Series 8

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Series 8
Director(s)	Sarah Ball Brian Little Liz Whitaker
Writer(s)	Julie Jones Sarah Ball Diane Redmond James Henry Polly Churchill Simon Jowett Glenn Dakin Peter Reeves Jimmy Hibbert
Air Date(s)	UK: September 01 - October 22, 2003 AUS: July 14-30, 2003 US: January 08 - March 26, 2005
Starring	United Kingdom Neil Morrissey Rob Rackstraw Kate Harbour Colin McFarlane Llewella Gideon United States William Dufris Alan Marriott Lorelei King Sonya Leite Lachele Carl Maria Darling Colin McFarlane Vincent Marzello
Previous season	Series 7
Next Season	Series 9

The eighth series premiered in the UK between September 01 to November 24, 2003 on the BBC and was re-shown on CBeebies between October 06 to 22, 2003. In the US, the eighth series premiered between January 08 to March 26, 2005 on PBS and was re-shown on Sprout in 2006 and Qubo in 2020. In Australia this series first premiered in July 2003 on the ABC Kids block.

Episodes

(Note: ** means the episode was only released digitally in the US and never on DVD)
(Note: **** means the episode was only released on a Hit Favorites DVD in the US)

Screenshot	Episode Number	UK title (top) US title (bottom)	Written by	Original air date
	92	Bob the Photographer	Julie Jones	09/01/2003
	Bob tries to take some pictures of the town for a competition, but Spud goes around taking pictures when Bob leaves the camera on the wall at Farmer Pickles' Field when he has to help fix the leak in the wall inside the school house.
	93	Mr. Bentley's Trains	Sarah Ball	09/08/2003
	Train enthusiast Mr. Bentley is away for the day because he is going to a meeting of building inspectors, and, in his absence, Mrs. Bentley decides to surprise her husband by asking Bob to build him a brand new model railway in the shed. Meanwhile, Scoop, Lofty, Roley and Spud pretend to be a train and carry people to where they need to go
	94	Wendy's Big Night Out	Diane Redmond	09/15/2003
	Mr. Sabatini asks Wendy to be the guest of honour at the opening of his new restaurant.
	95	Racing Muck	James Henry	09/22/2003
	Bob is building a new swimming pool for the mayor. He asks Muck to collect some special tiles from J.J.'s explaining they are very fragile and easy to break. While returning from J.J.'s yard, Muck meets Spud who claims to be late for Farmer Pickles. Spud convinces Muck to give him a ride through a bumpy field. Once back at the building site, Muck realizes all the tiles are broken.
	96	Mr. Beasley's Noisy Pipes	Polly Churchill	09/29/2003
	Mr. Beasley mistakes the noise of his old pipes for a mole stuck under his floorboards which gives him anxiety.
	97	Lofty's Jungle Fun	Julie Jones	10/06/2003
	Bob and the gang build a pedestrian crossing, while Mrs. Percival asks Molly to paint a mural of a jungle scene in the school playground. Meanwhile, Lofty imagines what it would be like to be in the jungle.
	98	Ballroom Bob	Simon Jowett	10/13/2003
	Bob gets some secret dance lessons from Mrs. Percival, but he realizes that he can't dance the salsa until an outdoor dance floor is built.
	99	Molly's Fashion Show	Glenn Dakin	10/15/2003
	Pam Goody is running out of money to complete the Arts Centre renovations and Molly suggests holding a fashion show to raise funds.
	101	Spud and the Doves**	Sarah Ball	10/16/2003
	Mr. Ellis has a batch of doves delivered to use in his magic act, and asks Bob to build a dovecote.
	102	First Aid Molly**	Peter Reeves	10/17/2003
	Molly takes a first aid job at wanting to be a doctor.
	100	Mr. Bentley: Dog Sitter	Jimmy Hibbert	10/20/2003
	Mr. Bentley is dog sitting, but the dog escapes.
	103	Travis Gets Lucky	Diane Redmond	10/21/2003
	Travis feels as if he needs his lucky horseshoe to plow the fields. However, when he loses it, he finds that he can do his jobs without any lucky horseshoe.
	104	Scruffty On Guard****	Glenn Dakin	10/22/2003
	Farmer Pickles has a new family of pigs delivered to his farm, so Bob must build a new home for them.

Characters

• Bob
• Wendy
• Scoop
• Muck
• Dizzy
• Roley
• Lofty
• Pilchard
• Bird
• Travis
• Spud
• Farmer Pickles
• Scruffty
• Mrs. Potts
• Mrs. Broadbent
• Mrs. Percival
• Mr. Bentley
• Mr. Dixon
• Mr. Beasley
• Mr. Ellis
• Mr. Fothergill
• Hamish
• Squawk
• Angelo Sabatini
• Mrs. Barbara Bentley
• J.J.
• Molly
• Skip
• Trix
• Lennie Lazenby (does not speak)
• Jenny (cameo)
• Bunty Ferguson (mentioned)

Characters Introduced

• Tony
• Mr. Steven
• Pam Goody
• Katy
• Freada and Bertie
• Timmikins
• Humpty/His Family

Trivia

• Despite premiering in 2003, nine episodes were produced in 2002 according to the UK credits.
• This series premiered in Australia before premiering in the UK.
• This series premiered on PBS Kids in the US alongside the seventh and ninth series in early 2005.
• The episodes that were never released onto home media in the UK were:
  • Episode 1 - Bob the Photographer
  • Episode 3 - Wendy's Big Night Out
  • Episode 9 - Mr. Bentley: Dog Sitter
  • Episode 11 - First Aid Molly
  • Episode 12 - Travis Gets Lucky
  • Episode 13 - Scruffty On Guard.
• This series marks the first appearances of Tony the Hairdresser, Mr. Steven, Pam Goody, Katy, Freada and Bertie, Timmikins and Humpty/His Family.
• This is the first series to not have any US altered episode titles.
• The US dub of this series was produced in 2003 as two episodes (Mr. Bentley's Trains and Racing Muck) were released on home video or copyrighted that year, but wasn't aired on Television until early 2005 when the series moved to PBS. Most episodes were released on home video in 2004 before premiering on PBS in early 2005. It is currently unknown why this series didn't premier in late 2003 or 2004 for the US.
• The first nine episodes were most likely filmed during the second half of 2002 while the last four were filmed in early 2003.
• Spud and the Doves along with First Aid Molly are the only episodes from this series which never made it onto DVD in the US but were later given digital release in 2013.

Source

• https://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/archive/index.jsp?pgmid=13391&date=20050101