Monkey (also known as The Monkey, ITV Digital Monkey or PG Tips Monkey, and often pronounced in imitation of

Johnny Vegas Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, angry comedic rants, and use of surreal humour. Ve ...

' Lancashire accent), is a

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 ...

advertising character in the form of a

knitted Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: ...

sock monkey A sock monkey is a stuffed toy made from socks fashioned in the likeness of a monkey. These stuffed animals are a mixture of folk art and kitsch in the culture of the United States, cultures of the United States and culture of Canada, Canada. Th ...

. He was first produced by The

Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...

via their UK Creature Shop, his puppeteers are

Nigel Plaskitt Nigel Plaskitt (born 27 July 1950) is an English actor, puppeteer, producer, and stage and television director. Career His voice and puppetry talents have appeared on television shows such as ''Pipkins'' (for which he provided the narration, a ...

and Susan Beattie, he was formerly voiced by comedian

Ben Miller Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English comedian, actor and author. He rose to fame as a member of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, with Alexander Armstrong. He is known for roles as Angus Jeremy Bough in the '' Johnny Eng ...

and is now currently voiced by comedian Ivo Graham. Monkey has appeared in

advertising campaigns An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an marketing strategy, integrated marketing marketing communications, communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform i ...

in the United Kingdom for both the defunct television company

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

and the

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

brand

PG Tips PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Lipton Teas and Infusions. Brand name In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name Pre-Gestee, a variant of the original name "D ...

, as well as being occasionally featured in TV Programmes, and making more obscure appearances. Monkey's first appearance was 11 July 2001, featuring in advertisements for ITV Digital. Monkey is notable as one of a small number of advertising characters to eclipse the popularity of the product they advertise and also to be reused to advertise a completely different product.

ITV Digital

A series of high-profile adverts for ITV Digital featured the laid-back, droll and composed Monkey (in a variety of T-shirts) playing the

straight man The straight man (or straight woman in the case of female characters), also known as a "comedic foil", is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically ...

to the comedian

's womaniser of a character "Al". Monkey was one of the few positive public relations successes of ITV Digital. Purchasers of ITV Digital were sent a free soft toy Monkey with their subscription, a sitcom series featuring the duo was conceptualized and was to air on ITV, but was likely never filmed, and was never aired regardless likely due to the imminent collapse of ITV Digital shortly after in 2002. For a period during the advertising campaign and after ITV Digital's bankruptcy, the original promotional Monkey toys were in high demand and short supply. One sold for £150 at the bankruptcy auction and they were selling for several hundred pounds on

eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...

, where customers could also find replica Monkey knitting patterns delivered by email selling for several pounds. Later, The Gadget Shop purchased the remaining promotional toys from ITV Digital's liquidators and sold them through their retail stores. These saw a boost in popularity after an appearance in the second series of award-winning British sitcom

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

Legal dispute

As Monkey was created and owned by advertising agency

Mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

rather than by ITV Digital itself, he was the subject of a legal dispute as both claimed the rights to the character. This prevented his use for some time, despite many organizations being keen to acquire the rights. The dispute was eventually resolved by both parties agreeing to donate the

intellectual property rights Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

for Monkey to Comic Relief. Following the resolution of the dispute, Monkey made several small appearances in other media, some media mentioned is unrelated to ITV Digital, and are mostly before his appearances in PG Tips media, such as a small cameo appearance in the 2001 airing of "The Record of the Year", and an ITV Digital related airing of the Frank Skinner Show, Monkey does not make a live appearance in the latter, but Johnny Vegas does, speaking about the recognition he gets from the ITV Digital Advertisements, whilst Frank Skinner holds up a Soft Toy of Monkey, 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 ...

used him for 2001's

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 ...

And he was due to make a guest appearance at the 2002 BRIT Awards but was later pulled out due to restrictions. In both cases Monkey appeared without Johnny Vegas. In 2003, Monkey made a small appearance in a Walker's Crisps advertisement in collaboration with Comic Relief, the BBC commissioned a variety show to be hosted by Monkey, but with no mention of Johnny Vegas as Al. A pilot of the series was filmed titled "Watch with Monkey" which featured

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. However, the pilot was never aired on TV for unknown reasons.

PG Tips

In January 2007, Monkey and Vegas reprised their

double act A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

in a new series of advertisements for

tea. The first advertisement was named "The Return" and the adverts make reference to PG Tips' popular series of adverts featuring live chimps which ran between 1956 and 2002, as well as to ITV Digital going out of business (on which low audience figures, piracy issues and an ultimately unaffordable multi-million pound deal with the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

led to the broadcaster suffering massive losses, forcing it to enter administration in March 2002), it features a troubled Monkey being dropped off at Al's home, where Monkey expresses his dismay and embarrassment towards ITV Digital's collapse to Al, stating that he abandoned Al and disappeared for that reason, the two end up reuniting and making a fresh start, now advertising PG Tips. PG launched a website selling the newly branded "PG Monkey" merchandise with profits being donated to Comic Relief, who still own the intellectual property rights. The online shop has since closed but during promotions PG Tips have given away free mini-Monkeys packaged with their tea. On May 1, 2024, PG Tips officially retired the Monkey character, stating that he was having a "well-deserved retirement". On May 7, 2025, one year after his official retirement, Monkey made his grand return to the brand where it follows his new life with his wife Alice (also known as Mrs. M), portrayed by

Emily Atack Emily Jane Atack (born 18 December 1989) is an English model, actress, comedienne, and television personality. She played the role of Charlotte Hinchcliffe on the E4 comedy series ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008–2010), and appeared in Keith Lemon ...

