The Magic House is one of the seven Magical Events. It was first shown in the 3rd episode The Grand Old Duke of York.
This Magic Event features a singing puppet who lives in a large pink house with 4 windows. In each episode, he wanders around his house choosing a window to sing from, with the window changing for each episode.
The puppet has tanned skin and orange-red hair. He wears a blue jumper and a blue hat with a big red bobble on it, and he speaks in gibberish. His puppeteer (operator and voice) is Robin Stevens who also worked on other Ragdoll shows including: Pob's programme (Pob), Rosie and Jim (Jim), Tots TV (Tom), Boohbah (Grandpappa) and Blips (Mr. Perfect).
The Singing Man in the Pink House appears on some various episodes. They are:
The Grand Old Duke of York (top left window)
Delilah Packing (bottom right window)
Emily and the Trap (bottom left window)
My Mum's Keyboard (top right window)
Carnival (bottom left window)
Wake Up! (top right window)
Naughty Sock Returns (bottom right window)
Football (top left window)
Numbers - 4 (Version 2) (bottom left window)
Blackberry Picking (top right window)
Wrapping (bottom right window)
Sing a Song of Sixpence (top left window)
Cuddle's Poor Paw (bottom left window)
Getting Up in the Morning (top right window)
Dog Kennel (bottom right window)
My Home is a Boat (bottom left window)
Uh-Oh! Messes & Muddles (bottom left window)
Magical Surprises (top right window)
Teletubbies: Happy Birthday! (Delilah Packing)
Dirty Dog (US Version) (Top Right Window Sketch)
Numbers - 8 (US Version) (Top Left Window Sketch)
Looking for Rabbits (US Version) (Bottom Right Window Sketch)
Running (US Version) (Bottom Right Window Sketch)
Synopsis
The sketch starts with The Magic Windmill spinning for a little bit longer than usual. The Teletubbies arrive silently at a place in Teletubbyland. The Sun starts to giggle happily. There are no sounds coming from the event like the other Magic Events. Instead, the Windmill is still heard spinning. Despite this, the Teletubbies look around and then just venture off to the destination of the Magical Event. The Teletubbies arrive and sit down on a hill. Over on a further hill, a roof and 4 windows magically appear. Then it cuts to a close up of the house, and the rest of the house appears (a pink wall, rain gutter, and drain pipe and a red door with a 4 on it). As the house appears, a soft, jolly tune starts to play. Footsteps are heard, suddenly one of the lights is turned on and a silhouette walks around the room mumbling to themselves. They then turn the light off and walk to the next room, doing the same thing. After doing this 3 times, the silhouette walks to the last window, turns on the light and appears. The silhouette then opens the curtains, revealing to be a puppet man wearing a blue and red bobble hat and a blue coat. The puppet man then opens the window and the camera zooms in. The puppet man starts singing in a gibberish operatic voice. The puppet sings in a different tone of voice for each window. He sings very loudly at the Right windows, whereas he sings more softly at the Left windows. After finishing with holding a long note, the puppet man then walks off. As the camera zooms back out, the window and curtains close and then the light is turned off. The pink house then disappears, first the roof, wall, door, gutter, and pipe, then the windows, one-by-one, in the following order: Bottom right, Bottom left, Top right, Top Left and then the house has completely disappeared and the hill is visible again. The Magic Windmill stops spinning or the Sun Baby Giggles.
Watch
Trivia
- The Magic House is the second scariest Magical Event (Especially in the UK) behind The Lion and Bear. (Original Sketch)
- Despite speaking gibberish, after the puppet leaves at the bottom left window, he clearly says 'Very Nice!' as the window closes.
- In Emily and the Trap, My Mum's Keyboard, Carnival, Wake Up!, Numbers - Four (Version 2), and the US Version of Dirty Dog, the Teletubbies are silent when the house appears.
- In Delilah Packing, Emily and the Trap, and the US Version of Running, a fade effect is used to transition to the Magic Windmill stopping.
- In Carnival, the Teletubbies' laughter from The Three Ships is used when they go straight on.
- In Wake Up, after the Magical event, a fade effect is used to show the next segment.
- Although it's scary, it does not have an edited sketch like the Lion and Bear, because it is not as scary.
- It's very rare that the puppet sings in the top left window.
- It's very common that the puppet sings in the bottom left window.
- In the foreign language dubs, the puppet has Robin Stevens' voice. There are some dubs where he's completely silent, e.g. Thai, Icelandic (some episodes). In the Icelandic version of Carnival, he is silent while wandering around the house, then when he sings, he is voiced by a woman singing 'Daah da Daah', However in the Persian Dub the Puppet doesn't have his original voice and instead sing with a thick voice.
- In the US, the puppet has a different voice that sings 'Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do', and he sings it on each window.
- This sketch is used for some reason in some US episodes and is so common. This is because of both the original and the edited Lion and Bear segments.
- In the episodes where the puppet sings in the Top Left Window, the brown curtains are remained as the house vanishes. In the other windows, the brown curtains fade to a blue background.
Goofs
- If you look very closely at the beginning of the segment, you can see Po standing at the side before the Teletubbies arrive to watch the event.
- There also appears to be a camera or a light at the left side.
Gallery
