Dark Teletubbies secrets children won t know - Sacking, death and banned episode Mirror 4 hrs ago Claire Murphy Over the hills and far away, Teletubbies come out to play… the four cuddly, brightly coloured characters – Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po – first burst onto our screens in 1997, and have delighted generations of pre-schoolers ever since.
Their theme tune shot to Number One in the singles charts in 1997 and stayed in the Top 75 for more than six months. Merchandising sales have been in the billions of pounds for the past 20 years.
The series was first created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport nearly a quarter of a century ago. They named the quartet after the TV screens on their tummies. Anne and Andrew sold their company, Ragdoll to a Canadian media company for £17.4 million in 2013.
Dipsy was always the maverick of the Teletubbies, the one who refused to go along with the others. In many ways, he reflected John Simmit, the man inside the three-stone lime green suit, who proudly brought his heritage to the role.
“Being a Cuban-Jamaican-Brummie and coming from a comedy and music background, I used that to my advantage and there were a lot of cultural references,” Simmit tells HuffPost UK.
“Dipsy would say, ‘Papa Come Papa Come To Po’, which was actually my take on a classic reggae rhythm track called The Whip. And I’d slip in Jamaican dance moves, a Bogle there and a Tatty here. People spotted my little wink to my culture and I’m proud of that.”