Career
As a puppeteer and ventriloquist from County Sligo, Eugene Lambert was long a stalwart of the Irish vaudeville scene, particularly in Dublin, although he also toured the country frequently with his wife Mai. His most common acts were with Finnegan, a mischievous storyteller, and Judge, a pensive dog. With the rise of television in the 1960s, the Lambert puppet theatre became a fixture in Irish broadcasting. In the early 1960s, Lambert devised a puppet series for children entitled Murphy agus a Chairde ("Murphy and His Friends"). Murphy was a giant who lived in a magical kingdom. Its king, "An Rí", only had one problem - constant mischief from two witches, Feemy and Babóg. RTÉ was the only station most people in Ireland could then access and Murphy's adventures were soon an important part of most children's viewing. Murphy himself appeared as the in-vision continuity announcer all through one of RTÉ's Christmas Day broadcasts.
In November 1963, Lambert drew international attention after he successfully acquired a driver's license for his puppet Finnegan. Lambert reported that he did so simply to show how easy it was for anybody in Ireland to obtain a license.
He later co-starred in the children's television series Wanderly Wagon as the mischievous and greedy O'Brien, known for his childlike curiosity and cowardice in the face of magical events. Lambert and his family provided many regular (puppet) characters — Judge the dog, Mr Crow (who lived in a cuckoo clock), the mysterious Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake. The series also featured Irish actor Frank Kelly who played Dr Astro in the series, who later appeared as Fr. Jack Hackett in Father Ted.
Another series created by Eugene Lambert was adapted from a children's book by Patricia Lynch, Brógeen Follows The Magic Tune. Brógeen was a leprechaun who teamed up with a fiddler who had heard a piece of music created by the fairies - and they wanted it back. The series was a great success and won several awards internationally. Some years later, when Lambert enquired about the 2" master video tapes, RTÉ admitted to having re-used them. Brogeen (and most of Wanderly Wagon) was gone forever.
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