Rory, O'Brien and Judge return from Christmas shopping. While Godmother is talking to them the mice nearly ruin her Christmas baking, but they promise to make up for it with their carol singing.

The script for this epsiode was by Carolyn Swift with music by Jim Doherty and the producer was Don Lennox.

RTÉ's best-remembered children's programme began broadcasting in 1967. Three adults travelled in a magical horse-drawn caravan with puppets Judge, the dog, Mr Crow, who lived in the cuckoo clock, and Foxy, who lived in a barrel fixed to the outside of the wagon.

Puppeteer Eugene Lambert and his family were the driving force behind "Wanderly Wagon". Eugene Lambert played O'Brien, a jovial character who loved sweets. Nora O'Mahony played Godmother who was the mother figure in the wagon. Bill Golding played Rory who was the swashbuckling handsome hero who had a wonderful singing voice. All of the Lambert children also worked on the show.

It was originally intended that the wagon would travel around Ireland, to feature in outside broadcasts from different towns and villages.

The arrival of colour television meant that the 'Wanderly Wagon' became the first programme in RTÉ to exploit the visual possibilities of chroma key.The colour separation overlay allowed the producers to make the wagon fly or travel under the sea.

'Wanderly Wagon' ran until 1982.

Copyright RTÉ. This material may not be replicated in any form or manner without the prior express permission of RTÉ. Any form of reproduction in print, television, video, multimedia, web site or other electronic media or any form of dissemination for commercial or non-commercial use must be licensed by RTÉ Archives.

If you wish to licence video or audio clips, still images or text, or would like further guidance please contact us.

RTÉ Archives are committed to respecting the copyright of others and have attempted to source and credit the copyright owners of all material used here. RTÉ would like to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified here so that the necessary corrections can be made. If you feel your copyright has not been respected please contact us.