Pipkins was the children’s TV show I did just after Uni. I played the human Tom amidst all the iconic puppets handled brilliantly by puppetmeister supreme Nigel Plaskitt. Liz Lindsay was Topov for a period and also Octavia. Annie Rutter was Pig. Lorraine Bertorelli was Pig as well. All excellent actors/puppeteers and very friendly. The star was 
Hartley Hare of course played by Nigel, a quirky effervescent cunning moth eaten camp creation who nearly always had his come-uppance at the end of each ep as each one had a theme and moral of some kind. They were very keen to keep an educational subtext to the stories. Nigel also did Tortoise the cockney accountant. And Uncle Hare. And the man who narrated it and said ‘Time!’ All terrific characters. I did about 70 eps but as we did two a week it was about 6 months 
work over a year and a half. It was all a bit in at the deep end as it was my first ‘proper’ acting job on telly in that the work was every week and involved quite a large number of lines. I deliberately decided not to do a typical OTT kids TV performance and spoke to the puppets realistically as if I was acting with human characters. This got me a reprimand from the casting director for not being enthusiastic enough! But looking at it now after so many years, it appears to work!
Here are some whole episodes
Here are a few bits of episodes!