Come Outside

Seasons

1993

UK

7.9

Children's educational programme in which Auntie Mabel and her dog Pippin fly in their spotted plane looking at everyday things and finding out how they work.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Hedgehogs

Auntie Mabel recalls the time she and Pippin flew a hedgehog named Spiky who had hurt its leg to a special hospital.

S1 • E2

Snails

Auntie Mabel goes to London Zoo to look at some giant snails. Meanwhile, Pippin has a new kennel that he's not too keen on.

S1 • E3

A Windy Day

Auntie Mabel is getting ready to go to a party. She hangs her washing on the line to dry in the wind, including her best red blouse. Pippin is playing in the garden. A strong gust of wind blows the red blouse off the washing line. Pippin sees it go and chases after it. Meanwhile Auntie Mabel is doing her hair ready for the party. She tells Aesop's fable about the North Wind and the Sun. When she discovers both Pippin and her blouse are missing, she takes off in her aeroplane to look for them. Pippin has caught the blouse and Auntie Mabel takes them both home again. But now her hair is in a mess, her blouse is dirty and Pippin has fallen fast asleep, tired out after her long chase.

S1 • E4

Water

It's Pippin's bath day but she doesn't like having a bath and so she's hiding in the cupboard. Auntie Mabel is filling the bath when she hears water gushing outside. A pipe under the street is leaking. Auntie Mabel phones the water company and while they repair the pipe she and Pippin visit the river, where their water comes from, and where it begins its journey through cleansing and purifying processes, ending up at Auntie Mabel's kitchen tap. She tells Aesop's fable 'The Crow and the Pitcher'. The leaking pipe is mended and now Pippin can have her bath. But where is she?

S1 • E5

A Rainy Day

Auntie Mabel and Pippin fly home from a sunny day out to find it pouring with rain. As she unloads the plane, Auntie Mabel falls in a puddle, just like 'Doctor Foster'. She is glad she fixed new guttering to her house, until a piece falls off and she has to repair it. Auntie Mabel sings 'Incy Wincy Spider' and tells the story of 'Tiddalick the Frog' while Pippin enjoys herself running about in the rain.

S1 • E6

Wood

Today Auntie Mabel will give some children a music lesson using wooden musical instruments. She uses wooden kitchen utensils to make some jam tarts for the children. Pippin wants a jam tart but Auntie Mabel tells her they are not good for dogs. Auntie Mabel finds many things made of wood in her kitchen and living room. She recites 'The table and the chair' by Edward Lear and recalls the day she and Pippin went for a walk in the woods. They saw a tree being felled, visited a factory where wooden furniture is made and bought a wooden chair. The children arrive for their music lesson and while they're not looking Pippin steals a jam tart!

S1 • E7

Paper

Pippin has been to the newsagent to collect Auntie Mabel's daily newspaper. She brings it home but won't let go of it. She carries it around with her all day, even when they fly off in Spotty Plane to visit a forest. They see a tree being cut down and travel with it to a paper factory where they find out how newspaper is made. Pippin misbehaves and loses Auntie Mabel's newspaper in a heap of papers and magazines waiting to be recycled. When they get home, the newspaper Pippin is carrying is not the one Auntie Mabel was expecting to read!

S1 • E8

Clay

Auntie Mabel receives a new brown teapot as a birthday present from her nephew Jay who is coming to tea. When Pippin accidentally breaks it they hurry to the shop to buy a replacement before Jay arrives. But the shop has run out of brown teapots. So they fly to the pottery factory, visit a clay quarry and watch a teapot being made on a potter's wheel. Eventually they return home with their new brown teapot. When Jay arrives for tea, Pippin gets over-excited and knocks over the new teapot. Auntie Mabel catches it just in time.

S1 • E9

Rubbish

Auntie Mabel is sorting her rubbish while Pippin is busy picking up litter and putting it in the dustbin. The refuse collection vehicle arrives but Pippin misses it and chases after it with a piece of litter. Auntie Mabel takes some of her rubbish to the paper, can and bottle banks, and we see how new milk bottles are made from old recycled glass bottles. Some of Auntie's old plastic containers and cardboard boxes are going to a local school where they use them to make models. Her vegetable peelings go on the compost. Meanwhile, Pippin is lost. Auntie Mabel flies in Spotty Plane to the rubbish tip to look for her. It's the end of the day by the time Pippin arrives at the tip - but Auntie Mabel has gone home.

S1 • E10

Holes in the Ground

Auntie Mabel digs a hole in her garden and plants a tree. She and Pippin watch men from the telephone company working in a hole in the street to lay new cables under the street. They fly to Wookey Hole caves where they see stalagmites, the witch of Wookey Hole and her dog, and water from an underground river. Auntie Mabel tells her version of Aesop's fable 'The fox and the goat' in which the fox is trapped in a hole in the ground but tricks the goat into helping him out. Pippin falls into a hole in the road. Auntie Mabel rescues her - but what's happened to the tree she planted?