. The voice of Monkey in this campaign is now provided by Ivo Graham instead of Ben Miller, Johnny Vegas did not return as Al in the newest ad, but may change in the future.

Mini movie

Monkey also appeared in a short advertising film which was shown in cinemas at the beginning of selected showings of '' Horton Hears a Who'', ''

The Spiderwick Chronicles ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' is a series of children's fantasy books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the Spider ...

'', '' Hannah Montana 3D'' and '' The Game Plan''. The film was released on 21 March 2008. The film is called ''A Tale of Two Continents'' and has Monkey portraying various historical figures as he attempts to make the perfect cup of tea in the Kenya tea farms and then safely take it across the world to England for The Queen. The film was also given away on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

with special packs of PG Tips tea.

Characteristics

Early life

In ''Monkey - Hero of Our Time'', Monkey writes that his "parents owned a toy shop"; however, this was forced into closure in '1982'. He said " my parents were clearing away and throwing out what was left of the stock, my mother came across me, stuck behind a pile of empty cardboard boxes" and " e took me home and painstakingly restored me back to my former glory - cleaning me, re-stuffing me and sewing me up. Her love for me was so great that I amazingly found myself able to move and speak." Soon afterwards he claimed that his first words to her were "Put the kettle on, eh Mum? I'm parched.".

Personality and habits

Monkey is sometimes portrayed as being quite cowardly; for example his refusal to take responsibility for dropping a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

bowl dating back to 3000 BC, despite being filmed doing so. And also being accounted for "running away" from Al after ITV Digital's Collapse, He is also prone to

miser A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities, in order to hoard money or other possessions. Although the word is sometimes used loosely to characterise anyone ...

liness, having admitted that he re-uses discarded plasters he finds in

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

s.''A Tale of Two continents'' Monkey hoards both his and Al's wages, deliberately neglecting to inform the naive Al of the fact that they are in fact paid for their work, stating "I don't bother Al with details" and that his money is "safely invested in a

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s".''PG Tips ad- Monkey and Al interview'' Despite his turbulent relationship with Al, the two share the same bed. Monkey is shown to be very passionate about

, his favourite serving method being "three stirs clockwise, two stirs back, one and three quarters

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

s".''PG Tips Monkey ad#1 The Return'' He vehemently insists that

tea bag A tea bag (or teabag) is a small, porous, sealed bag or Packet (container), packet typically containing tea leaves (''Camellia sinensis'') or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steeping, steep and make an infusion. Origina ...

s should precede

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

when brewing. His exact

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

is never clarified; Monkey himself denies being a

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

(the CHimp logo on his tea-shirt puns on CH sounding like the Chinese word for

), and his response to Al's idea that he may be "half monkey-half chimp" is limited to "speak for yourself". Though he claims to be a "ladies' monkey", he is caught by Al surfing dating sites, giving exaggerated descriptions of his physical appearance.''ITV Digital Monkey ad#5 Monkey and Al go Interactive'' He is sometimes shown wearing a woman's nightcap,''ITV Digital Monkey Ad #11 - Drilling'' a

sheath dress In fashion, a sheath dress is a fitted, straight cut dress, often nipped at the waistline with no waist seam. When constructing the dress, the bodice and skirt are joined together by combining the skirt darts into one dart: this aligns the skirt ...

''PG Tips Range - PG Tips Rainforest Alliance advert'' and a

ballet tutu A tutu is a dress worn as a costume in a classical ballet performance, often with attached bodice. It may be made of tarlatan, muslin, silk, tulle, gauze, or nylon. Modern tutus have two basic types: the Romantic tutu is soft and bell-shaped, re ...

.''PG Tips Monkey advert#4- Spoons'' He gets distressed if tea is made in the wrong order, and has shown fearful reactions to the idea of him being merchandised by companies.

Monkey's Following and Merchandising

When the

first aired, Monkey was instantly famous, due to this, ITV Digital offered Monkey Plushies in packages alongside the ITV Digital Box. Said Monkey boxes contained humorous instructions on how to replicate the adverts and to watch TV with him, with quote "Watching TV will never be the same, it will feel somewhat better", Once Monkey became the mascot of PG Tips, the company offered smaller monkey replica toys compared to the ITV Digital ones, though rarer, larger sized replica toys were discovered to have been made, a smaller monkey doll with suction cups was also made for cars, PG Tips also merchandised a large mug in the shape of Monkey's Head, in similar fashion to the Gromit Mug, which also came with a monkey themed Tea Spoon.

References

External links

Official PG Tips Website"BBC show for ITV Digital monkey (November 2003)"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey (Advertising Character) ITV (TV network) Advertising characters Male characters in advertising Drink advertising characters British comedy puppets Advertising in the United Kingdom Comic Relief Primate mascots Television mascots British mascots Anthropomorphic monkeys Fictional monkeys Fictional characters introduced in 2001