Pingu gets new voice
Children’s favourite Pingu is waddling back to TV – but could leave fans in a flap with his new voice.
The show about a Plasticine penguin is to be revived by the makers of Bob The Builder, with a new actor providing the character’s gobbledegook language.
Mischievous Pingu was originally made in Switzerland in 1986, but no new episodes have been made for several years.
UK firm Hit Entertainment bought the rights in 2001, as well as the 104 five-minute episodes, for £16 million.
Now a further 52 shows are in production and will be screened from next year.
The original show was voiced by Italian clown Carlo Bonomi but the new makers have decided they need someone else.
A spokeswoman for the company said: “He is now in his 60s and although he was considered for the new series, it was thought he sounded too old.”
There are a few well-known voices being considered, but programme bosses are keeping tight-lipped about their identity. No decision has yet been made about who will take over.
The spokeswoman added: “We want the voice to be as similar as possible to the original so it is quite likely that it may not be someone famous.
“We are making it as close to the original as possible, in terms of the voices and the characters and sets.”
Bonomi voiced all the characters with a language of noises which were dubbed “pinguish”. He famously added his parts without a script.
