Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

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, modelled on the Australian flightless

emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

bird and operated by the performer

Rod Hull Rodney Stephen Hull (13 August 1935 – 17 March 1999) was a British comedian and popular entertainer on television in the 1970s and 1980s. He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute and highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian ...

. After appearing on a number of variety shows, he was given his own television series on 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 ...

, then on ITV.

BBC

''Emu's Broadcasting Company''

''Emu's Broadcasting Company'' (1975–1980) is a children's television series featuring

and

running their own television station, EBC1, which parodied many

series of the time. Supporting Rod Hull and his emu puppet were Billy Dainty who played a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

pastiche called Captain Perceval and Barbara New who played the tea lady with Tom Chatto making occasional appearances as an in-vision continuity announcer. All five series of ''Emu's Broadcasting Company'' were produced by

BBC Manchester BBC Manchester (often known as BBC Salford) is the BBC's regional headquarters for the north west of England, the largest BBC region in the UK. BBC Manchester is a department of the BBC North Group division. The BBC considers the Manchester de ...

from the then-newly built New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in

Manchester city centre Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...

. The producer was Peter Ridsdale Scott and the director was Hazel Lewthwaite, followed in later series by Mike Stephens. Initially shown in a weekday afternoon timeslot, later series were given a repeat run on Saturday evenings before the fifth and final run moved to a Sunday teatime slot.

Transmissions

Source: *Series 1: 6 editions from 18 November 1975 – 23 December 1975 *Series 2: 6 editions from 12 November 1976 – 17 December 1976 *Series 3: 6 editions from 10 October 1977 – 14 November 1977 *Series 4: 8 editions from 26 October 1978 – 14 December 1978 *Series 5: 8 editions from 2 December 1979 – 27 January 1980 *Christmas Special: 24 December 1977

BBC Specials

Rod and Emu became staples of early-evening variety entertainment on or around Bank Holidays, and the following one-off specials were made for the BBC: *''Emu's Blackpool Walkabout'': 29 August 1977 (30 Minutes) *''Emu's Cornish Walkabout'': 28 August 1978 (30 Minutes) *''Emu's Scottish Walkabout'': 27 August 1979 (35 Minutes) *''Emu's Magical Music Show'': 27 December 1980 (35 Minutes) *''Emu's Magical Christmas Show'': 27 December 1981 (35 Minutes) *''Emu's Magical Easter Show'': 12 April 1982 (35 Minutes)

''Rod and Emu's Saturday Specials'' (BBC)

*Series 1: 6 editions from 1 January 1983 – 5 February 1983

''The Rod & Emu Show'' (BBC)

*Series 1: 6 editions from 28 January 1984 – 10 March 1984

ITV

''Emu's World''

In 1981, Rod Hull was offered the opportunity to make a series for younger children by the newly-awarded ITV franchise

Central Independent Television ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the ITV (TV network), Independent Television franchisee in Midlands, the English Midlands ...

. This led to the birth of the Pink Windmill in which Rod and Emu lived, the green

witch Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

named Grotbags (played by the singer and comedienne Carol Lee Scott), and her hopeless assistant Croc. The premise of the show was simple: each week Grotbags attempted to steal Emu so that, once captured, (in Grotbags's own words) she would be able to use its "special powers" to control all the "brats" in the world. Children from the

Corona Theatre School Corona Theatre School (formerly Corona Academy) was founded in 1950 as a performing arts academy in west London. After the retirement of its owner, Rona Knight, it reopened as Ravenscourt Theatre School in 1989. History Corona Academy Rona ...

—referred to collectively as the Pink Windmill Kids—were on hand to offer protection and break into one or two song and dance routines per episode. The show featured Rod Hull's chanted catchphrase "There's somebody at the door, oh, there's somebody at the door" every time a visitor rang the doorbell of the Pink Windmill—which 'sneezed' loudly when pressed.

Transmission

*Series 1: 6 editions from 5 January 1982 – 9 February 1982 *Series 2: 6 editions from 27 October 1982 – 1 December 1982 *Series 3: 6 editions from 2 March 1983 – 6 April 1983 *Series 4: 6 editions from 7 September 1983 – 12 October 1983 *Special: Emu's World at Christmas – 21 December 1983 *Series 5: 6 editions from 9 March 1984 – 13 April 1984 *Special: Emu at Easter: 20 April 1984

''Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show''

The success of ''Emu's World'' led to the series being expanded in mid-1984 from 20-minute to 42-minute episodes and re-branded as the ''Pink Windmill Show''. The target age range was broadened, and the programme now featured viewer phone calls, a studio audience, games such as one in Grotbags's grotto based on the format of the "take the money or open the box" segment of '' Take Your Pick!'', the Post Office (for viewers to send their letters and pictures), and Boggle's Kingdom—a mini-series featuring Rod's ancestor who is trapped in Tudor times. A subsequent addition was the Twin Schools section, which aimed to pair British schools with similar ones in Australia, Canada, or the US. The singing and dancing of the Pink Windmill Kids was retained, extra character Robot Redford introduced, and the show in this format achieved enormous popularity (evidenced by being broadcast in the coveted Children's ITV slot of last thing on a Friday). Three series were broadcast live from 1984 to 1986 (despite the third run dropping "All Live" from the title), and in 1987 two series of ''Emu's Wide World'' were made. These followed a similar formula to the Pink Windmill Shows, but were pre-recorded, resulting in the phone-based Spin Quiz being replaced by Emu's Bargain Basement—an obstacle course in a supermarket. A final series of ''Emu's World'' aired in 1988, which retained Boggle's Kingdom and introduced an outdoors obstacle course despite being cut to a 20-minute run time. All series were produced and directed by Colin Clews for

and broadcast from the now-defunct East Midlands Television Centre in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

