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Eumundi Voice - Issue 100, 22 August 2024
ON THIS DAY
Mr Squiggle
Remember Mr Squiggle? He made his first appearance on ABC TV 65 years ago and remained there for 40 years, despite initially being asked to fill a six-week gap in ABC programming.
Mr Squiggle was a puppet with a pencil for a nose and he loved to draw. Children wrote in with their ‘squiggles’ and Mr Squiggle would turn them into recognisable drawings by connecting lines with his pencil nose. Mr Squiggle was always helped by a human assistant. They included Miss Gina (Gina Curtis), Miss Pat (Pat Lovell), Miss Jane (Jane Fennell), Roxanne (Roxanne Kimmorley) and Rebecca (Rebecca Hetherington). They were much-loved members of the program.
Mr Squiggle was invented by Norman Hetherington, an artist, cartoonist and puppeteer who was given six days to invent a story line for Mr Squiggle. Hetherington completed over 10,000 drawings over the life of the show, with many completed upside down. In addition to Mr Squiggle, Hetherington created, performed and voiced all the characters that appeared in the show, including Rocket, Blackboard, Bill Steamshovel and Gus the Snail.
Hetherington and his wife Margaret, who wrote the scripts, received various awards for their work on Australian TV. In 1990, Hetherington received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to children’s television programs and puppetry.
The National Museum of Australia recently acquired more than 800 objects from Hetherington’s archive of costumes, sets, scripts and puppets, including the original Mr Squiggle. A full display is in the wings for 2025. Rhonda Piggott
Blackboard and Mr Squiggle,
Image supplied: National Museum of Australia,
Photographer Jason McCarthy
