Metal Mickey is a fictional five-foot-tall robot, as well as the name of a spin-off television show starring the same character. The robot character was created, controlled and voiced (using a Vocoder) by Johnny Edward.
The character of Metal Mickey first appeared on British television in the ITV children's magazine show The Saturday Banana , produced by Southern Television in 1978. Humphrey Barclay saw Mickey on Jimmy Savile's Jim'll Fix It television show. Seeing the children chatting in the marketplace with the friendly robot led to the creation of the Metal Mickey television show. Within a month the pilot had been video-taped, and shortly after this the series went live with its first six episodes. 41 episodes were made in total, broadcast over three separate series between September 1980 and January 1983. The show attracted viewing figures of around 12 million at its peak. [1] Micky Dolenz, formerly of The Monkees pop group, was brought in to produce and direct the series along with Nic Phillips and David Crossman.
In 2001, the show was voted number 58 in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Kids TV Shows.
Metal Mickey | |
---|---|
Written by | Colin Bostock-Smith |
Starring | Metal Mickey |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Production | |
Producer | Michael Dolenz |
Production company | London Weekend Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 6 September 1980 – 15 January 1983 |
The television show was created under LWT's Humphrey Barclay who described Metal Mickey as a show "with the appeal of Star Wars , the Daleks and Mork and Mindy ". [2] It ran from 1980 to 1983.
The series was set in the home of an ordinary British family, whose youngest child was a science boffin, who had created Metal Mickey to help around the home. [3] The family consisted of a mother and father, three children and a grandmother. The show was made by London Weekend Television and shown on the ITV network, with the entire run of 41 episodes being written by comedy writer Colin Bostock-Smith. [4]
British comedy actress Irene Handl played the grandmother, whom Mickey affectionately called "my little fruitbat" (she in turn would call him "Fluff"). He also referred to his inventor as "Clever Clogs", his inventor's sister as "Stringbean" and their father as "Bootface". Handl was never at home with science fiction, either watching it or appearing in it. She famously told BBC presenter Noel Edmonds, when he asked her whether she cried over the death of E.T., "Why should I cry over a bleedin' Hoover attachment?"
Metal Mickey's catchphrase was "boogie, boogie", and his favourite treat were Atomic Thunderbusters (which had the appearance of lemon bonbons). At the height of the series' popularity, fizzbomb sweets were marketed in the UK under the name Metal Mickey's Atomic Thunderbusters.
The first two series of Metal Mickey have been released on DVD. The third series was due to be released in mid-2009.
Metal Mickey was credited as artist on several record releases, some of them on his own label "Mickeypops": [5]
Craig Joseph Charles is an English actor, comedian, DJ, and television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera Coronation Street (2005–2015). He presented the gladiator-style game show Robot Wars from 1998 to 2004, and narrated the comedy endurance show Takeshi's Castle. As a DJ, he appears on BBC Radio 6 Music.
George Michael Dolenz Jr. is an American musician and actor. He was the drummer and one of two primary vocalists for the pop rock band the Monkees, and a co-star of the TV series The Monkees (1966–1968). After the death of Michael Nesmith on December 10, 2021, Dolenz is the last surviving member of the band.
Sir David John White, known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He has played Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, as well as voicing several cartoon characters, including Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, the BFG in the 1989 film, and the title characters of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.
James Joseph Tarbuck is an English comedian, singer, actor, entertainer and game show host.
Andrew Paul Marshall is a British comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom 2point4 children. He was also the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although he had also previously adapted stories for Agatha Christie's Poirot, in 2002 he made a further move into writing "straight" drama, with the fantasy horror series Strange. He has also written several screenplays.
David Peter Renwick is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer. He created the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek. He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards.
Irene Handl was a British author and character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films.
Humphrey Barclay BEM is a British comedy executive and producer.
Josephine Mary Kendall was a British actress and writer. She was known for her work on the BBC radio comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which debuted in 1964, and for her role as Peggy Skilbeck on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1972 to 1973, in which she also spoke the programme's first line of dialogue in the inaugural episode.
Faith Brown is an English actress, singer, comedian and impressionist. She was a star of the ITV impressions show Who Do You Do?, and was The Voice in the TV show Trapped!.
Patricia Doreen Coombs was an English actress. She specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female, comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, film and television sitcoms and Children's ITV's Playbox and Ragdolly Anna.
For the Love of Ada is an ITV sitcom that ran between 1970 and 1971. Although not seen on British TV for over 30 years, the complete series began airing again in late 2018 on Talking Pictures TV, albeit edited with certain offensive words muted out. One of the notable points about this series was there were no opening titles or closing credits in the real sense of the word. Instead both were superimposed on the screen as the 'live' action and script played out on the screen.
Hot Metal is a British sitcom produced by London Weekend Television about the newspaper industry, that aired for two series on the ITV network in 1986 and 1988, along with a special episode for Comic Relief in 1989, that was broadcast on BBC One. Written by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall, it is very much a continuation in style from their previous sitcom Whoops Apocalypse!. It was produced by Humphrey Barclay Productions for LWT. After its original transmission, the series was repeated in 1988 on Channel 4 and in 2022 on Forces TV.
"Robot" is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies.
The Saturday Banana is a Saturday morning children's television show produced by Southern Television for ITV and presented by Goodies star Bill Oddie. Oddie also wrote and sang the theme tune. The series began on 8 July 1978, running through the summer and continuing up to December, with a Christmas Special.
John Edward Flux, professionally known as Johnny Edward, was a British musician, writer and record producer, also known as the creator of the children's television character Metal Mickey.
Lucky Feller is a British television sitcom written by Terence Frisby and produced by Humphrey Barclay. It was broadcast on ITV in 1976. The series stars David Jason and ran for one series of 13 episodes.
Maggie and Her is a British sitcom starring Julia McKenzie and Irene Handl that ran from 1978-79. Made by London Weekend Television for ITV, the series is about a divorced school teacher and her elderly neighbour (Handl).
Colin Bostock-Smith is a British television and radio comedy writer.
Mary Britten, M.D. is a British television series which originally aired on ITV in 1958. The show was made by the newly-established Southern Television, but was cancelled when the major ITV franchises lost interest in screening it.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)