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Chorlton and the Wheelies

MORE BENIGN surrealism from the boys at Cosgrove-Hall. Titular subjects were avuncular citizens with large heads and tri-axled bodies dwelling in a sort of Antarctic-style two-tier community and ruled over by a King and Queen. Got repeatedly terrorised by a green, huge-chinned witch (Fenella), but always retaliated with a jovial orange Northern dragon called Chorlton Cumhardy in yellow T-shirt (“Tara, little lady!”). BRIAN TRUEMAN narrated in a variety of dazzling accents ranging from Lancastrian for Chorlton and Welsh for the witch to Irish and German respectively for her telescope (Reilly) and spell-book (Claptrap Von Schpilldebeanz, if you please), who frequently took the piss out of her failiures, only to be zapped. Fenella also called upon an army of spies in the form of spiky black balls and toadstools with eyes. Other points of order: strange method of locomotion Fenella used (popping up and down at random through the surface of the Earth); sexual tension between Chorlton and Fenella; and the curious forgettableness of the Wheelies (there was one called Scooter or something, a girl one with a bow, and, er…). Still, a job very well done.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. John Connolly

    August 13, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Holds up remarkably well, and my 4 year old is hooked. Rates it as “as good as Ben 10” – high praise indeed. One of the other Wheelies – the Chamberlain – was a dead ringer for Harold Wilson (pipe, Huddersfield accent, references to the Isles of Scilly), which escaped me at the time.

  2. Lee James Turnock

    May 5, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    This demands to be shared… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgVSnwj9cns

  3. marystalin

    October 14, 2010 at 8:39 am

    Brian Trueman narrated/acted in lots of shows for Cosgrove Hall but not this one. He did write it but this was voiced by Joe Lynch. A great, great show, though.

  4. Lee James Turnock

    April 8, 2015 at 5:59 pm

    The theme tune began its life as an instrumental number called ‘Automatic Camel’, written by Joe Griffiths and performed by a band (I assume) called ‘Joshua’. Missed the charts in 1971.

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