19th July: Sooty's birthday

Today is Sooty's birthday. Sooty is a children's puppet character in the UK. 

OK, so this isn't Sooty. But you try finding a public domain picture of a recent TV puppet character.

1. The original Sooty was a glove puppet which Harry Corbett bought as a present for his son Matthew, from a stall in Blackpool. This puppet was Yellow all over. Corbett covered the Bear's ears and nose with soot when they were to appear on TV, to make them stand out. This is where Sooty's name comes from.
2. He first appeared in a talent show, in 1952 on the BBC's Talent Night. He won, and became a regular on the BBC. According to Guinness World Records, Sooty is now the longest-running children's programme in the UK.
3. Harry Corbett's uncle was Harry Ramsden, founder of the fish and chip shop chain.
4. Sweep the Dog first appeared in 1957 and Sooty's girlfriend Soo the Panda in 1964. Soo was the only one who could actually talk. She was voiced at first by Corbett's wife Marjorie, and later by Brenda Longman.
5. Sooty has had three handlers to date. Harry Corbett, his son Matthew and currently Richard Cadell, a lifelong Sooty fan who has gone so far as to buy the rights to Sooty back from HIT Entertainment, who'd bought them from Harry after he retired.
6. The original puppet is owned by Charlotte Lonsdale and lives in Brancepeth near Durham.
7. Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain is a big Sooty fan and has the puppet as a mascot on the front of his drumkit.
8. Sooty and Sweep appeared as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary of the Puppet Government in The Goodies episode The Goodies Rule – O.K.?
9. There used to be an extremely popular 'World of Sooty' museum in Shipley, West Yorkshire open in the early 1990s, but this closed and is now a marketing agency.
10. Although officially retired, Harry still performed with Sooty from time to time, including on the night he died. At his final live show at the Pavilion Theatre in Weymouth, Dorset, he said, ‘Matthew is Sooty’s very good friend – but I am Sooty’s Dad.’ He died of a heart attack later that night.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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