Budgie the Little Helicopter is a British animated television series, relating to a fictional helicopter and his friends, based on a series of children's books. The characters were based on the books by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. The show was coproduced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin, The Sleepy Kids Company and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York for ITV Wales & West and Scottish Television Enterprises, and originally aired on British television in 1994 on CITV, where it ran for 39 episodes. A range of videos, books, and toys were released under the Budgie label. The show aired in the United States on FOX as part of the Fox Cubhouse programming block from 1995 to 1996, and moved to the Fox Family Channel in 1998 as part of It's Itsy Bitsy Time. The series was redubbed with North American voices for It’s Itsy Bitsy Time. In Canada, it also aired on Family Channel from 1994-97 and on Treehouse TV from 1999-2003. On release of the very first book, Sarah was accused by the media of copying the idea for the series from an out-of-print 1960 book Hector the Helicopter, by A.W. Baldwin, which she denied. The series is legally available on Ferguson's official YouTube channel. Characters Aircraft Main Budgie the Little Helicopter (voiced by Richard Pearce) is the title character who resembles a Bell 206) with a big yellow cap covering his entire airframe and a small tuft of brown hair underneath it, and also speaks in Teenage accent. He lives and works at Harefield Airfield, and he and Pippa are best friends. He can be cheeky and troublesome at times, but he works hard too, and continuously tries to please Lionel, the Aircraft in charge. He will also bravely come to the assistance of people in danger. He hates going through the heli-wash, and avoids doing so when he can. He also has a Phobia about Missiles. A white teddy bear named Snowy is nearly always seen carried in a deep pocket on Budgie's starboard. His catchphrase is "Rocketing Rotors!" Pippa the Single-Engined Mono-Plane (voiced by Abigail MacVean) is Budgie's friend who has a tuft of blonde hair and a big pink white-spotted bow on her roof, as well as a red mouth below her black nose. Pippa was the second aircraft to arrive at Harefield Airfield, and at first, she teased Budgie and called him a yo-yo and