1.17 The Castle Badge

The Castle Badge is every child’s dream. Exploring a maze of rooms, inside and outside of an impressively imposing building like a castle is a lot of fun. If you have ever been to a castle in the UK you will know that they’ve got it spot-on. Skye Castle accurately reflects my experience at Warwick castle with its suits of armour, never-ending staterooms and secret stairs to the battlements and high towers. As the Squirrels run around the castle there’s a little nod to Scooby Do. Something they would later expand on for series 2’s Spooky Badge.

Lord Fingal is an occasional recurring character with excellent taste in doggy decor. The Scotty dog has decorated his castle with no end of cartoon dog bones. There are bones in the coat of arms and the stained-glass windows, the hilts of the swords are bones and so are the pointy ends of the spears. It’s well thought through details like this that I appreciate most in Hey Duggee.

Badge Design

Episode Summary

Episode written by Myles McLeod.

Opening Squirrel

Happy watching his goldfish.

Start

Duggee and the Squirrels are drawing outside. Duggee, Happy and Tag are drawing mountains. Norrie is drawing trees. Betty is drawing the sun. Roly is drawing mud.

Set-Up

The mist rolls in a puts an end to the Squirrel clubs drawing. A spooky voice comes from the fog. Duggee tracks it to a mysterious castle. They try the door but they cannot get in. Luckily Duggee has his Castle Badge.

Story

Duggee rings the doorbell to get into the castle. They find themselves in a lavishly decorated entrance hall. While Duggee is admiring some artwork the mice sneak in and hide under a golden goblet. Roly hits a suit of armour which clangs. The mice sneak towards Tag and Norrie under the cup. Betty tells Roly not to touch anything and he clangs the suit of armour again which turns its head towards them. Norrie and Tag catch sight of the moving cup and they all run away past Duggee who pursues them.

The castle becomes a labyrinth with stairs to nowhere, trick doors. Duggee, the suit of armour and the Squirrels all end up in some artwork. Out on the battlements, the Squirrels jump over a pile of cannonballs. The suit of armour trips and breaks on the cannonballs revealing the mice. They bounce. The voice is heard again from the top of the tallest tower. They find Lord Fingal of Skye Castle. He was enjoying the view from the tower when those naughty mice locked him up there. The fog clears and they can see the whole world. The Squirrels all draw castles.

Bridges

• Duggee knight.

Close and Credits

Lord Fingal and Duggee do a Scottish dance.

Outfits

At the end of the episode, Duggee wears a kilt.

Find out more about all the Series 1 outfits here.

Get Your Castle Badge

If you are able the best thing to do to get your Castle Badge is to visit a real-life castle. I recommend Warwick Castle in the midlands for an authentic castle experience (in a Disney sort of way) but there are plenty that are open to the public in the UK.