Roobarb and Custard: When Custard was Grounded

About Grange Calveley

Roobarb was created and drawn by Grange Calveley in 1973.

Grange was born in Cheshire and moved to London after Art College. During seven years with the Darcy advertising agency Grange wrote and art directed a number of national advertising campaigns for products as diverse as trucks, jams and marmalades, toys, fridges and coffee. Also, during two years spent in Stockholm, Grange wrote promotional campaigns for SAAB fighter aircraft and advertising campaigns for The Swedish Dairy Corp’s milk products and cheeses.

Grange was inspired to create Roobarb by the antics of his own Welsh Border Collie dog. “When our four legged Welsh friend moved in, the first thing that he did was water the rhubarb and from that moment on, we called him Roobarb”.

The stories that Grange wrote featured the ever-optimistic green dog Roobarb and his inventions which more often than not went spectacularly wrong, much to the delight of the sarcastic pink cat Custard.

The BBC commissioned an animated series in 1973, which at the time was the first production of its kind in the UK. Created and written by Grange Calveley, animated by Bob Godfrey and voiced by Richard Briers, it was an immediate success, drawing over 7 million viewers in its first three weeks.

The pilot When Roobarb Made A Spike was chosen amongst the best animated films of 1972-3 at the International Exhibition of Animated Films in Rome and was screened as one of the outstanding short films of the year at The National Film Theatre in 1973.

BBC Merchandising issued a number of licenses, most notably to Cadbury for a chocolate bar, and a Roobarb song, which reached number 3 in the charts, was also produced.

Thirty years later, due to the property’s unfailing popularity, a dedicated Roobarb & Custard website was launched and in 2004, Grange was motivated to write a second series. It brought Roobarb into the computer age with the addition of some new characters.

Publishers Mogzilla have adapted Grange’s original scripts into a series of colourful books. For the very first time, readers can follow the iconic duo through 32 pages of full colour adventures.