Roland Rat is a

British television Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transm ...

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously designed and operated

Mooncat ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, a puppet in the

Children's ITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

television programme ''Get Up and Go!''.

Character summary

Roland lives beneath King's Cross railway station in The Ratcave and also in Ratcavetwo under the Hollywood Sign in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He has an infant brother called Little Reggie and had a relationship with a guinea pig called Glenis. His colleagues include dour Welsh technical whizz Errol the Hamster and over-enthusiastic self-appointed "number one ratfan" Kevin the Gerbil, who is from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

and loves pink buckets. Roland's car 'the Ratmobile' is a bright pink 1953

Ford Anglia The Ford Anglia is a small family car that was designed and manufactured by Ford UK. It is related to the Ford Prefect and the later Ford Popular. The Anglia name was applied to various models between 1939 and 1967. In total, 1,594,486 Angli ...

. Roland had a brash and confident personality, which writer

Colin Bostock-Smith Colin Bostock-Smith (born 1942)"I was born in 1942, so I was exactly the right age for rock and roll when it all happened./ref> is a British television and radio comedy writer. Early career Until the age of 30, he was a journalist, noting in a re ...

states was established by Claridge and writer

Richard Curtis Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known for romantic comedy-drama films, including ''Four Weddings and a Funeral' ...

. Claridge provides voices for all the main characters: Roland Rat, Errol the Hamster, Kevin The Gerbil, Little Reggie, Fergie the Ferret, and Roland's father Freddy, as they often appear on screen together.

TV-am

Roland Rat was launched at TV-am by children's editor

Anne Wood Anne Wood, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 18 December 1937) is an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as ''Teletubbies'' with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of ''Tots TV'', ''Boohbah'' ...

to give children entertainment during the Easter holidays. Roland first appeared on 1 April 1983 (Good Friday) on the ailing

breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...

network

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

, and is generally regarded as its saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". After a couple of months on TV-am, Roland took the audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million. Initially, Roland was featured as the host of ''The Shedvision Show'', ostensibly broadcast from a wooden shack on the roof of TV-am's studios in Camden. On the strength of this, Roland was soon given a regular slot every morning introducing cartoons for younger viewers. Roland Rat's time at TV-am lasted until summer 1985. During this period, Roland and friends would feature in a half-hour episode transmitted on school holiday weekdays on TV-am from 9:00 am. The school summer holidays of 1983 and 1984 saw ''Rat on the Road'' in which Roland and Kevin would spend each week in a different town of the United Kingdom. One notable highlight during this period was the visit of Austrian racing driver

Roland Ratzenberger Roland Walter Ratzenberger (; 4 July 1960 – 30 April 1994) was an Austrian racing driver, who competed in Formula One at three Grands Prix in . Born and raised in Salzburg, Ratzenberger began his racing career as a protégé of Walter Lechn ...

who appeared on the show in a motor race against the Ratmobile ending with Ratzenberger's car being sabotaged by his near-namesake. The character of Errol the Hamster was gradually drafted in during the first year as a VT technician responsible for running the cartoons inserted into the show. Errol eventually joined Roland and Kevin on location at Christmas in 1983 for ''Roland's Winter Wonderland'' which saw Roland, Kevin and Errol enjoying a

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

holiday together in Switzerland. The following year at Easter, Roland Rat hosted the show ''Roland Goes East'' set in

Kowloon Kowloon () is one of the areas of Hong Kong, three areas of Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. It is an urban area comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It has a population of 2,019,533 and a populat ...

, Hong Kong, and covering the ill-fated film shoot of Roland's attempted movie debut, a martial arts film entitled ''Enter the Rodent''. The half-term week of October 1984 saw ''Operation FOGI'' (Free Our Glenis Immediately) which revolved around the gang's attempts – eventually successful – to liberate Glenis The Guinea Pig from her life in the pets department of

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

. Following enormous demand, the season was repeated across subsequent Sundays for the benefit of school pupils whose half term had not fallen the week of the series' transmission. Christmas 1984 saw ''Roland's Countdown to Christmas''. TV-am sold Roland Rat advent calendars, with Roland opening each door with the viewers at 7:20 am every day. The final door had Roland and his friends in the snow. Roland's final appearance on

was at the end of August 1985, when the last summer holiday slot was broadcast.Roland Rat joins Wogan at the BBC. By David Hewson, The Times Thursday, 3 Oct 1985; pg. 3

