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Bananaman
Title card
Genre	Superhero Comedy
Created by	Steve Bright
Starring	Tim Brooke-Taylor Graeme Garden Bill Oddie Jill Shilling
Theme music composer	Dave Cooke
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	40
Production
Producer	Trevor Bond
Running time	5 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC
Release	3 October 1983 (1983-10-03) – 4 March 1986 (1986-15-04)

Bananaman is a British animated comedy series which ran from 3 October 1983 to 15 April 1986. It was based on the comic strip character Bananaman and each of the show's roughly five-minute episodes featured the voices of The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie).

Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge (rather than Eric Wimp), had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader.

"This is 29 Acacia Road. And this is Eric, the schoolboy who leads an amazing double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs. Eric is Bananaman, ever alert for the call to action!"

When Danger Mouse first aired on Nickelodeon in America, Bananaman was shown after it to round out the show to a half hour.

Cast

• Tim Brooke-Taylor as Eric
• Graeme Garden as Bananaman
• Bill Oddie as Crow
• Jill Shilling as Fiona

Written by Bernie Kay. Produced by Trevor Bond. Directed by Terry Ward.

Series guide

• Series 1: 3 October – 11 November 1983 - 12 episodes
• Series 2: 4 October – 19 December 1984 - 13 episodes
• Series 3: 7 January – 15 April 1986 - 15 episodes

"Memory Lane" episode from series 2 was not broadcast until June 1988 but was made alongside series 2.

Episodes

Series 1 (1983)

Series 2 (1984)

Series 3 (1986)

Reception

Bananaman was a popular cartoon and is one of the most well-known British superheroes. Taken from the DC Thomson comic entitled Nutty, it was made into a TV animated series of 40 five-minute episodes by Terry Ward of Flicks Films Ltd.

References

1. Rosser, Michael; Wiseman, Andreas (18 March 2014). "'Live action' Bananaman planned". Screendaily.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024.
2. Rosser, Michael. "'Live action' Bananaman planned | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
3. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-1-4766-6599-3.
4. Rowney, Jo-Anne (27 October 2017). "Bananaman is back - the Man-of-Peel returns in live action debut". The Mirror. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017.
5. Kamen, Matt (13 January 2016). "Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 13 May 2017.
6. "Bananaman - BBC One London - 3 October 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 3 October 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
7. "Bananaman - BBC One London - 11 November 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 11 November 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
8. "Bananaman: Mystery at the Old Mine". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 4 October 1984. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
9. "Bananaman: The Night Patrol". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 19 December 1984. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018.
10. "Bananaman: Operational Total". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
11. Murray, Chris (15 March 2017). The British Superhero. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0740-3. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via Google Books.

External links

• Bananaman at IMDb
• Episode guide

• 1983 British television series debuts
• 1986 British television series endings
• 1980s British children's television series
• 1980s British animated television series
• 1980s Nickelodeon original programming
• British children's animated adventure television series
• British children's animated comedy television series
• British children's animated superhero television series
• British English-language television shows
• BBC children's television shows
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
• Nickelodeon original programming
• HIT Entertainment
• BBC animated television series
• Television shows based on British comics