Numbertime

Numbertime
Genre Educational sketch show
Written by Christopher Lillicrap
Andrew Bernhardt
Toby Jones
Guy Hallifax
Directed by Andrea Christodoulou
Phil Chilvers
Robin Carr
Andrea Parr
Starring

Lolita Chakrabarti (Series 1-4)
Ashley Artus (Series 5-7)
Anthony Barclay (Series 3-4)
Gary Beadle (Series 2)
Tony Bluto (Series 1)
Carolyn Bonnyman (Series 2)
Brian Bowles (Series 9)
Laura Brattan (Series 3-9)
Joanna Brookes (Series 1, 3 and 4)
Otiz Cannelloni (Series 4)
Paul Cawley (Series 3-9)
Ian Connaughton (Series 9)
Simon Corris (Series 3-4)
Sue Elliott-Nicholls (Series 8)
Chris Emmett (Series 3-4)
Michael Fenton-Stevens (Series 8)
Regina Freedman (Series 1)
Victoria Gay (Series 5-7)
Roger Griffiths (Series 5-7)
Mike Hayley (Series 2-7)
Toby Jones (Series 5)
Jenny Jules (Series 1)
Moir Leslie (Series 9)
Tania Levey (Series 5-7)
Andy McEwan (Series 1)
Brian Miller (Series 3-7)
Anastasia Mulrooney (Series 2-4)
Fidel Nanton (Series 6-7)
Richard Pearce (Series 9)
Mo Sesay (Series 1)
Elisabeth Sladen (Series 3, 4 and 9)
Peter Temple (Series 8)
Issy Van Randwyck (Series 4-7)
Paul Vates (Series 8)
René Zagger (Series 2)


[El Nombre]
Sophie Aldred
Janet Ellis (Series 8-9)
Kate Robbins
Steve Steen
Composer(s) Neil Ben
Mark Blackledge
Stephen Chadwick
Andrew Dodge
Richard Durrant
Sue Herrod
Seán de Paor
Derek Nash
Sandy Nuttgens
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of series 9
No. of episodes 68
Production
Executive producer(s) Judy Whitfield
Stacey Adams
Anne Brogan
Producer(s) Clare Elstow
Kristin Mason
Julie Ardrey
Running time 15 minutes
Release
Original network BBC Two
Original release 20 September 1993 – 3 December 2001
External links
Website

Numbertime is a BBC educational television series for primary schools that was aired on BBC Two from 20 September 1993 to 3 December 2001. For its first four series, it was presented by Lolita Chakrabarti. El Nombre, an animated character from Numbertime, eventually became the concept for another educational BBC children's television program; his name means "The Name" in Spanish, and not "The Number", which would be "El Número". The third line of his opening song and his farewell catchphrase were also changed several times during the series' run, to reflect their focus - however, the original ones ("Writing numbers in the desert sand" and "Adios amigos, and keep counting") remain the most famous.

Series 1: Numbers 1 to 10 (1993)

The first series, which is aimed at four- to five-year-olds, comprised ten episodes focusing on the numbers 1-10, in order; each episode opened with Lolita introducing herself to the viewer, and pulling the number for the episode off its string (which was hanging from the studio ceiling), then pushing it into its correct hole in a wall, and singing the main theme, One to Ten, as each of its holes lit up in turn, which was repeated throughout the programme. In between, there were comedy sketches (mostly based on nursery rhymes), and animations, the most famous involving El Nombre, the Mexican gerbil who parodied Zorro, showing little Juan how to draw numbers as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance (and said "Again!" once he had finished, as it gave them an excuse to play again), and a sequence encouraging the viewer to spot things of the number for each episode - it was the same video, with a different number of things each time (and a recurring song, Numbers All Around, which was sung by a group of children). Each episode ended with Lolita singing a song (or occasionally, introducing an animation), after which she would set viewers the challenge of looking for things in the number of the week's episode before saying that she would "see them next Numbertime".

The Narrator proudly presents Nursery Rhyme Theatre No. 1 - Little Miss Muffet with several interruptions, and Little Jack Horner has one minute to Find 1 Plum on Sammy Sallow's game show of the same name; if he succeeds, he can choose one mountain bike, or one computer, or one picture of Sallow. This episode also ends with One Finger, One Thumb, Keep Moving, which is sung by the group of children who sang Numbers All Around earlier on in it.

The Narrator introduces Nursery Rhyme Theatre No. 2 with Marvo the Magician (and his Two Amazing Dickey Birds), and Sammy Sport reports on Jack and Jill's attempt to break the world record for the fastest time to run up a hill, fill a pail with water, and take it back down the hill again (under 2 minutes); this episode also ends with Lolita singing The Animals Went in Two by Two.

