Wikipedia cites a page on the telegoons.org website (archived on The Wayback Machine), telling the story of how Paul's mother, Audrey Atterbury, became a puppeteer and worked on Andy Pandy. According to this, "A chance meeting on a train in 1950 with Freda Lingstrom, the then newly appointed head of BBC Children's Television, led Audrey to her life's calling as a puppeteer. Although we cannot know for sure, it is very possible that Freda was captivated by young Paul Atterbury, since as it turns out she and her friend Maria Bird (who also worked for the BBC) were planning a pre–school marionette puppet series about a young boy of about Paul's age, and there has been a persistent rumour that Andy Pandy was based on Audrey's son Paul."
Born on 8 April 1945, Paul Atterbury would have been four or five years old at the time in question.
The article goes on to tell how Audrey Atterbury accepted an invitation to be a puppeteer on the programme. The rest is history ... but Paul's role in it remains no more than rumour.
© Haydn Thompson 2020