Transmission

''Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show'' *Series 1: 7 editions from 13 July 1984 – 24 August 1984 *''Emu at Christmas'' – 25 December 1984 *Series 2: 13 editions from 12 April 1985 – 5 July 1985 ''Emu's Pink Windmill Show'' *Series 1: 10 editions from 14 February 1986 – 25 April 1986 *''Emu at Easter'' – 29 March 1986 (repeat of 1984 special) *''Emu at Christmas'' – 26 December 1986 (repeat of 1984 special) ''Emu's Wide World'' *Series 1: 9 editions from 3 April 1987 – 5 June 1987 *Series 2: 8 editions from 3 November 1987 – 5 January 1988 ''Emu's World'' *Series 6: 13 editions from 12 May 1988 – 4 August 1988

''EMU-TV''

Following the demise of ''Emu's World'', Rod Hull went to Canada and recorded a single series of EMU-TV, with the production company "Amalgamated Media Industries Inc". The Series was based heavily on his earlier Emu's Broadcasting Company series. This North American version had 24 episode each running for 29mins including ad-breads, and included song numbers recorded in the UK with the Pink Windmill Kids. However Grotbags did not feature, instead his new co-stars were Murray Langston and Carolyn Scott, while Les Foubracs made regular guest appearances, who starred with Rod in most of the segments created.

re-edited the series for a British audience which resulted in small number of Canadian sketches being replaced by additional segments featuring Grotbags. The series was reworked to 20min format over 22 episodes only.

Canadian Transmission

* Series 1: 24 editions: 1988

UK Transmission

* Series 1: 22 editions from 15 March 1989 – 20 September 1989 * Ep1 - Ep13: 15 March 1989 to 7th June 1989 * Ep14 - Ep22: 26 July 1989 to 20 September 1989

''Rod 'n' Emu''

Rod N Emu was an animated version of the live action series made by Filmfair, and was the last project to feature Hull, Emu and Scott together.

''Emu'' (2007)

Son of Rod hull, Toby Hull created a version of the Emu series in 2007 for the CITV Channel with a 26-part series. with a second 26-part series being created in 2009. The first episode of Emu's new series, simply called ''Emu'', was broadcast on 8 October 2007. The first series was filmed in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

with shots at Queens Street Flats. The main characters are four-year-old Emu, (who turns five in the second series), and his owner, Toby (Toby Hull), a computer games designer. Toby has to keep Emu a secret from Ken Cole, a grumpy security guard. Toby's neighbours, who are children, seven-and-a-half-year old Charlie and eight-and-a-half-year-old Dani, help him to keep Emu a secret. Toby's other neighbour, Sophie, is the villainess of the show: an air hostess who becomes obsessed with making money off of Emu, but her plans always backfire on her. At the end of the first series, Emu and Toby moved back to Australia. In June 2009, it was announced that a second series of the show with 26 episodes was produced by the Gibson Group a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

film and broadcast company. Most of the cast was done by New Zealand actors. The plot in the second series is where Toby has a job in a kids' cafe. He meets Kelly ( Bryony Skillington), the cafe manager, who is allergic to birds, especially Emu, although she still adores Emu. Cafe kids, seven-year-old Sam and eight-year-old Georgia live upstairs above the cafe. They are good friends with Emu. They all must watch out for Leo Leach ( Toby Leach), the town inspector who is strict with pest control; he will close the cafe down if an animal is found. The first episode of the second series was broadcast on 13 September 2009 on ITV at 9:45am. The second-series puppeteer was Nick Blake and the director was

Danny Mulheron Danny Mulheron is a New Zealand actor, writer, and director who has worked in theatre, television and film. Mulheron graduated from Toi Whakaari, Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1983 with a Diploma in Acting. In 2012, he directed ''Fr ...

the same director of

Paradise Café ''Paradise Café'' is a teen television series that premiered on 6 January 2009 on CBBC Channel and TV2. It was a co-production between New Zealand's Gibson Group and UK company Initial, a division of Endemol. The first series started on 6 Jan ...

by the same company. It was shown on

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 ...

with repeats until April 2014.

Cast

''The Pink Windmill Kids''

In the first series, ''The Pink Windmill Kids'' were all students of

Pattison College Pattison College is a non-selective independent school in the east of Coventry, England. Pattison College provides education for children aged 3 to 16 of all abilities. The school was established as a Christian foundation in 1949 as a school for ...

, which at the time was known as The Betty Pattison Dancing Academy. Subsequently they came from the

, known at the time as the Corona Stage School. Abbie Shilling appeared in the most episodes of all the Pink Windmill Kids, closely followed by Kelly Rossiter. A clip from the first live episode (13 July 1984), in which the Pink Windmill Kids enthusiastically introduce themselves before launching into a rendition of the

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the re ...

song "

Can't Stop the Music ''Can't Stop the Music'' is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Nancy Walker in her only directed featured film. Written by Allan Carr and Bronté Woodard, the film is a pseudo-biography of the 1970s disco group the Village Peop ...

", became an

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

in late 2016, and in early 2017 the kids in the sequence (with the exception of Spencer, who was unavailable) reunited to remake the segment in aid of

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Emu's Broadcasting Company (Ebc1) (TV series)

Emu's World (TV series)
1975 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings 1970s British children's television series 1980s British children's television series BBC children's television shows British television shows featuring puppetry BBC television comedy British English-language television shows ITV children's television shows ITV comedy Television articles with incorrect naming style Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Central Independent Television