35 The Adventures of Parsley

First  watched : Uncertain

The  Adventures  of  Parsley  was  not  so  much  a  spin-off  from  The  Herbs  ( which  ceased  to  be  made )  as  a  re-tooling  of  the  programme  for  the  pre-news  slot  ( it  replaced  Hector's  House  from  Monday  6th  April  1970 ). All  the  regular  characters  made  the  transition  and  most  of  the  action  took  place  in  the  Herb  Garden.  Dill  was  promoted  to  being  Parsley's  main  sidekick.

The  reduction  of  the  running  time  to  5  minutes  meant  that  the  characters'  signature  songs  had  to  be  jettisoned. The  other  main  difference  was  that  Parsley  could  now  speak  for  himself  and  reveal  a  laconic  wit.  The  Adventures  of  Parsley  also  acknowledged  the  world  outside  the  Garden; in  one  episode  Dill  is  writing  his  entry  for  Who's  Who. 

Despite  its  being  the  first  British-made  show  in  the  slot, The  Adventures of  Parsley  does  not seem  to  have  been  a  roaring  ( sorry )  success. It  was  not  re-commissioned  after  32  episodes  and  had  only  one  repeat  run  the  following  year.  This  didn't  adversely  affect  the  careers  of  either  Michael  Bond  or  Ivor  Wood  as  we  shall  see.