The Shoe People: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

The Shoe People was an animated television series which was first broadcast in the UK in April 1987 on TV-am. The Shoe People went on to be broadcast in 62 countries around the world.

It was the first series from the West to be shown in the former Soviet Union and became so popular there that they sold over 25 million Shoe People books.

In a Shoe Repairs Shop, not too far away, the Shoe Mender tries to repair all the shoes he gets, but sometimes he cannot repair them all. But he does not throw away these shoes, he puts them in the back room of the shop.

These join the other shoes and boots he could not bear to throw away and the ones where their owners never came back for them but this room has a secret. Every night when the Shoe Mender locks up the shop, he makes sure the back room door is shut. This door does not shut very easily and when he slams it shut, the strangest thing happens. A large cloud of dust from the room fills the air and when it settles, the Shoes come to life and the back wall disappears and Shoe Town appears.

Just below Toecap Hill is Shoe Town, where all the Shoes and Boots live.

Series details

• Title: The Shoe People
• Format: Animation
• Language: English
• Genres: Children
• Premiere date: 1987-04-19
• Final broadcast date listed: 1993-03-22
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ITV1
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 5 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 10671
• IMDb ID: tt0862624
• TVDB ID: 249546

Cast and credited roles

• Philip Whitchurch — Narrator

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1987-04-19; final listed air date 1987-10-11; episode order: 26.
• Season 2: premiered 1992-09-28; final listed air date 1993-03-22; episode order: 26.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Shoe People 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.