Sammy Sport is joined by Baa-Baa Black Sheep for the results of the "Win a Bag of Wool" competition, while Goldilocks invites viewers to Guess Whose House (for Sammy Sallow's game show of the same name); the Numbertime Top Ten also brings us, at No. 3, the ever-popular "Three-Sided Triangles", who sing an original song named We're Triangles (Oh Yes We Are).

Farmer Giles introduces the finals of One Girl and Her Sheep at which Little Bo Peep and her dog Shep are competing, and the Knave of Hearts talks to the Queen of Hearts about her famous royal tarts; Lolita tells us to "grab our partners and take the floor" as she introduces a quartet of dancing squares, who sing an original song named Do the Square Dance.

Australian chef Wally Bee (and his assistant, Bruce) attempt to show viewers how to cook five fat sausages on a barbecue for Barbecue Time, and Harry Headline pays a visit to the home of the Five Pigs Family for Five Minutes' Fame; Little Juan also has his 5th birthday in this episode's El Nombre sketch, and this episode ends with Lolita singing Fly, Little Dickey Birds, Round and Round.

A gardener named Fred enlists the help of his family in pulling up his enormous turnip for Garden Time, and Mr. and Mrs. Jones have to Take 6 Eggs on Sammy Sallow's game show of the same name and put them on either side of a seesaw to make it balance, for which they have three attempts to do so; this episode also ends with Lolita singing This Old Man in voiceover.

Sammy Sport travels to Scotland to see a remarkable fishing contest between the famous Seven Fat Fishermen, to see which one of them can catch the biggest fish, and ordering seven lots of fish and chips turns out to be more trouble than it is worth for the Shopkeeper and his Customer (who has got seven children, and they all want fish and chips); this episode also ends with Lolita singing In My Little Garden, Now Promise You Won't Laugh (also known as One Potato, Two Potato).

Sammy Sport travels down to Shoeburyness to interview the Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe (who has 8 children), and the Policeman enlists the viewers' help in finding Wee Willie Winkie for Crime Spot; Lolita also imagines what the world would be like if everything was eight-shaped as she visits the Planet of the Eights to sing an original song about it (and this is the only occasion in this series that she is not seen in her usual purple outfit, but a silver spacesuit). It is also evening in Little Juan's town in this episode's El Nombre sketch.

Lucky the Cat looks back over her nine lives, as she guests on This Is My Life, and Harry Headline comes to the garden of Miss Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, to look at the wonderful display of flowers for Garden Time; unfortunately, he ruins her chances of winning their "Best Flowers Competition", and she ends up coming ninth. This was also the only episode for this series to not end with a song - instead, Lolita shows the viewers a homemade necklace which has nine beads (three red, three blue, and three yellow), in reference to the episode's third animated sketch.

Farmer Giles (and his dog, Scruff) show viewers a wonderful, new, and very quick way to mow a meadow for Farming News, and Sammy Sport travels to Ten Pin Alley to watch Ten Pin Pete attempt to become the new Ten Pin Champ; Lolita also shows the viewers ten Russian dolls, and this episode ends with Ten in the Bed (which is, again, sung by the group of children who sang Numbers All Around earlier on in it). Also, because this episode was the last in the series, Lolita did not tell the viewers that she would "see them next Numbertime".

In 1994, BBC Enterprises (now BBC Worldwide) released a video entitled "Number Time" (spelled with two words) containing sixty minutes of edited highlights from this series (it was the only one at the time); it was later rereleased as part of a "two-on-one" video in 1997 with the Words and Pictures "Alphabet Fun Time" video, which had originally been released around the same time and contained fifty-eight minutes of highlights from that show's 1992 series. This series was later rereleased in full as a "Video Plus Pack" in 1996.

From 22 September to 1 December 1998, the BBC broadcast a "revised" version of this series as a lead-in to the sixth series; in place of Lolita, Bill (see Series 4) and Bernie (see Series 5) introduced each episode with a numberline of their own (however, Lolita's voice was still heard narrating some re-used animated sketches). All of the live-action sketches were replaced with Dolls' House (again, see Series 5) ones - and the El Nombre sketches were slightly lengthened. Sequences of children discussing the ten numbers were also introduced.[1]

Series 2: Shapes (Spring 1995)

