Original Andy Pandy puppet sells for £15k at auction

A puppet used in the original 1950s Andy Pandy TV series has sold for more than £15,000.

The puppet, one of only two surviving Andy Pandys, sold at auction in Canterbury, Kent, alongside two other original characters from the programme.

A Teddy puppet also sold for £3,800 and a Looby Loo doll went for £2,100.

The trio of puppets had been kept by Freda Lingstrom, one of the show's creators, at her home in Westerham.

She gifted them to her long-term cleaner, whose grandchild put them up for auction.

The toys sold for almost double their joint expected sale price of £12,500.

"There was certainly a lot of interest in these figures which was great to see play out," the auction house said.

First broadcast on 11 July 1950 as part of the BBC's Watch With Mother strand, Andy Pandy was a marionette who lived in a picnic basket with his two friends.

The handful of original programmes were repeated until 1969.

In 1970, some episodes were remade in colour.

Andy Pandy was then revived as a stop motion animation in 2002, voiced by Tom Conti and shown on the BBC's channel for young children, CBeebies.

The only other original Andy Pandy known to survive is in the London Museum.

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.