The Ghost Of Faffner
Hall
Louise
Gold starred in the title role, on this music education TV Series, made at Tyne
Tees Television’s studios in
Cast (Regular performers)
Louise Gold – as Fughetta Faffner, and other assorted characters
Richard Hunt – as Wild Impresario, and other assorted characters
Mike Quinn – as Riff, and other assorted characters
Richard Coombs – as various assorted characters (each episode he did a different main character)
Additional Puppeteers
Phil Knowles
Angie Passmore
Bob Smeaton
Production Team
Writers – David Angus, Patrick Barlow, and, Jocelyn Stevenson
Director – Tony Kysh
Art Director – Andy Walmsy
Designer Ashley
Wilkinson
Production Company: Jim
Henson Organisation & Tyne
Executive Producers – Jim Henson and Trish Kinane
Producer - Jocelyn Stevenson
Broadcast on
Theme song – Mike Roberts (music) and Jocelyn Stevenson (lyrics)
Musical Director – Ed Welch
Animatronics – Steve Donald
Episodes
1. Your Body Is An
Instrument (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 11 September 1989, BFI says 16 August
1989)
Guests Harkan Hardenberger (as a trumpet player)
Gary Karr
(as a double base player)
Bobby McFerrin
(as a musician who plays his body)
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
2. Delighting In
Sounds (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 18 September 1989, BFI says 23 August 1989)
Guests Nigel
Kennady (as post-room person and violin player)
Joni Mitchell
(as a guitarist, singer, and Wild Impressorio’s First
Love)
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
3. Sound Becomes Music
(Broadcast Muppet Wiki says 25 September 1989, BFi
says 30 August 1989)
Guests Fish
(aka Derek William Dick, frontman for group Marillion)
Mark Knopfler (as a guitarist)
Paddy Maloney
(as a recorder player)
George Martin
(as a pianist)
The Notting Hill Billies
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
4. Music Is More Than
Technique (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 2 October 1989, BFi
says 6 September 1989)
Guests Julia
Fordham (as a recording studio artiste)
Ry Cooder (as a janitor turned music teacher)
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
5. The Voice Is An
Instrument (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 9 October 1989, BFI says 13 September
1989)
Guests Thomas
Allen (as Don Giovanni)
Electric
Marion Montgomery (as a singing teacher)
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
6. Reacting To Sounds
(broadcast Muppet wiki says 16 October 1989, BFI says 20 September 1989)
Guests HK
Gruber (as a composer)
HK Gruber’s Orchestra (it’s a rather weird one)
Dizzy Gillespie (as a trumpet player)
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
7. If You Can Play It,
It’s An Instrument (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 23 October 1989, BFI says 27
September 1989)
Guests Courtney
Pine (as a door-to-door-salesman, selling saxophones)
David Sawyer
(as a person who makes instruments out of scrap)
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (as an orchestra)
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
Music for
Squeezed orchestra by Gordon McPherson
8. Improvised Music [
BFI database calls it Improvised Music, Muppet Wiki calls it Improvised Sound)]
(broadcast Muppet Wiki says 30 October 1989, BFi says
4 October 1989)
Guests Ladysmith
Black Mambazo (as a group moving forward)
Gil
Evans Orchestra (as
improvisers and room measurers)
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
9. Notation: The Sign
That Gets The Sound (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 6 November 1989, BFi says 11 October 1989)
Guests Asward
James Taylor
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
10. Discovering New
Sounds (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 13 November 1989, BFI says 18 October 1989)
Guests Thomas
Dolby
Patrick Moraz
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
11. Music Brings Us
Together (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 20 November 1989, BFI says 25 October
1989)
Guests Youssou N’Dour
Steve Turre
Yomo Toro
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
12. The Power Of Music
(broadcast Muppet Wiki says 27 November 1989, BFT says 1 November 1989)
Guests
GAMELAN
Los Lobos
Writers – Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Patrick Barlow
13. Anyone Can Make
Music (broadcast Muppet Wiki says 4 December 1989, BFT says 8 November 1989)
Guests Michala Petri
Robin Williamson
Writers – David Angus, and, Patrick Barlow
For
an account/review of the
entire series of The Ghost Of Faffner Hall please click here.
Out
of the show’s six main puppeteers three of them puppeteer left-handed. Two of
them (Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn) do so because they are
left-handed; while Richard Coombs (who is right handed) started off as a
puppet-builder (and so was used to having his puppet on his secondary hand).
Richard Hunt and Louise Gold were among the eight main puppeteers on The Muppet Show, on which
Richard Hunt and Louise Gold appeared in The Royal Variety Performance
(1977), and, in The All Time Get
Around Sometimes Play Together Every Other Friday Night Vaudeville Show;
their recording credits include The
Muppet Show Music Hall, The Muppet Show 2,
For What It’s Worth, The Muppet Show Music Album, The Great Muppet Caper (Soundtrack
Album), John
Denver And The Muppets A Christmas Together, John Denver &
The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM,
Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs,
Muppet Music Sampler, Muppet Hits 1, Muppet
Hits2, Born To Add, Elmo’s Lowdown Hoedown, The Count’s Countdown, Christmas For Kids, John Denver Christmas, and, Music
Mayhem & More.
Louise Gold, Richard
Hunt, and, Mike Quinn puppeteered on The
Great Muppet Caper, and, The
Muppets Go To The Movies.
Louise Gold Richard
Hunt,
Louise Gold, Richard
Hunt, and, Karen Prell’s recording credits include Favourite Songs From Jim
Henson’s Muppets, Put Some Zing
In Your Spring, and, Muppet Music Mix.
Louise Gold, Richard
Hunt, Karen Prell,
and, Mike Quinn puppeteered
at Jim Henson’s Memorial Service.
