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Original French Titles

Hector's House

This may probably be one of the first true puppet series that people born in the 1960s will remember vividly. Hector's House was first shown on television by the BBC on Monday 09th September 1968 (thanks to John Archbold). I certainly remember it from 1971 when I am told I was riveted to the television screen of a late afternoon. It tended to be placed just before the news on a week day. Although Hector, ZaZa and Kiki (the only three characters in the series) had British accents, the program was actually produced in France. Evidence for this is with some of the signs in the series such as the name on Hector's shed and the game Kiki brings over the wall with her. Further evidence is shown in the way the garden is constructed (they have a walnut tree in the garden amongst other exotic plants) , especially the large wall which Kiki regularly appears over. The dress sense of the animals also suggests something not quite British about the show. The last episode was televised on Thursday January 08th 1970. A total of 78 episodes were shown by the BBC.

The series concerned the adventures of Hector the dog, ZaZa the cat and Kiki the annoying frog (she was actually referred to as Mrs. Frog, by Hector in early episodes). I've lost count of the number of times I have wanted to strangle that rotten frog. Hector and ZaZa lived in the big house, a house with a magnificent garden. Hector did have a kennel though, to which he would visit when he wanted to think, meditate or be alone. The kennel was made of wood, painted white and was situated in the garden (although it did move once or twice). Kiki the frog lived next door and in every episode she would appear on top of the wall perched on a very tall ladder. She would then enter Hector's garden via a hole in the wall. Hector must've had a screw loose here because that hole could easily have been filled up to stop that green pest from coming round. ZaZa and Kiki were friends however, so I suppose Hector only tolerated Kiki because of not wanting to upset ZaZa. I don't know what the relationship between Hector and ZaZa was but they did sleep in different bedrooms. How the hell do I know that - well in the episode "A song at night," Hector turns off his bedroom light which is then followed by ZaZa's bedroom light after which she slips out of the house without Hector noticing. Each episode started with the bird singing in the garden and always ended with Hector saying a similar expression such as "I'm a great big silly old Hector." No credits were ever shown at the end of each episode.

Full listing of "Hector's House" from the RadioTimes (Many thanks to John Archbold for the information)

Characters

Hector the dog

ZaZa the cat

Kiki the frog

Episodes

At least 45 episodes were made (that is how many is in my collection), some of which have never been released on VHS or DVD. Some episodes are shown below by clicking on the table. Other desciptions may be found in the white tables towards the bottom of the page.

Hector's House Main Page	Episodes 1-4	Episodes 5-8	Episodes 9-13

Other episodes included :-

Credits