Rainbow puppeteer Ronnie Le Drew has revealed the racy secrets behind the children’s TV show.
The classic show featured cuddly puppets Zippy, George and Bungle living together but Zippy’s handler Ronnie has admitted that when the cameras stopped rolling, the puppets enjoyed some saucy shenanigans which would have horrified their viewers.
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In an extract from his new book, Zippy And Me, which has been published by The Sun newspaper, Ronnie writes: “Several times during rehearsals Zippy smuggled a large carrot under the covers that poked up at opportune moments, and he also became very prone to masturbating.
“George would be reprimanded by Bungle for wetting the bed or leaving skid marks on the sheets, and when Geoffrey spoke straight to the camera, George and Zippy would often start humping in the background.
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“George and Zippy occasionally got up to the sort of thing adults do in bed. It was our way of entertaining the cameramen when we had a particularly light show. There were many times I caught myself watching Zippy and George copulating and thought to myself, ‘Oh, they are naughty’, before remembering that I was to blame.”
And Ronnie revealed that show star Jane Tucker also got involved, once performing a “kinky” rehearsal song while wearing a “shiny, tight, leather S&M outfit”.
He added: “It was obviously just a bit of fun, but from then on she was known on set as Miss Whiplash.
Ronnie signing books today @unbounders. If you ordered a signed copy it should be with you soon! pic.twitter.com/DKBM6uvG97
— Zippy & Me (@zippy_me) July 3, 2019
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“Rehearsals became even more innuendo-laden whenever musical instruments were involved, with Jane asking Zippy if he fancied playing with her maracas.
“Or Zippy and George chatting about plucking each other’s ‘twangers’ — the homemade instruments formed from shoe boxes and rubber bands that we sometimes used in the show.”
Rainbow launched in 1972 and ran for 27 series before being cancelled in the 90s.
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