Raggy Dolls

Probably the most successful of the Children’s television projects as it celebrated imperfection and championed the underdog through a cast of lovably flawed toy factory rejects.  Many of Neil’s Rutle fans had been first turned on to Neil by this series for which he wrote the music and scripts as well as being the voice for all the characters from Sad Sack to Princess.

Puddle Lane

Puddle Lane was a delightful little programme for pre-school children made in the 1980s.  It was a mix of live action and animation written by Rick Vanes and Sheila McCullagh and featuring  Neil as The Magician and  Kate Lee as Auntie Flo.  There was a Spell Dragon called Toby and a speaking Cauldron.   Neil is perfect in his role as a very human magician and obviously enjoying it immensely.

Book Tower

The Book Tower was produced by Yorkshire Television for children and ran for 11 series from 1979 nto1989.  It was billed as a new approach in getting children to read more and had a series of presenters like Tom Baker, Roger McGough and Neil. The plus for our children was that Neil was able to bring back several of the newly published books after each episode.

Away With Words

In 1998, Innes hosted a 13-episode television series for Anglia Television, called Away with Words, in which he travelled to different areas of Britain to explore the origins of well-known words and phrases

This was a labour of love for Neil.  There was nothing he enjoyed more than playing around with words.  He wrote his own scripts and was thrilled to be able to meet so many interesting people all delighted to be able to help with the origin of local words

The series took Neil to the far corners of the UK and involved dressing up and taking part in whatever activity was going on when he arrived

East Of The Moon

East of the Moon was a television series based on Terry Jones’s ‘Fairy Tales’ and adapted for television by Neil who also composed all the songs and music for the series.. This was another job he enjoyed hugely. Seven light-hearted animated stories exploring the world of witches, dragons, goblins and giants.  The Island of Purple Fruits, The Corn Dolly, The Ship of Bones, Why Bird Sing in the Morning, The Sea Tiger, Three Raindrops, and The Wonderful Cake-Horse. With animation by Alison de Vere based on the original Pavillion book illustrations by Michael Foreman.

Neil wrote the songs and music for other children’s television series -The Riddlers, Tizwas and Tumbledown Farm, and he was often called on to narrate stories like The Mysterious Tadpole written by Stephen Kellogg and Jonah and the Great Fish.