| Italic Title: | no |
| Genre: | Children's television |
| Creator: | Rod Hull |
| Director: | Hazel Lewthwaite (BBC) Mike Stephens (BBC) Colin Clews (ITV) |
| Producer: | Peter Ridsdale Scott (BBC) Colin Clews (ITV) |
| Presenter: | Rod Hull |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Company: | Central Independent Television, BBC Manchester |
| Channel: | BBC ITV (CITV) |
Emu is a British television puppet, modelled on the Australian flightless emu bird and operated by the performer Rod Hull.[1] After appearing on a number of variety shows, he was given his own television series on the BBC, then on ITV.[2]
Emu's Broadcasting Company (1975–1980) is a children's television series featuring Rod Hull and Emu running their own television station, EBC1, which parodied many BBC series of the time. Supporting Rod Hull and his emu puppet were Billy Dainty who played a James Bond 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 from the then-newly built New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in Manchester city centre. 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.
Source:[3]
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:
In 1981, Rod Hull was offered the opportunity to make a series for younger children by the newly-awarded ITV franchise Central Independent Television. This led to the birth of the Pink Windmill in which Rod and Emu lived, the green witch 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—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.
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 Central Independent Television and broadcast from the now-defunct East Midlands Television Centre in Nottingham.
Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show
Emu's Pink Windmill Show
Emu's Wide World
Emu's World
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".[12] 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.
Central Independent Television re-edited the series for a British audience which resulted in small number of Canadian sketches being replaced by additional segments featuring Grotbags.[13] The series was reworked to 20min format over 22 episodes only.
Rod N emu was an aminated version of the live action series made by Filmfair, and was the last project to feature Hull, Emu and Scott together.
Son of Rod hull, Toby Hull created a version of the Emu series in 2007 for the CITV Channel with a 26-part series.[15] [16] [17] with a second 26-part series being created in 2009.[18]
The first episode of Emu's new series, simply called Emu, was broadcast on 8 October 2007. The first series was filmed in Belfast 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 film and broadcast company.[19] 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 the same director of Paradise Café by the same company. It was shown on CITV with repeats until April 2014.
| Rod Hull | 1982–1989 | Himself, Emu and King Boggle (1984–1988) | 115 episodes | Emu's World Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | |
| 1982–1989 | Grotbags | 114 episodes | Emu's World Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | ||
| Freddie Stevens | 1982–1989 | Croc (1982–1984), Robot Redford (1984–1987), Grovel (1988–1989), Various other roles (1982–1989) | 115 episodes | Emu's World Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | |
| David Tate | 1984–1988 | Croc, Boggle's Kingdom Guard | 41 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 2 & 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World | |
| Glenn Munroe | 1988–1989 | Croc | 35 episodes | Emu's World Series 6, Emu TV | |
| Susan Maughan | 1983–1988 | Princess Hortensia | 69 episodes | Emu's World Series 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World | |
| Carl Wayne | 1983–1988 | Odd Job John | 69 episodes | Emu's World Series 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World | |
| Murray Langston | 1989 | Murray | 22 episodes (UK), 24 episodes (Canada) | Emu TV |
In the first series, The Pink Windmill Kids were all students of Pattison College, which at the time was known as The Betty Pattison Dancing Academy. Subsequently they came from the Corona Theatre School,[20] 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 song "Can't Stop the Music", became an Internet meme 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.[21]
| Name | Time active | Episode count | Appearances | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Pitt (also the costume actor for croc) | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 1 | |
| Donna Williams | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 1 | |
| Joe Greco | 1982–1986 | 51 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas | |
| Debbie Harper | 1982–1986 | 56 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3 | |
| Emma Whitlock | 1982–1985 | 47 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1 & 2, Emu at Christmas | |
| Hugh Harper | 1982–1984 | 33 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, Emu at Christmas | |
| Catrina Hylton | 1982–1984 | 34 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, Emu at Christmas | |
