Bill and Ben, the flowerpot men, made their television debut on Watch with mother in 1952. They were humanoid figures made from flowerpots. Their manner of speech, liberally sprinkled with 'flibadobs' and 'flobadobs', bordered the far limits of intelligibility and pre-dates Tellytubby dialect by nearly 50 years. Bill and Ben spent most of their time hiding in two very big flower pots on either side of their friend Little Weed, whose conversation was pretty much limited to variations of 'We-e-ee-ed!'. They could only come out in safety when they knew that the Gardener was at dinner. Lord knows what the Gardener would have done if he had ever caught them! It was never really explained; but everyone knew it would be horrible!

When 'the man who worked in the garden' went for his dinner, the fun began. Little Weed announced the all-clear: 'We-ee-e-eed'; and Bill and Ben would cautiously peer over the tops of their big flowerpots. "flibadob"..."flobadob"...and we were off on another 15 minute adventure.

The stories usually involved Bill and Ben discovering some new and unimagined artefact left behind by the gardener, usually not a jug of Paraquat. The climax was most often near the end, when Bill or Ben would get stuck in whatever they had found; or, at least, discover that they were unable to put what they had been playing with back exactly as they had found it. Which was vital, if they were to remain undiscovered. As Bill and Ben wrestled with their dilemma, Little Weed would begin screeching warnings of the return of 'the man who works in the garden, 'Wee-ee-ee-e-ed!'.

Fortunately, in every case, they managed to put things right in the nick of time. Back in their flowerpots, they would hide until their next chance to sneak out while the gardener was away.