'Rainbow's Zippy was secretly in love with his co-star George.
Rainbow's Zippy
The classic show featured cuddly puppets Zippy, George and Bungle living together and Zippy's handler Ronnie Le Drew has revealed he was infatuated with George's puppeteer Valerie Heberden, and was left upset when his feelings were not returned.
Speaking at East London venue the Wanstead Tap to promote his book, 'Zippy and Me', the Daily Mirror reports Ronnie, 73, said: "She was a spellbinding puppeteer as well as an attractive young woman. I was smitten. It broke me, broke me. Of course, I told myself a girl like Valerie would never have fancied me.
"I was the 'nice guy'. What an idiot I had been to imagine otherwise. She realised I had a thing for her but her warmth cut through the embarrassment. We could remain friends, and that meant a lot to me."
"She was so well liked the cast nicknamed her The Lovely Valerie. She went on maternity leave because sitting scrunched up under the table trying to operate a pink hippo was not compatible with the advanced stages of pregnancy."
And Ronnie was left devastated when Valerie died shortly after leaving 'Rainbow' to have her second child.
He said: "She had always been our rock. I knew working on the show would never be the same."
In his new book, Ronnie also reveals the racy secrets behind the children's TV show, admitting that when the cameras stopped rolling, the puppets enjoyed some saucy shenanigans which would have horrified their viewers.
He writes: "Several times during rehearsals Zippy smuggled a large carrot under the covers that poked up at opportune moments, and he also became very prone to masturbating.
"George would be reprimanded by Bungle for wetting the bed or leaving skid marks on the sheets, and when Geoffrey spoke straight to the camera, George and Zippy would often start humping in the background.
"George and Zippy occasionally got up to the sort of thing adults do in bed. It was our way of entertaining the cameramen when we had a particularly light show. There were many times I caught myself watching Zippy and George copulating and thought to myself, 'Oh, they are naughty', before remembering that I was to blame."
'Rainbow' launched in 1972 and ran for 27 series before being cancelled in the 90s.