| Lorraine Plummer | 1982–1984 | 34 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, Emu at Christmas | |
| Anthony Hosier | 1982–1984 | 34 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, Emu at Christmas | |
| Sarah Jeffs | 1982–1984 | 34 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, Emu at Christmas | |
| Daniel Chamberlain | 1982–1984, 1986 | 30 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 3 | |
| Kate Power | 1982–1984 | 26 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter | |
| Emma-Louise Fox | 1982–1984 | 25 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Natalie Pennington | 1982–1984 | 25 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Aysha Mitchell | 1982–1984 | 25 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Natalie Payne | 1982–1984 | 25 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Dean Hosier | 1982–1984 | 19 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Hope Lang | 1982–1983 | 18 episodes | Emu’s World Series 2, 3, 4 | |
| Aaron Burchell | 1982–1983 | 12 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3 | |
| Adele Graham | 1982–1983 | 12 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3 | |
| Ann-Marie Dennis | 1982–1983 | 12 episodes | Emu's World Series 2, 3 | |
| Julie Wright | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Natali Williams | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Tuhin Dasgupta | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Francesca Gerrard | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Debbie-Ann Greenwell | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Tiffany Humphreys | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Sheena Webb | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Jacqueline & Tracy Foster | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| James Jeffs | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Sean | 1982 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 2 | |
| Mark Bishop | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 3 | |
| Neil Hayden | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 3 | |
| Liza Hayden | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu’s World Series 3 | |
| Stella | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 3 | |
| Joanne Price | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu’s World Series 3 | |
| Robert Tappin | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 3 | |
| Spencer Roberts | 1983–1985 | 41 episodes | Emu's World Series 3, 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Easter, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1 & 2, Emu at Christmas | |
| Sarah Stone | 1983, 1986–1989 | 68 episodes | Emu's World Series 3, 6, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 3, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | |
| Cliff Kelly | 1983–1984 | 13 episodes | Emu's World Series 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Deborah Tullick | 1983–1984 | 13 episodes | Emu's World Series 4, 5, Emu's World at Christmas | |
| Zara Kattan | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 4 | |
| Alexa Solomons | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 4 | |
| Joanna Tappin | 1983 | 6 episodes | Emu's World Series 4 | |
| Abbie Shilling | 1983–1989 | 90 episodes | Emu's World Series 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 1, 2, 3, Emu at Christmas, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | |
| Kelly Rossiter | 1983–1989 | 83 episodes | Emu's World Series 5, 6, Emu's World at Christmas, Emu at Christmas, Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 2, 3, Emu's Wide World, Emu TV | |
| Ian | 1983–1984 | 7 episodes | Emu's World Series 5, Emu’s World at Christmas | |
| Tammy Smallworth | 1985–1988 | 40 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 2 & 3, Emu's Wide World | |
| Peter Davies | 1985–1986 | 23 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 2 & 3 | |
| Alistair Smith | 1985 | 13 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show 2 | |
| Alex Brennan | 1985 | 13 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show 2 | |
| Daryl Peck | 1986–1988 | 27 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show Series 3, Emu's Wide World | |
| Helen Neil | 1986 | 10 episodes | Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show 3 | |
| Gianni Fuccio | 1987–1989 | 52 episodes | Emu's Wide World, Emu's World Series 6, Emu TV | |
| Danny Hosier | 1987–1989 | 52 episodes | Emu's Wide World, Emu's World Series 6, Emu TV | |
| Claire Stock | 1987–1988 | 30 episodes | Emu's Wide World, Emu's World Series 6 | |
| 1987–1988 | 30 episodes | Emu's Wide World, Emu's World Series 6 | ||
| Cassie Shilling | 1987–1988 | 30 episodes | Emu's Wide World, Emu's World Series 6 | |
| Tiffany Reed | 1988–1989 | 35 episodes | Emu's World Series 6, Emu TV | |
| Roy Merchant | 1988 | 13 episodes | Emu's World Series 6 | |
| 1989 | 22 episodes | Emu TV | ||
| Lisa Bennett | 1989 | 22 episodes | Emu TV | |
| Natalie Smallworth | 1989 | 22 episodes | Emu TV | |
| Rocky Samrai | 1989 | 22 episodes | Emu TV |