Old Skool Movements the 80s Pop Culture Podcast · Old Skool Movements

Ronnie Le Drew & Zippy - Old Skool Movements the 80s Podcast

November 26, 2023·55 min·1 clip

Key insight from segment 5

The room goes straight to full Rainbow mode. Baz, Chris, Stacks, and Leroy welcome Ronnie Le Drew with the kind of racket only a childhood favourite can trigger, and the whole thing kicks off around Zippy, the voice, and the question everyone always asks: what is he, exactly? The answer starts with a laugh. Ronnie talks through how he and Roy Skelton handled the flood of letters asking that same question, and how the voice work behind Zippy and George grew out of lunch rather than any grand theory session. Thames comes up fast. He remembers it as a huge commercial company, full of variety shows, comedy, drama, quiz shows, and the kind of studio traffic that kept the building busy all day. Rainbow lived in the small studio down the corridor, and that little room became part of the joke and part of the magic, because the crew liked coming in, the performers had space to play, and the show could be both technically busy and a bit naughty when the mood took it. The hosts are not calm about any of this. They keep throwing in their own memories, their own impressions, and their own disbelief, because hearing Zippy on the show clearly hits them right where the nostalgia lives. You also get the feel of a bigger television era. Ronnie remembers the credits sting that used to announce every programme, the mirror shots and other tricks used to make the pictures feel bigger, and the general sense that television was allowed to be a bit more playful than people now expect. The conversation keeps circling back to the way crews enjoyed Rainbow because there was fun in the room, not just a job to do, and because everyone involved already knew how to make the puppets, the jokes, and the timing work together. Jane's maracas even get their moment. That tiny detail says a lot about the episode: this is a chat built from props, voices, little accidents, and the exact sort of daft memory that can unlock half a childhood. Ronnie stays generous throughout. He gives the hosts a warm, patient ride through the years, and the close lands with that lovely mix of disbelief and delight that only happens when people realise a proper legend has been sitting right there with them. It is all very on-brand. For anyone who wants old-school television stories with the volume up and the manners slightly out the window, this one goes down easy.

As heard by us

A lively Rainbow reunion that turns studio nostalgia into something warmly specific.

Ronnie Le Drew's visit plays like a quick return to Rainbow and to the version of Zippy that still lives in memory. The hosts jump straight into the fun of it, asking what Zippy really is and how the voice came together.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want Zippy, Rainbow memories, and studio stories from the Thames era.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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