Chorlton and the Wheelies

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Chorlton and the Wheelies was a British children's animated television series that ran between 1976 and 1979.

It was created by Cosgrove Hall films for the ITV station Thames Television and named after the location of the studio, Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester (in fact, Chorlton gets his name in the series because the legend "Made in Chorlton-cum-Hardy" is found written on the inside of his egg).

[edit] Synopsis

The series takes place in "Wheelie World", which is inhabited principally by the "wheelies", a race of anthropomorphic creatures who locomote by means of wheels. They have three wheels each: two large ones at the front, and a smaller centred one at the back. The wheels are replaceable, and suitable wheels grow on vegetation found in Wheelie World.

The wheelie society is in conflict with Fenella the Kettle Witch, who lives in Wheelie World but separately from the wheelies, in an oversized kettle. She has magical capabilities, including a form of teleportation which is her main mode of transport, and enchanted assistants including a talking book (Called 'Claptrap Von Spilldebeanz') and Riley the Telescope, which advise her on magic spells. Minions include spikers (sinister looking objects like conker shells with baleful eyes, which roll everywhere) and toadies (pointed toadstools with similar eyes, which travel by bobbing through the ground as though it were water). Fenella hates happiness, and uses her powers primarily to make the wheelies unhappy. She also has a very strong Welsh accent.

The wheelies have adopted into their society a "happiness dragon", Chorlton, who appears in Wheelie World at the very beginning of the series, hatching out of an egg. Chorlton is perpetually good-natured and perpetually clueless. For example, he fails to perceive Fenella as a villain, and affectionately refers to her as a "little ol' lady". Nevertheless, his presence negates the unhappiness magic, so the wheelies treat him as a hero.

Plots are extremely simple, mainly revolve around Fenella's schemes to make the wheelies unhappy and Chorlton's accidental rectification of everything that goes wrong. Around these events, the characters' simple and exaggerated personalities are on show.

The idea of 'wheelies' came about after the difficulties of moving many different characters using stop-frame animation. Characters on wheels were easier to manipulate than those with limbs that needed fractionally moving many times for each second of filming.

The show was sold to numerous countries around the world. However it was never sold to Israel after a graphic artist mistakenly drew a Star of David instead of a Pentangle on the front of the talking spellbook, which spoke with a Germanic accent.

The characters include amongst others:

Chorlton the Happiness Dragon - where he goes happiness follows
Fenella the Kettle Witch - who does not like anyone to enjoy themselves
Zoomer - a wheelie, notable for his speed of locomotion
Jenny - a wheelie girl with ginger hair
King Otto and Queen Doris - The monarchy of Wheelieworld
The Chamberlain - the politico wheelie, who bears a striking resemblance to Harold Wilson, Prime Minister at the time
Clap-trap von Spilldabeans - A German spellbook who often speaks in rhyme and comes up with Fenella's schemes
Reilly the one eyed telescope - An Irish telescope that Fenella stole from the end of Brighton Pier
Clifford - Fenella's giant son, who is so tall the only part of him that ever is in shot is his leg
Pablo - A world famous Latin American dancing duck
Floyd - The only toady to have pink spots rather than green (first called by name in the series two episode "Toady Trouble" - possible hidden reference to the band Pink Floyd)