The second series, which is again aimed at four- to five-year-olds, comprised five episodes, focusing on the four basic two-dimensional shapes; each episode would open with Lolita standing by a mobile with the four basic shapes hanging from it and singing the series' main theme, Squares and Triangles, Circles and Rectangles as the mobile began to turn. Once it had stopped turning, she would walk over to the shape that was nearest to her, then ask the viewers if they knew what it was, before it lit up and she told them - and from this series onwards, El Nombre was given two sketches per episode (the first to show Juan instances of that week's shape around the town, with Juan being clumsy and getting confronted by the other villagers after El Nombre had left, and the second to draw it in the desert sand). This series also featured four cut-out animated characters made up from the shapes its episodes were focusing on (a circular man with magical powers, a square robot, a triangular knight with a magical lance and a rectangular man); in the last episode, they worked together to build a house. Each episode would end with Lolita singing an "extended" version of a song that had been heard earlier in the episode during a montage of the shape around the town (for the last one, she continued over the credits) and setting viewers the challenge of seeing how many of that week's shape they could find before the next episode.

A man named Terry introduces the world-famous Ring a Ring o' Roses Formation Dance Team (and their manager, Cynthia) on Come Prancing, and a prehistoric couple try to invent the round wheel (after square and triangular ones) for their car for Great Moments in History; in this episode's second cut-out animated sketch, circular pawprints transform into a circular ladybird, a circular bird, a circular caterpillar which becomes a circular butterfly, a circular fish which blows circular bubbles, a circular car which emits circular smoke from its circular exhaust, a circular man's head, and a circular bear.

Bobby Cube asks the Shape Spotters on Let's Shape Up to name the square (by pointing out its distinguishing features), while a square robot builds a square dog (which turns on him, but he scares it away by transforming into a much bigger square dog with a big square that he runs to and climbs up) and Jill Scoop reports on Old King Cole who is wanting his square bowl (after round, triangular and rectangular ones) for Newsdesk.

Aladdin finds the lamp with a triangle on it (after the ones with a circle and square on them) for his Uncle Abanazer, but he wastes its three wishes (one for each of the triangle's sides and corners), by turning his uncle into a cat, and himself into a mouse, as well as making it disappear (which causes Abanazer to turn on him); a triangular knight also sets out to slay a triangular dragon (but gets burned to a crisp the first time, then gets rained on along with the triangular dragon's fire getting put out the second time), while Bobby Cube asks the Shape Spotters on Let's Shape Up (who are the same ones from the previous episode!) to identify the triangle (again, by pointing out its distinguishing features to them).

Sammy Shape pays a visit to Old Mother Hubbard's cottage to find out what makes a rectangle a rectangle for Shapewatch (which, like the Crime Spot sketch from the first series, is a parody of Crimewatch) and met by her dog (who, as in the nursery rhyme, wants a bone), while a rectangular man goes for a swim at a swimming pool (after going up a staircase and taking an elevator), Humpty Dumpty is asked to identify the shape of one of the bricks in the wall he is sitting on, and a woman named Jane keeps in touch with her grandmother by writing a rectangular letter and posting it into a rectangular postbox.

The rectangular man, the square robot, the triangular knight and the circular man (who now has a circular body and a wheel for a foot) work together to build a house and show that "all different shapes work well together", while Bobby Cube asks the Shape Spotters on Let's Shape Up to identify the "Shy Shapes" hiding in a cola can and Battenberg cake; in this episode's second El Nombre sketch, Juan draws El Nombre (a circle, rectangle, square and triangle stacked on top of each other) before drawing "the rope that hits him on the head and knocks him over". El Nombre then says that it has never happened to him - so Juan swings a rope at him and tells him "It has now!". The sombrero-less El Nombre then chases Juan through the streets of the town to an extended version of his theme song (with the new tagline "Drawing shapes in the desert sand" at the end), but he never catches him.

In 1996, both this series and the next series were released on VHS as "Video Plus Packs" by BBC Educational Publishing (now BBC Active); the following year, they were also rereleased together as a double "Video Plus Pack" named "Numbertime Shapes/Side by Side".

After the corporate change in 1997, BBC Education's then-current Internet address (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/) was superimposed onto the four shapes (a red circle, a green triangle, a yellow square and a blue rectangle) seen at the end of this series' episodes, as well as the thirteen episodes of the next two series; however, it was never added to the end of the first series' episodes.[2]

Series 3: Side by Side (Autumn 1995)

The third series (which is, once again, aimed at four- to five-year-olds) comprised five episodes, focusing on concepts of space and position; each episode would open with Lolita singing the series' main theme, Under, Over, Everywhere (the mobile from the previous series was also visible in the background, but it now had an apple, three stickmen, a rainbow, a cloud with a hot-air balloon, a sun, a snake, a spider and a snail hanging from it). In this series, Juan gained three new friends named Pedro Gonzales, Juanita Conchita, and Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita, as well as a pet tarantula named Tanto - and each episode would end with Lolita singing a song (but the one of the second episode was a reprise, as it had previously been heard in voiceover for an animated sketch featuring a fox). A sketch in the second episode of this series also parodied EastEnders as "GreenGrocers"; this was also the first series to credit the El Nombre voice actors at the end of its last episode (Sophie Aldred, who had played Ace on Doctor Who as well as one of the presenters of Words and Pictures, Spitting Image impressionist Kate Robbins, and Steve Steen, who had played Lord Byron in Ink and Incapability, the second episode of Blackadder the Third).

