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Dec 25th, 2020: We were sad to learn of the passing of Gordon Murray, brilliant storyteller, intrepid puppeteer, TV producer, and creator of Silver Thimble miniature books. The creator of Trumpton, Camberwick Green, and Chigley, Gublins, and last but not least, A Rubovian Legend. In our last conversation with Gordon, he told us that Rubovia was his favorite and wished it had received more attention, and been given a more advantageous TV time slot. He said "how extraordinary" it was that the kingdom of Rubovia still had many ardent fans, many of whom had been able to  re-acquaint themselves with King Rufus, Queen Caroline, Pongo, Albert Weatherpsoon, Rubina ("Puss") the cat, and the Lord Chamberlain through this website, the Realm of Rubovia. Gordon Murray died 30 June 2016, aged 95. We will always miss him. We hope to long keep this website up in dear Gordon's memory, and also add new material in due course, but cannot guarantee it!

The technical reasons that prevented updates to this web for 12 years no longer exist! A recent small maintenance update repaired several bugs that appeared after it was ported to its new home. Non-working links in the acknowledgement section have been removed. Also removed: visitor counter and site search.

Added: A very preliminary draft of 'the history of the speaking tube'.

Jan 20th, 2008: Further delights added include a third Rubovia jigsaw puzzle, and a preliminary version of a new section entitled, "The True History of the Speaking Tube".

Dec 31st, 2006: A general tidy-up of the whole website. A picture of the 4th and last Gublin book cover has been added in Gordon Murray's bio section.

Nov 7th, 2006: Following a friendly email from someone who told us that they had a Rubovia puzzle that we didn't, we made the necessary arrangements and have added it to the merchandise section. This brings the total number of stop-motion jigsaw puzzles listed on the website to three, and we suspect there's another one still out there somewhere.

May 3rd, 2006: The long-promised video clips from the marionette series have been added to the Clips section. Enjoy. Please let us know if you enjoyed them. We love getting your feedback!!!

Sept 25th, 2005: We've added a lot of new material to the website. High-lights are in the merchandise section, where you'll now find the Around the Castle board game, and two Rubovia jigsaw puzzles based on the stop-motion series.

Jan 30th, 2005: Biographies added (at long last) for Peter Hawkins, Raymond Rollett, and Philip Latham, all of whom did voices for the very first series of "Rubovian Legends" in 1955. 

Jan 2nd, 2005: We are grateful to Andrew Brownfoot for the excellent photos of John Hardwick & Bob Bura that have been added in the Bio section.  In case you're wondering about the new splash page, it aims to convey the sense that Rubovia is a country worth visiting!

Nov 30th, 2004: A search engine has been added to the website to help you locate all things Rubovian.

Previous Log Entries Here

Memories of Rubovia:
What do you remember from the shows? Some snippets of dialogue, perhaps, or plot-lines, or action? Who was your favourite character, and why? Please share your memories with us. All emails will be acknowledged.

Click here to contact us via email

If you happen to have any of the following media items we would very much like to hear from you:

• Audio recordings of Rubovia taped from a television set in the '50s to '70s.

• Rubovia 8 or 16 mm movie footage filmed from a television screen in the '50s or '60s.

• 16 mm Rubovia films and magnetic film recovered from a BBC dumpster (we have learned that some Rubovia material, including the last film Gordon made, and never transmitted, suffered such an ignominious fate).

• Videotape footage of any Rubovia clips that may have been shown on BBC TV.

• Newspaper or magazine clippings.

Click here to contact us via email

Note: This website is not completely compatible with some web browsers, Firefox, for example. Firefox does not play the Rubovian background sounds. However, the most egregious Firefox problem is that it ignores formatting in various 'title=' tooltips, and also  truncates the tooltip length to an arbitrary 60 characters. Firefox also refuses to show 'alt=' tooltips when the 'title=' tooltip is absent. There are also some minor Firefox-related layout problems.

If your browser is mute, you may hear the background sounds on this page at this link:

If you've not visited the Realm of Rubovia website recently, remember to use the refresh button to make sure you get the latest version of each page.

FYI: The ornate giltwood frame around the painting of Rubovia Castle on this page is modelled on an original 17th century Italian baroque frame that recently sold at auction in the USA for $4,600. Gilt and carved wood, perforated scrolled acanthus leaves, interior 44-1/2 x 37-3/4 in., exterior 72 x 53 in., depth 4 in (inner border is missing). Frames such as this could well have graced the walls of Rubovia Castle.
 
The original 17th C Italian baroque
picture frame

This website was created by Alastair Roxburgh (webmaster and researcher), in collaboration with Janet Roxburgh (researcher, #1 Rubovia fan and web ferret). All of the unattributed text on this website is copyright ? 2003-2020 Alastair & Janet Roxburgh. Except for your own personal use, please do not reproduce any of the text or images on this website without our express permission. The links and acknowledgements page has our full copyright notice.