The look of the character was based mainly on comedian Ben Warriss, a member of the Crazy Gang. John Blundall, who sculpted the puppet, also drew inspiration from Miles Malleson, Ronald Shiner and "typical, clichéd butlers in black-and-white English comedy films". Blundall said that he "made Parker look so unlike the other puppets just to be bloody-minded, because I wanted to prove that to produce really strong characters in puppets, you need to stylise them and find two or three characteristics to combine and communicate with."