Mosmondesign

Way back when… when I was in kindergarten, I remember my mum took me to see Mr Squiggle and friends at the playhouse in Canberra. My favourite was Gus the snail. I always liked his jokes, I thought he was very funny. 

In 2019, there was a small display and exhibition of the Mr Squiggle puppets at the Australian Mint in Canberra. It took me back to many memories where I sat with my sister in front of the TV after school, and we guested what Mr Squiggle was going to draw upside down. We loved ‘blackboard’ he was always angry and we all grew up with his famous one liner…‘Hurry up’. 

Fast-forward to 2024, the National Museum of Australia is going to take over the collection and enquire it from the Hetherington family. It will be called the ‘Norman Hetherington Collection’. 
It showcases the puppets themselves, the scripts for the show and some of the squiggle’s drawings that were sent in by his adoring young fans. 

Norman Hetherington created and voiced all the puppets on the show — Blackboard, Bill Steam shovel, Gus the Snail and Rocket — while his wife, Margaret wrote the scripts. He was a talented cartoonist who was drawn to puppets because he saw them as “three-dimensional cartoons”.

Their daughter Rebecca Hetherington was on the show as one of the presenters. I do remember her growing up. She remembers watching her father work for hours creating the characters in the family’s basement. “When I grew up, there weren’t endless videos and things that you could do and watch, so I spent a lot of time just sitting in the studio watching him work, and talking to him,” Rebecca said. 

It was one of many great Australian children’s shows that was created. It’s a shame now Kids TV doesn’t have that kind of interaction anymore. I feel very lucky and privileged that I grew up with something so unique, fun and entertaining as a kid. Thank you to Norman Hetherington for bringing your vison to life and sharing it with thousands of kids every afternoon for more than 40 years.