Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran between five times weekly, twice weekly and once weekly at 12:10 on Tuesdays and Fridays on the ITV network, from 16 October 1972 to 6 March 1992 (with repeated episodes only continuing to be shown until December 1992). It was intended to develop language and number skills for pre-school children, and went on to win the Society of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Children's Programme in 1975.
The programme was originally conceived as a British equivalent of long-running American educational puppet series Sesame Street. The British series would be developed in house by Thames Television, and had no input from the Sesame Workshop.[1]
After more than 1000 episodes, the series came to an abrupt end when Thames Television lost its ITV franchise at the end of 1992. Since then, it has gained cult status and continues to get frequent mentions on radio and television.



 

​Premise
Each episode of Rainbow revolved around a particular activity or situation that would arise in the Rainbow House, where the main characters lived. Usually, it would involve some kind of squabble or dispute between the puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, and Geoffrey's attempts to calm them down and keep the peace. The main story would be interspersed with songs (usually from Rod, Jane and Freddy, although, guest singers would occasionally take their place), animations, and stories read from the Rainbow storybook, usually by Geoffrey. Some episodes would focus on a particular theme, such as sounds or opposites, and would consist mainly of short sketches or exchanges between the main characters, rather than a consistent storyline.

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Characters
Rainbow featured the following characters, each with their own character style:
The presenter - first David Cook, then the best known presenter Geoffrey Hayes, who brought the other members of the Rainbow household to order or gave them something to do.

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Bungle - a brown furry bear with a squashed face, who is inquisitive but also clumsy and complains a lot about the other characters, especially Zippy's antics (a costume; played by John Leeson, Stanley Bates, Malcolm Lord and Paul Cullinan). The question regarding why Bungle always wraps a towel around his waist to protect his modesty after a shower, in spite of the fact that he walks around nude for the rest of time, has never been addressed. (He also donned pyjamas at bed time.).

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Zippy - loud and domineering, but usually very funny (albeit not to the other characters in the show) who is actually a rugby ball (though with a body attached). (puppet; originally voiced and operated by Peter Hawkins, then voiced by Roy Skelton - both well known for voicing Daleks and Cybermen in Doctor Who) - and operated by Ronnie Le Drew. Zippy's mouth is a zip, and when he becomes too bossy or irritating, this would be zipped shut to prevent him from continuing: on at least one occasion he unzipped himself, though he appears unable to do so on other occasions.
George - a shy, pink and slightly camp hippo. (puppet; voiced by Roy Skelton and operated by Malcolm Lord, Tony Holtham and later Craig Crane).

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Sunshine and Moony - optimistic sunshine (yellow with a red hat) and his more gloomy friend Moony (brown with a tuft of yellow hair) were the original 'stars' of the programme, but soon became little more than foils to the more popular Zippy; they were phased out by 1973, in favour of greater roles for Bungle and (especially) George.

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Rod, Jane and Freddy - a group of musicians who regularly feature on the programme. Originally known as Rod, Jane and Matt when they debuted on the show in 1974. Matt's position being held by Matthew Corbett (of The Sooty Show fame) and from 1977 by Roger Walker, before Freddy Marks took over in 1981.

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Telltale - a six-piece group who provided the music in the early days of the show being replaced by Charlie Dore and Julian Littman and then Rod, Matt and Jane.

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Zippo - Zippy's cousin, identical in appearance to Zippy but slightly brighter in colour, who would make the occasional guest appearance. Originally portrayed as an eloquent Frenchman, but a later episode depicted him as an American-accented rapper with loud, flashy clothing.
Georgina (a.k.a. Georgie), a cousin of George. Georgina is physically identical to George, except for her longer eyelashes and floppy hat.
Dawn - the next-door neighbour, played by Dawn Bowden, who was introduced in the shows later years, first appearing in 1990.
Aunty - played by numerous actresses, is the aunt of one of the characters, probably Geoffrey.

A few episodes also include some sort of a Geoffrey-type figure for Zippo called Vince. He seemed to be some sort of a brother to Geoffrey.
Generally speaking, George and Zippy represented two 'types' of child, George being the quiet and shy type, while Zippy represented the hyperactive and destructive type. George was usually vindicated, but Zippy got his comeuppance. While they were apparently young 'children' (aged around 7 or 8), Bungle was an older 'child' (aged around 12-13), and differed from them in being a costume, rather than a hand puppet. Geoffrey's relationship to them was unclear, other than being a kind of father figure (although he is referred to as 'Uncle' Geoffrey in at least one episode). Apart from Jane and (in the early days) Sunshine, females rarely appeared on the programme, despite some ambiguity concerning the often effeminate (and permanently pink) George.

In 1989, Rod, Jane and Freddy left the show to concentrate on touring, pantomime appearances and their own separate TV show (which had run parallel with Rainbow since 1981). This meant that Dawn Bowden was introduced as a regular female character in place of Jane, while the songs were generally provided by guest singers, notably Christopher Lillicrap. The show would also often include guest stars, to make a change from Geoffrey telling all the lessons - this way, the characters would be told stories and lessons by a fresh face.
Theme song
The theme song for the show was actually a small part of the full version, also called 'Rainbow' and written by Hugh Portnow, Hugh Fraser and Tim Thomas of the band Telltale, who regularly appeared in the first series of the show. This was released by Music for Pleasure in 1973 with the B-side "Windy Day".

There have been several dance versions of the theme tune which have been released as singles. The dance act Solo had a minor hit in 1991 with a sample-free instrumental version of the Rainbow theme, while Eurobop released a dance version in 1993 featuring samples taken directly from the original theme as well as voice samples of the main characters, who appeared on several music TV shows to promote the single; a hardcore version entitled 'Rainbow Vibes' by the Sonz of Bungle circulated on 12" vinyl in 1992 which sampled the theme tune over a chopped up breakbeat and featuring rave stabs. The most recent dance version, titled "It's a Rainbow!" and featuring the vocals of Zippy and George, reached the UK top 20 in 2002.