A house that's just like yours!

'A house that's just like yours' is a half hour children's television Series of 2004 currently airing on Five TV. Terrestrial Telivision in the UK. The Puppets were created by Hands up Puppets and we also puppeteered the mice Dusty and Smudge.

Photograph by Chris Ridley copyright Five Television

About This wonderful new Series; 'A house just like yours' (40 x half hour series) Dusty and Smudge are two mice who live behind the skirting board in the family room of a large house. 'A house just like yours' This pre-school puppet programme focuses on the adventures of the mice and the things they discover and learn when they invade the human world that surrounds them. Each programme begins as the family room lights are switched out and the last human goes to bed ñ then Dusty and Smudge come out to play. They play with childrenís toys, watch TV, videos and DVDís; switch on the computer and play games; and make music on the family keyboard and are always up to some mischief. A Two Hats Production in association with Five UK.

This is Dusty and Smudge who where performed by Marcus & Helena Click the Picture to see a clip of Smudge's Song

All the Puppets for this wonderful Series are 'performed' puppeteered and voiced in real time by the puppeteers. The Mice 'Dusty & Smudge' are Glove Puppets and are Hands Up Puppets own very special and unique design. A design which we have developed and refined over many years. Although each Glove Puppet character is performed by a single puppeteer they have both realtime lipsinc and two live arms enabling them to walk and talk, even jump and dance, while handling objects like small props. They are demanding to perform and require a very high standard of puppeteering as well as an unconventional approach but can carry wonderfully believable performances while their dexterity and size make them very production friendly. This is Purr the Cat who's quite a bit of a baddy. We are very pleased that the design and build works so well as successful Cat Puppets had always seemed very difficult to achieve. We used quite unlikely but very striking Fur colours including a bright red Fur to define Purrs ears and were able to carry the red/black colours through to the nose casting and add just a small blue highlight to it. We always sculpt and cast noses etc. to give us these opportunities and likewise we were able to drop a reflective, very Cat like, green Iris into the cast of Purrs Eyes. This is Legs the Spider who sends out an alarm to the Mice in case of danger and always tries to help them. She appears all over the House swinging and bouncing her very distinctive legs. Thanks Legs!

Puppets by Hands up Puppets and Photographs by Chris Ridley copyright Five Television Click on the Backstage Pass to visit Dusty and the team shooting on location!