TV-am serials (selected)

* The Spectacular Shedvision Show (Easter 1983) – Set in a shed on the roof of the TV-am studios. * Cartoon Time with Roland Rat (May half term 1983) * Rat on the Road (Summer 1983) – Introduced Errol the Hamster in the final episode, although Roland had ordered him by walkie-talkie to "Run VT" whenever it was time for the cartoon to air previously. * Roland's Winter Wonderland (Christmas holidays 1983) – Filmed in Switzerland * Roland Goes East (Easter 1984) – Filmed in Hong Kong. Introduced Little Reggie * Rat on the Road II (Summer 1984) – Featured Kevin's cover of

Summer Holiday Summer holiday may refer to: * Summer vacation The term summer vacation or summer break refers to a school break in the summer between school years and the break in the school academic year. Students are off anywhere between two weeks to thre ...

and Roland's cover of Love Me Tender. * Operation FOGI (October half term 1984) – Introduced Glenis the Guinea Pig who was rescued from the pet department in Harrods as a result of Operation FOGI (Free Our Glenis Immediately). * Roland's Countdown to Christmas (December 1984) – Featured Roland and friends singing a rewritten version of " The Twelve Days of Christmas" featuring such paraphernalia associated with the show as Kevin's pink bucket, Errol's favourite leek pie and a Roland Rat Superstar cap. * Roland's Rat Race (Easter 1985) – A quiz show, featuring James Saxon as Roland's incompetent friend and conman D'Arcy De Farcey. * The OWRRAS Summer Spectacular (Summer 1985) – This stood for Official Worldwide Roland Rat Appreciation Society. Broadcast in the summer of 1985, a studio based programme like The Spectacular Shedvision Show and the half-term series Roland Live. The last TV-am Roland Rat series.

BBC

On 3 October 1985, he transferred to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, for a three-year contract, which ended up being extended to six years. Roland said, "I saved

and now I'm here to save the BBC." Roland made a number of series during his time at the

, most notably ''Roland Rat the Series'', a

chat show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (20 ...

set in Roland's sewer home, now converted into a high-tech media centre called the Ratcave. The show would intersperse the chat show segments with a storyline involving some sort of situation "behind the scenes". These series also featured Roland's parents, Iris and Freddie, his pet flea Colin, Fergie the Ferret, Eric the Eagle, and his agent D'Arcy De Farcy. His girlfriend Glenis was joined by another female character called Roxanne Rat. The series purported to be broadcast from Roland's personal channel BBC3, complete with "THREE" ident spoofing

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

's "

TWO 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and the only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many ...

" ident of the period. Roland also made two spoof drama series, ''Tales of the Rodent Sherlock Holmes'', in which he played

Holmes Holmes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Holmes (surname), a list of people and fictional characters ** Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective * Holmes (given name), a list of people * Gordon Holmes, a penname used by Louis Trac ...

with Kevin as

Dr. Watson Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). "The Adventure of Shosc ...

, and ''Ratman'', a ''

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

'' spoof with Kevin as his sidekick, "Pink Bucket Man". During Christmas 1985,

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

operated a free "ratphone" number on 0800 800 800 where fans could listen to Roland's prerecorded Christmas message. Roland would also host the children's

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

entitled ''Roland's Rat Race'', where child contestants answered general knowledge questions in a race car set.

Channel Five

In the late 1990s, he made a series for Channel 5, called ''L.A. RAT'', which featured Roland and friends living in

. In 2003, Roland was a guest presenter for ITV's children's strand

CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

Other appearances

Roland appeared on '' Big Brother'' several times, his first being 2004 in a task that involved the housemates playing a version of 20 questions in order to guess the identity of various celebrities. In December 2007, Roland Rat appeared on a puppet special of ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...

'' hosted by

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is a British journalist and television presenter, best known as the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' from 2000 to 2012, and again in 2017 for a one-off celebrity special for ''Children ...

which was originally broadcast on Friday 28 December 2007 at 18:00 GMT on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. Roland reached the final round with Soo from ''

The Sooty Show ''The Sooty Show'' is a British children's television series, created by Harry Corbett, and produced for the BBC from 1955 to 1967, and then for ITV from 1968 until 1992. The show, part of the ''Sooty'' franchise, focuses on the mischievous ad ...

