Brum (TV series)

Brum
Created by Rex Garrod
Developed by Ragdoll Productions for BBC Television
Starring Brum
Narrated by Toyah Willcox
Tom Wright
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 65
Production
Executive producer(s) Tom Poole
Vic Finch
Running time 10-15 minutes
Production company(s) Ragdoll Productions
Hit Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel CBBC
CBeebies
Original run 26 September 1991 – 4 November 2002

Brum /ˈbrʌm/ was a British children's television series about the adventures of a radio controlled car of the same name. It was produced by Ragdoll Productions for HIT Entertainment and first broadcast in 1991. It was initially directed, written and produced by Anne Wood, latterly directed and written by Vic Finch, Paul Leather, Emma Lindley, Morgan Hall, Brian Simmons, Nigel P Harris and others. It was initially narrated by Toyah Willcox and later by Tom Wright. The show was first aired on Children's BBC on BBC One (later on CBeebies) and also aired in the United States on Discovery Kids as part of the Ready Set Learn kids block on the channel that lasted from 1996 to 2010. The show has also aired on ABC, ABC1 and ABC2 in Australia.

The series

Brum has been written by a range of writers over the years. Anne Wood primarily wrote all the first series, whilst the second series was written by Tom Poole, Dirk Campbell, Andrew Davenport and Morgan Hall. The last two series were written by the existing Ragdoll team which included Alan Dapre, Vic Finch, Dylan Leslie Birch and Holly Elson. There were also episodes by writers and originators on Boohbah, Steve Dorrance and Will Miller.

The title character is a half-scale replica of a late-1920s Austin 7 "Chummy" convertible. He drives by himself (in reality by radio control) and can express himself in a number of ways including opening and closing his doors and bonnet, "bobbing" his suspension, flashing and swivelling his headlamps, rotating his starting crank, extending his turn signals, and using his horn.

The actors in Brum do not speak; mime and off-screen narration help propel the story. For this reason, it has been easy to prepare episodes for airing in other countries and Brum has been broadcast in many parts of the world and in many languages, including English, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Croatian, Arabic, Norwegian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Portuguese, Thai, French, Hungarian, Catalan, Bulgarian and Japanese.

Each episode of Brum begins and ends in the same way - with Brum, sitting amongst the cars in a motor museum. When the museum owner's back is turned, he comes to life and heads out to go exploring in the "Big Town", but always returns to the museum at the end of each episode. The opening sequence and closing sequence was filmed at the Cotswold Motoring Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England. The model car used in filming is kept on display there when not in use.

Originally the programme was set in the city of Birmingham in England, hence the name; in addition to its onomatopoeic nature of a car engine revving, Brum is a common colloquial name for Birmingham and its inhabitants are known as Brummies. Later series make no mention of Birmingham, calling it the "Big Town", but Brum still continued to be filmed there and many Birmingham streets and landmarks can be seen in each episode, including Aston University.

The show's original title theme and music were composed by Kjartan Poskitt for the first two series. The incidental music for the most recent series was composed by Daniel Jones (but not that of the end credits) and is consistently scored for piano, bass guitar, drums and saxophone ensemble, although it varies stylistically from big-band swing to disco, classical, reggae, and music-hall styles. This consistency of sound gives a very convincing and appropriate sense of a small pit orchestra or circus band, and is very much part of the series.

"Brum" is no longer produced by Ragdoll Productions. Production ceased on 4 November 2002. Following Brum's redundancy from Ragdoll, the little car is now on display at the Cotswold Motoring Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England.

Brum was designed and built by Rex Garrod, and a very early prototype of Brum can be found in Rex's own series, Secret Life of Machines, dated about 1989.[1] A radio controlled toy model of Brum is also seen in the music video for "Fireflies", the worldwide number one hit by Owl City.

Credits

other cast from Brum episodes:

Characters

Episodes

Series 1 1991

Rescue 26 September 1991
Kite 3 October 1991
Scrapyard 10 October 1991
Opera 17 October 1991
Mower 24 October 1991
Seaside 31 October 1991
Little Girl Lost 7 November 1991
Wheels 14 November 1991
Stilts 21 November 1991
Removal Van 28 November 1991
Robbers 5 December 1991
Runaway Pram 12 December 1991
Safari Park 19 December 1991

Series 2 1994

Brum and the Helicopter 6 October 1994
Brum and the Crane 13 October 1994
Brum is an Ice Skating Star 20 October 1994
Brum and the Big Chase 27 October 1994
Brum and the Wedding 3 November 1994
Brum and the Big Town Race 10 November 1994
Brum Goes Shopping 17 November 1994
Brum and the Very Windy Day 24 November 1994
Brum and the Street Party 1 December 1994
Brum and the Lost Kitten 8 December 1994
Brum and the Marching Band 15 December 1994
Brum and the Flood 22 December 1994
Brum Goes House Painting 29 December 1994

Series 3 2000-01

Brum and the Airport Adventure 11 October 2000
Brum and the Naughty Dog 18 October 2000
Brum and the Pizzaria 25 October 2000
Brum and the Gymnast 1 November 2000
Brum and the King of Thieves 8 November 2000
Brum and the Skateboarding Bride 15 November 2000
Brum and the Chasing Balloons 29 November 2000
Brum and the Stolen Necklace 6 December 2000
Brum and The Pantomime Cow 20 December 2000
Brum and the Runaway Train 27 December 2000
Brum and The Birthday Cake 3 January 2001
Brum and the Mobile Phone 24 January 2001
Brum and the Bushes 7 February 2001
Brum and the Posh Dog 14 February 2001
Brum and The Runaway Statue 21 February 2001
Brum and the Music Box 28 February 2001
Brum and the Snow Thieves 7 March 2001

Series 4 2001

Brum and the Kitten Rescue 14 March 2001
Brum and The Splash And Grab 21 March 2001
Brum and the Golden Loo 28 March 2001
Brum and The Golf Buggy 11 April 2001
Brum and The Soccer Hero 2 May 2001
Brum and the Rampant Robot 9 May 2001
Brum and the Shop Window Dummy 23 May 2001
Brum and the Bowling Alley 30 May 2001
Brum and The Basketball Star 6 June 2001
Brum and The Gorilla Caper 13 June 2001
Brum and The Runaway Sofa 20 June 2001
Brum and The Kidnapped Garden Gnome 27 June 2001
Brum and the Runaway Ball 11 July 2001

Series 5 2002

Brum and The Stunt Bike Rescue 2 September 2002
Brum and The Stopwatch Botch 9 September 2002
Brum and the Cream Balloon 16 September 2002
Brum and the Pickpocket 23 September 2002
Brum and The Daring Gnome Rescue 30 September 2002
Brum and The Mischievous Mouse 7 October 2002
Brum and the Bank Robbers 14 October 2002
Brum and The Runaway Rickshaw 21 October 2002
Brum and the Paint Pandemonium 28 October 2002
Brum and the Crazy Chair Chase 4 November 2002

References

  1. ↑ Hunkin, Tim; Garrod, Rex (1990). "The Secret Life of the Radio". The Secret Life of Machines. Season 2. Episode 11. 10 minutes in. Channel 4.

External links