“Rubovian Legends”
 Kim Allen's marionettes 1955 - 1956
Gordon Murray's marionettes 1958 - 1965

"Rubovian Legends", to use the series' full name, arrived on television screens in 1955, with The Queen's Dragon, Clocks and Blocks, and The Dragon's Hiccups. Initially lacking his own set of Rubovia puppets, Gordon Murray borrowed a set of marionettes from the BBC children’s puppet department. These 1/4 life-size marionettes, made by Kim Allen, were a lot smaller and less detailed than the specially created marionettes that Gordon used in the later episodes. 

After making the first three Rubovia plays using Kim Allen's puppets, Gordon Murray realized that in order to take Rubovia to a whole new level, major changes were required. During a two-year hiatus in production beginning around May 1956, Gordon was assisted by fledging designer Andrew Brownfoot in a redesign of the whole "Rubovian Legends" idea from scratch. While Gordon created new scripts, and sculpted his own set of larger (1/3 life-size) and more caricatured Rubovia marionette puppets, Andrew designed costumes and settings that were much more lavish than before. Both Gordon and Andrew were beginning to come into their artistic element, and the amazing thing was that the BBC was letting them do it, despite, as Gordon put it, breaking "every rule the BBC has ever made."  Interestingly, the new puppets were Gordon's own property, to be rented back to the BBC for a nominal fee for each puppet performance. 

Once Gordon had completed the new set of Rubovia puppets, Clocks and Blocks and The Dragon's Hiccups were remade in the highly caricatured style that the series is usually identified with. Altogether, some twenty-seven "Rubovian Legends" plays were made between 1955 and 1965. 

As part of his 1956 redesign of the settings, costumes, and puppets of "Rubovian Legends", Gordon Murray also made big changes to the puppeteer and voice actor lineup. Established BBC puppeteers Molly Gibson and Elizabeth Thorndike, and also Joan Garrick, moved on to other television projects, while BBC voice actors Peter Hawkins, Raymond Rollett, and Philip Latham went on to follow their own respective careers. Performers who carried over were voice actor Violet Lamb (Queen Caroline of Rubovia), and puppeteers Audrey Atterbury, Bob Bura and John Hardwick. New to the revised voice line-up were Derek Nimmo (King Rufus of Rubovia), Roy Skelton (Lord Chamberlain), James Beattie (Sir Albert Weatherspoon), and Pamela Binns (the Grand Duchess Arabella of Humperstein). 

In a 1959 interview Gordon discussed just how serious he was in wanting to make children's television puppetry the best that it could be: "Before [Andrew and I] came [to the BBC], puppets were run by the typical Women's Institute type. I felt there was more effort needed. I hire a lot of actors to manipulate the puppets. It's quite important to use actors, you know, and strangely enough it's only the good actors who stick through the course they have to go through. The others who are only in the profession for the limelight soon pack up." The children's films that Gordon had in mind to make were not namby-pamby do-good tales of mediocrity, usually delivered by a narrator, but sought to create intelligent characters who had voices and opinions of their own, set with the traditional fairytale elements long enjoyed by children.

The three earliest episodes ( the ones using the Kim Allen puppets) were performed live in front of the television camera. Unfortunately these broadcasts were not telerecorded, so no longer exist. (A space probe 40 light-years out, perhaps near Capella, Pollux, or Castor, might have the only chance of picking up the signal. ;-). 

Six weeks in preparation, a Gordon Murray puppet play goes out live on BBC Children's Television
Points of Interest: Visible in this photograph, which was taken in the BBC's "Tin Shed" at Lime Grove, are four BBC-TV cameras, seven crew, and two puppets on the centre stage. The photograph is not clear enough to determine if this is a scene from "Rubovia Legends", or one of Gordon Murray's other puppet plays. The puppeteers are out of sight above the stages on the puppeteer bridge. The 1959 date suggests that this play was actually Telerecorded onto 16 mm film, rather than sent out live. 
 This photograph was published in the May 7, 1959 issue of The Stage and Television Today.

Rubovia's star-studded cast had Derek Nimmo with his unique plum-in-the-mouth voice in the role of King Rufus. Derek more than anyone else imbued Rubovia with an atmosphere that at once seemed just perfect for the king of an obscure European kingdom. Also perfectly cast into their voice roles were Roy Skelton (the Lord Chamberlain, Prince Rupert), James Beattie (Sir Albert Weatherspoon), and Violet Lamb (Queen Caroline). 

Derek Nimmo later became famous for his various clerical roles (which once led him to being arrested at the Vatican) and the radio word-play series "Just a Minute".  

Roy Skelton was later the voice of the Zippy and George glove puppets in Thames Television's "Rainbow" series, but perhaps became most famous as the voice of the Daleks in the BBC television series, "Doctor Who" ("Exterminate! Exterminate!").