Penfold

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For other uses, see Penfold (disambiguation).

Penfold in "The Odd Ball Runaround" DangerMouse was aired on Boomerang

Penfold's tarzan cry "Lord of the Bungle"

Timid hamster Penfold with a mole

Dangermouse and Penfold appearing human size in "Trip to America"

Penfold appearing rodent size fighting a bird

Penfold is a fictional character from Dangermouse, the British animated television series by Cosgrove Hall Films; he was voiced by Terry Scott and his seldom mentioned full name is Ernest Penfold, maybe a reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Penfold is an anthropomorphic hamster, and the sidekick to the main and title character Dangermouse whom he calls "Chief". He appears in every episode accompanying Dangermouse and is often captured or getting himself into other dangerous situations before needing to be rescued by Dangermouse.

The character is very timid, clumsy and often scared. His main catchphrase is "Crumbs!" and others include "Ooh-eck!", "Ooh-Fiddle!" and "Ooh-Carrots!", all said when things go wrong; Dangermouse frequently tells him "Penfold Shush!". Penfold stands just over half the height of Dangermouse, and always wears thick round glasses and a blue suit with a white shirt and a yellow and black stripy tie.

Although he is a hamster some people believe Penfold is a mole, possibly due to his dark brown colour and the fact he wears thick glasses, as moles have bad eye sight. In the season 3 episode called "The Odd Ball Runaround", the voice-over refers to Penfold as a hamster, villain characters also refer to him as "the hopeless hamster" in some episodes. Penfold can also be seen meeting a mole shown in the picture below, and is illustrated differently to the mole.

Penfold lives with Dangermouse in their Headquaters inside in a pillar box on the corner of Bakers street in Mayfair, London, near the legendary home of Sherlock Holmes. This may have inspired Penfold's name as there is also a Penfold pillarbox design created by John Penfold although the pillar box in the show however was round and not hexagonal like the Penfolds style. He once won third place in a Penfold look-a-like contest probably parodying Charlie Chaplin who won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest. In one episode, it is mentioned that Penfold's codename is "Jigsaw" because he often "goes to pieces".

At times Penfold and Dangermouse are shown to be rodent size such as them both living in a pillar box, and meeting other animals like birds that are giant in size compared to them. But at other times they interact with people and are human size; like the episode "Trip to America". See pictures bottom of page.

In the German synchronization, the character Penfold is named Lübke after former president Heinrich Lübke, who is remembered for his controversial utterances. The ubiquitous "shush" is translated into "Schnauze", which is clearly harsher in tone (roughly equivalent to "shut up"). The resulting quip "Lübke, Schnauze!" is therefore a double-entendre with a political subtext.