue" 18 July 2005 Right EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video Glorious Mud Two"Glorious Mud""Water Water""Beast of Babblebrook""Town Boy""Circles in the Corn""Spuds" 31 October 2005 Right EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video 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 EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Video 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 Topsy Turvey Three"Furry Jumper""Topsy Turvy""The Map""Run!!""Movie Madness""The Hill" 19 April 2010 Revelation Films Ltd 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 Der Stromausfall Three"Kart Race""What’s Up, Duck?""Rambling Rabbits""Milkshake""Electric Trickery""An Unwanted Tractor" Unknown Kids Universum Landleben Three"Raindance""Bubblegum""Too Cold for Snow""Countryside Code""Welcome Home" Unknown Kids Universum
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