In 1972 Rainbow came into our lives on ITV, their equivalent of BBC's Play School. It used the same kind of ingredients - songs, stories, films, etc. - but the style of presentation was different.

The opening title sequence was animated by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, who later became 'Cosgrove Hall Productions', who made Danger Mouse, Duckula and many more Children's TV programmes.

Geoffrey Hayes did not join Rainbow until a year later. The original presenter, David Cook, was leaving and he got the part by auditioning for it after he filmed a part in a soap (for one episode). He shared the limelight with 3 other characters:

• Bungle, the largest camp Teddy Bear in the world. John Leeson originally played him, but when Geoffrey joined, so did the man who played Bungle - Stanley Bates.
   

• Zippy was a loud mouth who could have his mouth zipped up if he got too much. He was made by John Thirtle. Originally Peter Hawkins did the voice, but was replaced by Roy Skelton.
   

• George, a pink effeminate hippo, who was shy and seemed to be too happy. He was also made by John Thirtle and Roy Skelton did the voice. George did not appear in the show until Geoffrey arrived.

They all lived in a house together which seemed to consist of one room? 

They were visited quite regularly by three friends who seemed to be like travelling minstrels (as they always seemed to be singing). Initially they were Rod, Jane and Matthew, but Matthew went into the family business to be the human side of Sooty (Matthew Corbett). But the others didn't hang around for long as he was replaced by Roger and then by Freddy.

The puppeteers who worked on the programme included Violet Philpott, Ronnie Le Drew, John Thirtle, Ian Allen, Tony Haltham and Malcolm Lord.

A series called 'Rainbow Days' was made by Tetra Films, which was based on the original Rainbow programme and lasted for 5 years. George and Zippy looked, acted and sounded different and Bungle just looked weird and really wasn't himself. They were joined by another puppet called Cleo.

After Rainbow finished, (in 1992, when Thames lost its franchise) Geoffrey Hayes became a mini cab driver, but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for him. There has been a bit of a Rainbow revival and Geoffrey has been travelling all around England taking part in the Rainbow Tour. He now owns a set of the puppets and a Bungle costume (which were stolen and returned at the start of the tour....umm?).

Not content with that, Zippy and George have now cut a record and have been travelling around with Bungle promoting it.