Roger and the Rottentrolls explained

Producer:Robert Howes
Genre:Fantasy, comedy
Creator:Gordon Firth
Tim Firth
Narrated:Martin Clunes
Starring:Nick Barber
Holly Grainger
John Thomson
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English
Company:The Children's Company in association with Meridian Broadcasting (1996–1997)
Yorkshire Television (1998–2000)
Network:ITV (CITV)
Runtime:10 minutes (approx.)
Num Series:4
Num Episodes:36

Roger and the Rottentrolls (later shortened to The Rottentrolls) is a British children's comedy television series made for ITV by The Children's Company, which combined puppets with live action human actors. It was first broadcast on 13 September 1996, and ended on 25 February 2000.

Written by Tim Firth, it was based on characters created by Gordon Firth (always referred to as "his dad" in the credits) directed by Julian Kemp and executive produced by Robert Howes. The first series won the 1997 BAFTA for "Best Children's Entertainment Show",[1] beating the Ant and Dec Show.[2] Later series were nominated for awards from both BAFTA and the Royal Television Society.

History

Roger and the Rottentrolls started life as a book and audio tape, written by Tim Firth and commissioned by EMI and W H Smith and produced by Robert Howes and The Children's Company, intended as a 'spooky story' for children part of a series, of over thirty titles.

Firth's father, Gordon, who had originally invented the characters, drew the designs for all the characters from which the puppets were made. The pilot for the television series was filmed in and around old lead mines in the Yorkshire Dales, by multi award-winning documentary director/cameraman Paul Beriff, as a gesture of support for the project.

The television series was filmed at Brimham Rocks near Harrogate, Yorkshire. There were two spin off series: a half hour special for the BBC named Combat Sheep (based around Commander Harris), and a series for pre school children (ITV) called Ripley and Scuff.

Plot

The series followed the adventures of Roger Beckett (aged 10¾) in Troller's Ghyll ("where the rocks are all slightly mad") as King of the Rottentrolls. He was crowned King of the Rotten Trolls after crashing his bike in the valley. As well as ruling over the Rottentrolls, Roger teaches them about things like sport and politics, and, in return, learns a few lessons himself.

Actors and Narrator

There were three humans on screen in the series:

The Rottentrolls

The Rottentrolls are a group of strange, knee-high creatures who have been waiting for the return of their king for centuries. A thousand years ago, their ancestors were accidentally brought by a snow cloud summoned by Merlin, who was attempting to turn the valley into a ski resort for King Arthur. They found the name 'Roger Wasere' carved into a rock, and interpreted it as the name of their king. When young Roger entered the valley and shouted 'Roger was 'ere!', the current Rottentrolls crown him their king. The Rottentrolls include:

Their names are all taken from places in Yorkshire. Tim Firth said about how he named the Rottentrolls: "I put a compass in the OS map of the area, centred on Troller's Ghyll and drew a circle of about 5 cm radius. I then harvested the strangest-sounding villages and geographical features. These then seemed to suggest, bizarrely, the colours of various mad characters. Yockenthwaite would clearly be an idiot because it had a 'k' in it. Sigsworthy Crags would clearly be off his trolley, but older. Penyghent would be female... and so on. I wish every assembly of characters was that easy."

The voices of the Rottentrolls were provided, in the first series, by John Thomson, Phil Cornwell and Rebecca Front. In later series Ronni Ancona replaced Rebecca Front.

Other creatures

Episodes

There were four series of Roger and the Rottentrolls and 36 episodes.

Series 1

  1. Coronation Valley
  2. The Rubbish Monster
  3. Rottentroll of the Year
  4. The Extraordrinary Dinner Telephone
  5. King Yockenthwaite
  6. The Giant Floating Sprout
  7. The Great Rescue[3]

Series 2

  1. Dirty Tricks*
  2. The First Rottentroll Revolution*
  3. The Civil War
  4. The Great Television Franchise
  5. The Miner's Strike
  6. The Gambling Crisis
  7. The Art Gallery
  8. The Football Sponsorship Scandal
  9. The Complimentary Cafetiere[4]

Election Special

Documentary

The Rottentroll Files

Series 3

  1. The New Princess
  2. The Monsters of Rock Festival
  3. Commander Harris Loses It
  4. The Almighty Underwater Chicken
  5. Twelve Angry Trolls
  6. The Incredibly Frightening Sheet
  7. The Rottentroll Olympics
  8. The Appalling Voice Swap
  9. The Mid-Air Disaster
  10. The Time Capsule
  11. The Trendy Trainers
  12. The Stake Out
  13. Trucklecrag's Aftershave[5]

Series 4

  1. Commander Harris in Love
  2. The Four Missing Eyes
  3. The Cattle Grid World Tour
  4. The Extremely Tempting Caravan
  5. Full Metal Jimjam
  6. Sigsworthy's Final Rocket
  7. Yockenthwaite, the Amazing Puppet[6]

VHS and DVD releases

The first series of Roger and the Rottentrolls was released on VHS as 'Roger and the Rottentrolls: A Complete Set of Adventures' in 1998. The second series was released in two parts: 'Combat Without Contact' (which also featured the special episode 'The Rottentroll Files') and 'State of Emergency', both of which were released on both VHS and DVD.

All four series were released on DVD in March 2020 as part of the Kaleidoscope archive project. This DVD also includes 'The Rottentroll Files' documentary, 'Election Special' ('Dirty Tricks' and'The First Rottentroll Revolution' combined) and an interview with Tim Firth as extras.

References

  1. http://www.bafta.org/awards-database.html?year=1997 BAFTA Awards database 1997
  2. http://www.bafta.org/awards/childrens/nominations/?year=1997 Children's Nominations 1997
  3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159202/episodes?season=1 Season 1 episodes
  4. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159202/episodes?season=2 Season 2 episodes
  5. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159202/episodes?season=3 Season 3 episodes
  6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159202/episodes?season=4 Season 4 episodes

External links