Zippy is a fictional character on the British children's television programme Rainbow. Zippy is a light-orange ("tangerine") puppet of ambiguous species with a rugby-ball-shaped oval head, blue eyes and a zip for a mouth, hence his name. His voice was first provided by Peter Hawkins and later by Roy Skelton and Ronnie Le Drew. Violet Philpott was first to operate the character in 1972 before Le Drew took over the role in 1973. The latter still operating and providing his voice until present day.