Louise Gold,
Louise Gold, and, Richard Coombs
went on to puppeteer on The Spooks Of
Bottle Bay, and, Alice In Wonderland
(The Creature Shop was also involved
with the latter).
Thomas Allen’s recording credits include The Best Of Broadway Musicals, Encore The Very Best From The
Musicals, Great Duets From The
Musicals, Cole Porter – Night And
Day, The History Of The Musical,
The Great Musicals – Glamour And Majesty,
The Great Musicals – Dashing
Heroes, Blushing Maidens, Magic Of The
Musicals, and, Let’s Go On With The
Show – Hit Songs From The West End & Broadway.
Marion Montgomery went on to appear in A Time To Start
Living, where she sang a Rogers
& Hart number. Funnily enough Louise
Gold was also involved in singing another Rogers & Hart number in that gala.
Interestingly
both Marion Mongomery
and Louise Gold have played the role
of Reno Sweeney in productions of the musical Anything
Goes. It is worth reading David
Munro’s comments about that.
Mak
Wilson, Karen Prell, Mike Quinn, and Angie Passmore had previously puppeteered
on Labyrinth, with which The Creature Shop was also
involved, and Steve Donald also did
some of the animatronics.
Louise Gold, Karen
Prell, and, Mike
Quinn went on to puppeteer on The
Muppet Christmas Carol. Their recording credits include The Muppet Christmas Carol
(Soundtrack Album), and, A Green And Red Christmas.
Angie Passmore also went on to puppeteer on The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Mike Quinn and Louise Gold had previously puppeteered on
The Dark Crystal (with which The Creature Shop
was also involved), and went on to represent The
Dark Crystal in an item on Blue Peter. They
had also puppeteered on the UK Outer Space segments
for the International Fraggle
Rock.
Louise Gold, Mak Wilson, Mike Quinn,
and, Angie Passmore went on to
puppeteer on Muppet Treasure Island.
Louise Gold, and,
Louise Gold, and, Mak Wilson also
went on to puppeteer on The Furchester
Hotel, once again both in major roles.
Thames Television also broadcast Julia And Company, and, The
Bill.
Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn
went on to puppeteer on The Secret Life
Of Toys, with which Jocelyn
Stevenson was also involved.
Louise Gold, and, Richard Hunt
had featured on the documentary Of Muppets And
Men, on which
Marion Montgomery went on to take part in CLIC’s 18th Birthday
Celebration.
Jocelyn Stevenson, and, Louise Gold
went on to appear together at Muppets
And Puppets (Kaleidoscope Event) .
The Bill, Up The
Garden Path, Abba The Reunion, Spitting Image Must See TV, ABBA
- The Mamma Mia Story, ITV’s 50
Greatest Shows, and, Coronation Street
were all broadcast on ITV.
Critics Comments
Links about The Ghost Of Faffner Hall
Muppet Wiki entry for the programme: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Faffner_Hall
The BFI Database’s entry for the programme: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/18020
Internet Movie Database entry for the programme: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0370142/combined
Punch And Jewlry’s guide entry for the programme: http://www.punchandjewelry.com/legacy/sueguide.txt
Richard Coombs’s website’s section on the programme: http://www.richardcoombs.co.uk/grotbags.htm
Composer Mike Roberts’s showreel,
which includes the programme’s theme song: http://www.childrenscomposer.co.uk/showreel.html
Yahoo TV’s entry for the programme: http://tv.yahoo.com/jim-hensons-ghost-of-faffner-hall/show/31397
Toonarific.com’s page for the programme http://www.toonarific.com/show.php?show_id=1447
Steve Donald’s page for the programme: http://www.stevedonald.com/faffnerhall.htm
RetroJunk’s page for the programme: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_tvshows/2003-the-ghost-of-faffner-hall/ (they seem to think it’s
country of origin is the
Joni Mitchell’s fansite’s
Chronology http://www.jonimitchell.com/chronology/details.cfm?id=1617
(actually they’ve got it down as 1988 when it
should be 89)
Mike Quinn’s website;s photographs from the programme (on his website): http://www.quinnzone.com/page5/page51/page51.html http://www.quinnzone.com/page5/page51/page52/page52.html (I couldn’t get the second one to work
when I tried to view it)
Slowbabymusic.com (Gordon McPherson’s) website’s list of his works: http://www.slowbabymusic.com/works.html
Amazon.co.uk’s entry for a DVD of the programme http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jim-Hensons-Ghost-Faffner-Hall/dp/B0007KVE6M/sr=1-44/qid=1167779083/ref=sr_1_44/202-7444200-7228653?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
(apparently this is scheduled to be released in 2020 – yes two thousand
and twenty! but can be pre-ordered now!)
Mark Knopfler’s resume on his website (mentioning his contribution to the
programme) http://www.knopfler.net/screenplaying.html
The Artiste known as Fish (article about, mentioning his
appearance of the programme) http://www.warsawvoice.pl/view/4975/
Kaladiscope
Publishing’s Children’s
Research Guide (the programme is mentioned in it): http://www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/books/chilist.htm
New York Times archive article mentioning the programme as
forthcoming: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEED9113FF934A35754C0A96F948260
Hit Entertainment Catalogue’s entry for the programme http://www.hitentertainment.com/hitcatalogue/faffnerhall.html
(apparently includes a clip from it)
TV Shows On DVD’s
entry for the programme http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=8613
Play.com’s entry for the DVD: http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/577401/-/Product.html?searchstring=%22Faffner+Hall%22&searchsource=0 (they say it is due for release, but do
not specify a date)
| Return To
Site Guide | Return To Muppet Work | Review of The Ghost Of Faffner Hall |