Underground Ernie

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Underground Ernie

Underground Ernie is an animated children's television series produced by Joella productions and broadcast in the UK on BBC2 and the CBeebies channel. It is set on a fictional version of London Underground and focuses on the everyday adventures of Ernie, a friendly Underground supervisor, the trains under his supervision and the other colourful characters seen on and around the rails.

The show is aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old. The initial series has 26 episodes each lasting 12-minutes. Its first showing on was on Monday 5th June 2006.

1 Premiere
2 Design
3 Characters
4 Storylines
5 Merchandising
6 Trivia
7 External links

[edit] Premiere

In its premiere run, Underground Ernie was broadcast twice a day five days a week - firstly on BBC2 at 9 a.m. and then repeated on CBeebies at 4.30 p.m..

In the first episode, Pop Decoy, pop superstar "Sam 7" is performing at the theatre and Jubilee has to get him there without hundreds of fans finding out. Alas, the excitable Jubilee can't keep a secret and he and Ernie have to come up with a plan to get Sam 7 safely to the theatre.

[edit] Design

All the visuals for the show are produced using CGI computer graphics and that largely explains the high cost of the production ($7 million/£4 million) [1] . Some critics have pointed out the similarities between Underground Ernie and Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends - talking trains, etc. Whilst acknowledging a similarity, the producers make it clear that this is very different and for the 21st century. Despite being tube trains, they often seem to travel around open countryside.

The overall design is inspired by the real London Underground, and Transport for London has allowed the series to use design elements directly taken from the Underground.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Human characters

The eponymous Underground Ernie is a supervisor, and is voiced by ex-footballer and television sports presenter Gary Lineker [2].
Millie is a computer expert working on the network.
Mr. Rails is the maintenance man.
The Underground Entertainer is the busker in Pop Decoy and is based on Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff.

[edit] Trains

The majority of the characters are trains most of which take their names from lines of the London Underground network, though in Underground Ernie's world it is called "International Underground".

Hammersmith is twin brother to City, a fast and furious train who is a general knowledge "whizz". He wears blue spectacles.
City is Hammersmith's twin brother and is also fast and furious but is an expert in mathematics and finances (presumably a reference to the City, where many of London's financial institutions are based. He wears pink spectacles.
Victoria is the oldest train and is like a mother to the other trains. She wears a crown to suggest the link between herself and Queen Victoria but visually appears more like a caricature of the present Queen, Elizabeth II.
Circle is a "hippy chick" - always helpful and rarely loses her cool.
Jubilee is the youngest train and is into computers, music, internet, emails, games and all the latest gadgets and technology. He can be mischievous but is still well-liked.
Bakerloo is an eccentric and is dressed like Sherlock Holmes (the Bakerloo line used to end at Baker Street, where the fictional detective lived at number 221b).

[edit] International Trains

There are also five international trains which Millie visits when she goes abroad every weekend. She always bring back exciting stories for Ernie, as well as a souvenir:

Brooklyn, from New York, is decked out in the American Stars and Stripes.
Sydney, from Australia, always wants to go to the beach.
Jerusalem, from Israel, always wants more and more money.
Moscow is from Russia.
Paris is from France and smells of garlic.
Osaka is from Japan, and has a super-speed booster. He is decked out in a Rising Sun decorated bandana.

[edit] Storylines

In each episode Ernie faces a problem which he needs to fix with the help of the trains. This will typically involve one of the locations on International Underground or visitors coming via the Underground - often both.

[edit] Merchandising

In November 2005, Halsall International Ltd. announced that they had secured the rights to produce merchandising linked to Underground Ernie [3]. They hope to have products on sale by the autumn of 2006 with a comprehensive range available in 2007. The use of London Underground names and trains is a deliberate step to lead into merchandising suitable for children's gifts the revenue from which will be shared with Transport for London.

[edit] Trivia

The theme song includes the words, "The importance of being Ernie". This is a reference to Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest. Ernie is short for Ernest.
Although Victoria is presented as the oldest character in the series, the real life Victoria line is actually one of the newest lines - only the Jubilee line is newer.