| Roland Rat | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | 1983 TV-am |
| Portrayed by | David Claridge |
| Information | |
| Species | Rat |
| Gender | Male |
Roland Rat (birthday 12 March) is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously been behind the Mooncat puppet in the Children's ITV television programme Get Up and Go! David worked for Jim Henson, then the second series of The Young Ones. He would later operate and voice "Brian the Dinosaur" for BBC's Parallel 9, create and direct 'Happy Monsters' a pre school series for Channel 5 and shoot a CGI series 'Mozart's Dog' for Paramount Comedy.
Roland lived beneath King's Cross railway station in The Ratcave . He had an infant brother called Little Reggie, and had a girlfriend: Glenis the Guinea Pig. His colleagues included dour Welsh technical whizz Errol the Hamster, and over-enthusiastic self-appointed "number one ratfan" Kevin the Gerbil, who supposedly came from Leeds and loved pink buckets. Claridge actually voiced all three main characters: Roland Rat, Errol the Hamster and Kevin The Gerbil; and they often appeared on screen together. Roland Rat's car 'the Ratmobile' is a bright pink 1953 Ford Anglia.
Roland Rat was introduced to ailing breakfast television network TV-am by Anne Wood in 1983 and was generally regarded as its saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". After a couple of months on TV-am, Roland took the audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million. One notable highlight during this period was the visit of the late Austrian racing driver Roland Ratzenberger who appeared on the show in a motor race against the Ratmobile ending with Ratzenberger's car[1] being sabotaged by his near-namesake. Between 1983 and 1985, Roland had three UK chart hit singles including "Rat Rapping" and an album The Cassette Of The Album.[2] An LP version of the recording, The Album Of The Cassette was released concurrently. The cassette recording claimed to be the LP recording, and vice versa. Each of the main characters contributed a song: Kevin the Gerbil's were My Rowland and Pink Bucket Reggae, Reggie's song was It's great here, innit, and Errol the Hamster contributed Leeks Are Wonderful, Leeks Are Nice. A follow-up LP, Living Legend was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. Kevin the Gerbil also had a top 50 single.
Arguably Roland Rat's golden age was his Christmas show Roland's Countdown to Christmas in 1984. TV-AM sold Roland Rat advent calendars, with Roland opening each door with the viewers at 7.20am every day. The final show had Roland and his chums in the snow. The following year at Easter, Roland Rat hosted the show Roland Rat in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
In 1985 he transferred to the BBC where he had a number of shows through the late 1980s, most notably Roland Rat the Series, a chat show set in Roland's sewer home, now converted into a high-tech media centre the Ratcave. In a similar manner to The Muppet Show and its sequels, the show would intersperse the chat show segments with a storyline involving some sort of situation "behind the scenes". These series also featured Roland's parents, Iris and Freddie, his pet flea Colin, and his agent D'Arcy De Farcy. His girlfriend Glennis was replaced at this time with a flashier character called Roxanne Rat. He also appeared in two spoof drama series, Tales of the Rodent Sherlock Holmes, in which he played Holmes with Kevin as Dr Watson, and Ratman, a Batman spoof with Kevin as his sidekick, "Pink Bucket Man". During Christmas 1985, British Telecom operated a free "ratphone" number on 0800 800 800.
In the late 1990s he reemerged on Channel 5, in LA Rat, which featured Roland and his friends touring Los Angeles.[3] Roland made another brief return in early 2003 as a guest presenter of CiTV.[4]
Roland appeared on Big Brother UK 2004 in a task that involved the housemates playing a version of 20 Questions in order to guess the identity of various celebrities. While the celebrities could only answer questions with 'Yes' or 'No', housemate Stuart did not recognize Roland even after his identity was revealed.
In December 2007 Roland Rat appeared on a puppet special of the Weakest Link hosted by Anne Robinson which was originally broadcast on Friday 28 December 2007 at 18:00GMT on BBC One. Roland reached the final round with Soo from The Sooty Show which went to sudden death after initially drawing with four points each. Roland ultimately lost out to Soo's superior wisdom in the tense final standoff.
Roland appeared in the third episode of the second series of Ashes to Ashes. This appearance was anachronistic, as the show is set in 1982 whereas Roland didn't debut until the following year.
In 2008, Roland released a Christmas single, "Ding Dong Ding Dong (Christmas Down The Drain)" featuring Kevin, Errol and Reggie, available for download.
On the 11th of February 2010, whilst making an appearance on BBC's 'The One Show' to answer a question about how children's programmes have changed over the years, Roland Rat spent so much time joking about the presenters (Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley) that Adrian ended the interview before he answered the question.
He has also offered to save struggling ITV breakfast show Daybreak by stepping in and repeating the astonishing turnaround he achieved in the 1980s for TV-am.
In 1985 Ocean Software produced a game called Roland's Rat Race for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The player had to guide Roland through the sewers of London and collect nine pieces of a door which, when complete, would allow him to rescue his companions in time for an appearance on TV-am. Roland had to avoid enemies in the form of animated wellington boots which could be temporarily incapacitated with a squirt of glue, which could also be used to stop tube trains in order to ride on them.
The Roland Rat soft toy was very popular with children in the 1980s. He also appeared on mugs, and a range of children's glasses made by Dolland and Aitchison, amongst other things.
In November 2010, Asda's George Clothing "teamed-up" with Roland to launch a new range of rat-themed clothing, including a pair of "superstar lounge pants".[5]
| VHS title | Release date | Video special |
|---|---|---|
| Roland Rat Superstar and Friends: Rat on the Road | 1984 | Roland, Kevin, and Errol read Roland's dairy about how he and Kevin travel around Great Britain for six weeks to Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Oxford, New Castle and York. |
| Roland Rat Superstar and Friends in Winter Wonderland | 1984 | Roland and his friends travel to Winter Wonderland in their hilarious adventure |
| Roland Rat: The Series (BBCV 4165) | 1988 | Roland and his friends make TV stars on their hilarious BBC show. |
