Fireman Sam: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Fireman Sam is an animated comedy children's television series about a fireman called Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other townspeople in the fictional Welsh rural town of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and Tonypandy, which are situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) apart in the South Wales valleys). The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from Kent, who took their idea to artist and writer Rob Lee who developed the concept, and the show was later commissioned by S4C.

Fireman Sam first appeared in Welsh on S4C as Sam Tân in 1987, and later that year in English on BBC1. The original series finished in 1994, and a new series that expanded the character cast commenced in 2005. The series was also shown in Gaelic in Scotland, where it was known as Sam Smalaidh. The series was sold to over 40 countries and has been used across the United Kingdom to promote fire safety.

Series details

• Title: Fireman Sam
• Format: Animation
• Language: English
• Genres: Comedy, Children
• Premiere date: 1987-11-17
• Status in TVmaze: Running
• Network listed by TVmaze: Cartoonito
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 10 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 5.3/10
• TVMaze ID: 8207
• IMDb ID: tt0329829
• TVDB ID: 73517

Cast and credited roles

• David Carling — Charlie Jones
• John Alderton — Fireman Sam
• Su Douglas — Dilys Price

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1987-11-17; final listed air date 1987-12-10; episode order: 8.
• Season 2: premiered 1988-11-01; final listed air date 1988-12-22; episode order: 8.
• Season 3: premiered 1990-10-15; final listed air date 1990-12-10; episode order: 9.
• Season 4: premiered 1994-10-25; final listed air date 1994-11-17; episode order: 8.
• Season 5: premiered 2003-03-31; final listed air date 2003-05-05; episode order: 26.
• Season 6: premiered 2008-02-11; final listed air date 2008-03-17; episode order: 26.
• Season 7: premiered 2008-11-11; final listed air date 2008-12-16; episode order: 26.
• Season 8: premiered 2012-03-03; final listed air date 2012-11-10; episode order: 26.
• Season 9: premiered 2014-04-05; final listed air date 2014-09-20; episode order: 25.
• Season 10: premiered 2016-08-20; final listed air date 2016-09-13; episode order: 25.
• Season 11: premiered 2017-11-18; final listed air date 2018-05-09; episode order: 13.
• Season 12: premiered 2020-11-26; final listed air date 2020-12-08.
• Season 13: premiered 2021-10-04; final listed air date 2022-01-24.
• Season 14: premiered 2024-09-08; final listed air date 2024-09-15.
• Season 15: premiered 2023-10-30; final listed air date 2024-11-18.

Source and licence

Adapted from Fireman Sam on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.