'' which went to sudden death after initially drawing with four points each. Roland ultimately lost out to Soo's superior wisdom in the tense final standoff. He previously appeared on a children’s television edition of the show in 2003, where he was the fourth contestant to be voted off. Roland appeared in the fourth episode of the second series of '' Ashes to Ashes''. This appearance was anachronistic, as the show is set in 1982 whereas Roland did not debut until the following year. In 2008, Roland released a Christmas single, "Ding Dong Ding Dong (Christmas Down The Drain)" featuring Kevin, Errol and Reggie, available for download. On 11 February 2010, whilst making an appearance on BBC's ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

'' to answer a question about how children's programmes have changed over the years, Roland Rat spent so much time joking about the presenters (

Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for fo ...

and

Christine Bleakley Christine Louise Lampard (''née'' Bleakley, born 2 February 1979) is a Northern Irish television presenter. She has presented various television programmes with Adrian Chiles, such as '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–20 ...

) that Adrian ended the interview before he answered the question.

Music

Between 1983 and 1985, Roland had three UK chart singles, two reached the top 40: * Rat Rapping: 1983 Peak Position 14 * Love Me Tender: 1984 Peak Position 32 * No. 1 Rat Fan: 1985 Peak Position 72 * Roland Rat* – Living Legend was also released as a single but never charted. Roland Rat also had two albums ''The Cassette of the Album''. A cassette version of the recording, entitled ''The Album'' was released concurrently. The cassette recording claimed to be the LP recording, and vice versa; spoken word sketches at the starts and ends of the sides on both releases revealed this to have been the result of a mix-up which could not be rectified for financial reasons. Each of the main characters contributed a song: Kevin the Gerbil's were "My Roland" and "Pink Bucket Reggae", Reggie's song was "It's Great'Ere, Innit", and Errol the Hamster contributed "Live Dangerously" and "Leeks Are Wonderful, Leeks Are Nice". Kevin the Gerbil also had a top 50 single with "

'. In 1986, Roland’s second album - Living Legend - was released by BBC / Rodent Records. The album incorporated the theme tune and songs used in Roland Rat: The Series. Tracks included a song from Colin, Roland’s pet flea, Kevin’s lost love, Linda, and a ditty from D'Arcey De Farcey about being bald. Roland also did a cover version of David Bowie’s “Fame”.

Video game

In 1985,

Ocean Software Ocean Software Limited was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchest ...

produced a game called ''Roland's Rat Race'' for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

. The player had to guide Roland through the sewers of London and collect nine pieces of a door which, when complete, would allow him to rescue his companions in time for an appearance on TV-am. Roland had to avoid enemies in the form of animated

Wellington boot A Wellington boot, often shortened to welly, and also known as a gumboot, rubber boot, or rain boot, is a type of waterproof boot made of rubber. Originally a type of leather riding boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military foot we ...

s which could be temporarily incapacitated with a squirt of

glue Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advantage ...

, which could also be used to stop tube trains in order to ride on them.

Merchandise

Roland Rat merchandising was extensive and the Hasbro range of soft toys was hugely popular. Roland has appeared on hundreds of items ranging from toothbrushes to wallpaper, bedding, stationery, mugs, canned pasta, and children's glasses by Dolland and Aitchison. A range of new merchandise in 2010 included a talking Roland Rat soft toy, fancy dress outfit, online game and a "team-up" with

Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...

's George Clothing to launch a new range of rat-themed clothing, including socks, T-shirts, underwear, and "superstar lounge pants".

UK releases

Thorn EMI Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI in October 1979, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituen ...

(1984–1988) *

BBC Video 2 Entertain Video Limited, trading as BBC Studios Home Entertainment, is a British video and music publisher founded in 2004 following the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International by BBC Worldwide and the Woolworths (United Kingd ...

(1988) * Contender Entertainment Group (2003) *

Digital Classics DVD Digital Classics DVD Limited is a UK-based DVD label which releases titles in the UK and worldwide across a range of genres: music, arts, documentaries, dramas and classic British comedy. Digital Classics DVD is part of DCD Media, one of Europ ...

(2010)

References

External links

*
Fan website
{{Authority control Television characters introduced in 1983 Anthropomorphic mice and rats British comedy puppets