IN TELETUBBYLAND, not every dream comes true. Anne Wood, the creator of its four squeaky inhabitants, has been unable to sell Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po for £25 million each.

The Times has learnt that discussions to sell Ragdoll, the company that owns the Teletubbies characters, foundered because potential buyers have not been willing to offer the £100 million that the former teacher was demanding.

Ragdoll has held talks with HIT Entertainment, owner of Bob the Builder, and Entertainment Rights, which owns Basil Brush. Neither could justify paying that amount for a business whose last reported profits were £598,000 in the year to March 2004.

A source close to a rival said: “There’s no way anybody could justify paying £100 million, or even £50 million.” A sale at that price would have made £70 million for Mrs Wood, 67, but the discussions are no longer active.

Mark Hollingsworth, Ragdoll’s commercial director, said that the Teletubbies company “isn’t for sale” and that the company was “working on major projects”. Ragdoll is now focusing on two new BBC series, In the Night Garden, for pre-school children, and Tronji, aimed at six to eight-year-olds. Both will be shown in 2007.

The Teletubbies were created in 1997 by Mrs Wood in conjunction with the scriptwriter Andy Davenport. The programme was sold to the BBC, but Ragdoll, Mrs Wood’s company, kept the US rights and a half-share in the merchandising revenue, earning her an estimated £50 million.

No new Teletubbies programmes have been made in the past five years and, while the show is aired periodically, sales of merchandising have slowed. In the year to March 31, 2000, pre-tax income was £10.3 million; by 2002 it had tumbled to £130,000.

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