WHEN Julian Assange's mother agreed to our request for an interview, she set very strict parameters: "I will talk about Mr Squiggle and only Mr Squiggle."

Christine Assange is a puppeteer, and she is very worried about the decline of her artform.

Her phone has been running hot, however, with national and international media seeking comment on arguably a more pressing matter: the arrest in England of her son, the editor-in-chief of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, who has been accused of rape in Sweden.

When contacted by The Sun-Herald on the Sunshine Coast last week, Ms Assange had nothing to say - until the subject turned to Mr Squiggle, the moon-dwelling marionette with a pencil for a nose who entertained generations of Australians on ABC television for 40 years. Mr Squiggle was back in the news because his creator, Norman Hetherington, had died, aged 89, in a Sydney hospital.