"We're the Goodies, Yes the Goodies, oh the Goodies are coming for you - ha ha ha ha!"
Bananaman
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!
All three Goodies lent their vocal dexterity to the Bananaman cartoons. Three series, totalling 40 five-minute episodes, were made by 101 Productions and first broadcast on the BBC between 1983 and 1986. Bananaman started life as a comic strip parody of more serious superheroes like Superman, in the DC Thomson publication Nutty in February 1980. The original artist responsible for the 'look' of Bananaman was John Geering. The strip was so popular it was upgraded to a three-page colour spread before Nutty merged with The Dandy - in which the comic still appears - in 1985.
Eric - Eric Wimp in the original comic - is a knobbly-kneed schoolboy on the weedy side of ordinary. That is, until he eats a banana. This miraculous tropical fruit transforms Eric into Bananaman, a not-particularly-bright superhero who hangs around with a crow and 'swims' through the air. Wikipedia summarises Bananaman's special powers as "the muscles of 20 men, and the brains of 20 mussels". He's also capable of a convenient array of superheroish tricks, from breathing in space and underwater to generating heat from one fingertip - which generally leads to a burnt finger. Bananaman takes on a range of villians, from the interplanetary Nurks to the sinisterly whispering Doctor Gloom, all usually under the command of arch fiend General Blight.
There were a vast array of characters in Bananaman, from single-episode villians to tiny bit-parts, but the main recurring characters were: Bananaman and General Blight, voiced by Graeme; Crow, Chief O'Reilly, Doctor Gloom and the Nurks, played by Bill; Eric, Eddie the Gent, King Zorg of the Nurks and Appleman, all voiced by Tim. Jill Shilling also contributed vocal talents for various female characters. In the absence of David Hatch to do the 'boring announcer' bits, Tim also took on the narration and, in keeping with the I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again spirit, Tim alo voiced a delightful female assassin called Aunty in full Lady Constance gurgle.
Banaman also featured many instances of ISIRTA-style literal humour. For instance, a character introduced as "an underground figure" turns out to be a mole of the burrowing variety. In the same episode, a gang of thugs escaping from jail are caught in the spotlight - and recreate the Goodies' impromptu cabaret routine from Goodies in the Nick.
Bananaman fans have been well served by recent DVD releases. Each of the three series have seen a DVD release, and a big blue box set containing all three series is also available.
Compiled by Jodie VDW
