Sooty puppet's name. He would later be joined by other puppet glove characters, including Sweep (a dog who communicates by a saxophone reed type squeak), Soo (a shy and sweetly spoken panda), Kipper (a cat), Butch (another dog who occasionally plays the part of a villain), Ramsbottom (a snake), 'Enry the Robot, Cousin Scampi (another bear, who is Sooty's cousin), Miki (another cat - this time Brazilian) and Maggie Mouse. Like Sooty, Scampi appears to talk only in a very light whisper which can be heard only when someone puts their ear close to his mouth. Matthew Corbett, the son of
Sooty was bought by rival company Hit Entertainment, giving them the rights to Sooty. The property suffered from cutbacks under Hit Entertainment's ownership, with many of the puppeteers and Soo's voice actor Brenda Longman leaving. Sooty was cancelled in 2004 due to this, making 2005 the first year where no new Sooty series was shown. In October 2007, Hit Entertainment put the rights to Sooty up for sale and in June 2008 it was announced that Richard Cadell had bought the rights. Plans for three new TV shows were under way, plus a reworking of one of Matthew Corbett's stage shows.