Sooty
(1948-present)

Aged 76

Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the franchises focused around the adventures of the character – a mute yellow bear with black ears and nose, who is kind-hearted but also cheeky, performs magic tricks and practical jokes, and squirts his handler and other people with his water pistol, including on other television programmes he guest stars on. The franchise itself also includes several other puppet characters who were created for television, some of whom became the backbone to performances, and features additional elements including an animated series, two spin-off series for the direct-to-video market, and a selection of toy merchandising. The franchise remained in the ownership of Corbett until his retirement in 1976, before being passed on to his son Matthew. The rights to the franchise were placed on sale and sold in 1996, with Matthew later retiring and handing over control of the puppet characters to Richard Cadell in 1998. After the franchise suffered some setbacks in 2004, Cadell bought the rights in 2007 and has since focused on ensuring the survival of the brand with new stage shows and television programmes.

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