Emu's TV programmes

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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]

• Series 1: 6 editions from 18 November 1975 – 23 December 1975
• Series 2: 6 editions from 12 November 1976 – 17 December 1976
• Series 3: 6 editions from 10 October 1977 – 14 November 1977
• Series 4: 8 editions from 26 October 1978 – 14 December 1978
• Series 5: 8 editions from 2 December 1979 – 27 January 1980
• Christmas Special: 24 December 1977

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:

• Emu's Blackpool Walkabout: 29 August 1977 (30 Minutes)^[4]
• Emu's Cornish Walkabout: 28 August 1978 (30 Minutes)^[5]
• Emu's Scottish Walkabout: 27 August 1979 (35 Minutes)^[6]
• Emu's Magical Music Show: 27 December 1980 (35 Minutes)^[7]
• Emu's Magical Christmas Show: 27 December 1981 (35 Minutes)^[8]
• Emu's Magical Easter Show: 12 April 1982 (35 Minutes)^[9]

• Series 1: 6 editions from 1 January 1983 – 5 February 1983^[10]

• Series 1: 6 editions from 28 January 1984 – 10 March 1984^[11]

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.

• Series 1: 6 editions from 5 January 1982 – 9 February 1982
• Series 2: 6 editions from 27 October 1982 – 1 December 1982
• Series 3: 6 editions from 2 March 1983 – 6 April 1983
• Series 4: 6 editions from 7 September 1983 – 12 October 1983
• Special: Emu's World at Christmas – 21 December 1983
• Series 5: 6 editions from 9 March 1984 – 13 April 1984
• Special: Emu at Easter: 20 April 1984

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

• Series 1: 7 editions from 13 July 1984 – 24 August 1984
• Emu at Christmas – 25 December 1984
• Series 2: 13 editions from 12 April 1985 – 5 July 1985

Emu's Pink Windmill Show

• Series 1: 10 editions from 14 February 1986 – 25 April 1986
• Emu at Easter – 29 March 1986 (repeat of 1984 special)
• Emu at Christmas – 26 December 1986 (repeat of 1984 special)

Emu's Wide World

• Series 1: 9 editions from 3 April 1987 – 5 June 1987
• Series 2: 8 editions from 3 November 1987 – 5 January 1988

Emu's World

• Series 6: 13 editions from 12 May 1988 – 4 August 1988

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.

• Series 1: 24 editions: 1988^[14]

• Series 1: 22 editions from 15 March 1989 – 20 September 1989
• Ep1 - Ep13: 15 March 1989 to 7th June 1989
• Ep14 - Ep22: 26 July 1989 to 20 September 1989

Rod N Emu was an animated version of the live action series made by Filmfair, and was the last project to feature Hull, Emu and Scott together.^[15]

Son of Rod hull, Toby Hull created a version of the Emu series in 2007 for the CITV Channel with a 26-part series.^[16][17][18] with a second 26-part series being created in 2009.^[19]

The first episode of Emu's new series, simply called Emu, was broadcast on 8 October 2007.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.

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,^[22] 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.^[23]

• Emu's Broadcasting Company (Ebc1) (TV series)
• Emu's World (TV series)