The Poddington Peas is a British animated television series that was created by Paul Needs and Colin Wyatt of Cairnvale Productions for Poddington PLC; it has thirteen five-minute episodes, and was aired on BBC One as part of the Children's BBC strand (as it had been known from its inception on 9 September 1985 until 4 October 1997) from 14 September to 22 December 1989. The series was regularly repeated throughout the 90s and early 00s until 2002. The series' theme song, composed by Geoff Stephens, describes the eponymous group of Peas living "down at the bottom of the garden". Human-sized garden objects, enormous in size to the Peas, are often seen, such as upturned flowerpots which serve as most of their buildings. Humans themselves are never seen or mentioned (with the single exception of Christmas gift-giver Santa Claus, who left his gifts at Creepy Castle in the last episode). All thirteen episodes were released on VHS by Palace Video in 1990 (HPV0018), but this is now out of print. As with the majority of other older BBC children's series, it has also never made it to DVD. In 1992, writer Phil Gardner was employed by Poddington PLC to help them write a prospective second series of episodes, which were to include one with the intention of piloting the series in the United States, and feature a new group of characters known as the "Bugz" as well as the mischievous but well-intentioned "Podd Twins". However, these episodes were never published. There was also a book series by Paul Needs, illustrated by Colin Wyatt and published by Boxtree and Award Publications. The books, including new titles, were later released with a new associated press, and merchandise complementing these titles was released in 2013. Later in 2013, a new Adobe Flash remake of the series was announced on Needs' website. With the new pilot originally offered to CBBC, then produced independently after it was turned down, a 90-second promotional clip appeared on Needs' site. However, the project was eventually abandoned due to copyright issues – whilst Needs and Wyatt were the creators, the BBC still owned the rights to the series and character names (even though it was last repeated in 2002), which would have proven too costly to secure for the independent project. Characters The series features a group of thirty-four anthropomorphic peas, and most of their names not only refer