Series 4: More or Less (1996)

The fourth series, which is aimed at five- to six-year-olds, comprised eight episodes focusing on the concepts of "more than" (addition) and "less than" (subtraction); each episode would open with Lolita singing the series' main theme, More or Less, in a studio filled with pillars. This series introduced the character of Bill (voiced by Paul Cawley), a green bird who could swallow and regurgitate almost any object whole - and from the fifth series onwards, he was joined by a purple cat named Bernie (voiced by Laura Brattan). This series also featured a toad named Test, who would hop along the heads of fifteen multicoloured people lined up to form a numberline by the amounts its episodes were focusing on (they all wore red jumpers with the numbers 1-15 on them, but when Test was on their heads, the colour of their jumpers would change to green); each episode would end with Lolita singing a song (for the last one, she again continued over the credits, and it was also her final appearance, but because she did not know that she would be relieved of her presenting duties back then, she still told the viewers that she would "see them next Numbertime"). Two sketches in the first and seventh episodes of this series also parodied Percy Thrower and Sir David Attenborough as "Percy Grower" and "David Attencoat", while a third one in the third episode parodied Surprise, Surprise as "What a Surprise" (with Cinderella receiving a surprise visit from her Fairy Godmother) - and the Bill sketches of the second and sixth episodes also featured an enormous (but unnamed) beetle, who chased after Bill after putting his legs into the eight wellingtons he had regurgitated (in the second episode), and fell on top of him after pulling his last two wellingtoned legs up off the wall Bill was standing in front of (in the sixth episode). In the Bill sketch of the fourth episode, a "female" Bill fell on top of Bill after he shook twenty mangoes off a tree; also, in the El Nombre sketches of the seventh and last episodes, Juan had his fifth birthday (for the second time, but this time, Pedro, Juanita and Maria all brought him an extra candle for his cake because he was one year older, so he ended up with eight), and El Nombre's town gained a female mayor who also happened to be a balloon seller named Señora Fedora.

In 1997, this series was released on VHS as a "Video Plus Pack" by BBC Educational Publishing, and on 16 May 2013 it was rereleased on DVD as a "DVD Plus Pack" by BBC Active (as they are now known) with an accompanying teachers' book, but it is now out of print.[3]

Series 5: Time (1998)

The fifth series, which is aimed at four- to six-year-olds, comprised ten episodes focusing on time-related concepts; given that Lolita had been relieved of her presenting duties by this point, each episode was introduced by an animated man with a pocket watch for a head (who also appeared in a musical sketch at the end of the sixth episode). In this series, El Nombre's town was given the name of Santo Flamingo (its name was first heard in the sixth episode in reference to their local football team, although the sign above the doorway of its newly built school read "San Flamingo School"),[4] and Juan gained a new teacher named Constanza Bonanza - and some of the episodes had sketches featuring a rarely speaking man named Tim (played by Toby Jones) who was coming to an understanding with time-related concepts (in fact, the only time he spoke was in the seventh episode, when he read out the text "Cook for half an hour" on the box of a big pie he had bought). This series also introduced the recurring sketch of the Dolls' House, which featured a cowgirl named Annie, a scarecrow named Scrap (played by Paul Cawley), a robot named Glimmer (played by Ashley Artus), a clock named Ticker (played by Mike Hayley), and a butler named Branston (played by Brian Miller); they were frequently visited by a pirate named Captain Kevin (played by Roger Griffiths), and on two occasions by Glimmer's girlfriend Princess Penelope (who had come to visit Scrap when he was ill and ate all his chocolates) and a Russian ballet dancer named Nadia Nokoblokov (who had come to perform Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin's Minute Waltz). From the sixth series onwards, they were also frequently visited by a detective named Shelley Holmes (played by Issy Van Randwyck) and another robot named Megamax (played by Fidel Nanton) - however, this recurring sketch would only go on until the end of the seventh series. In the Bill and Bernie sketch of the last episode, the cuckoo in their clock also only emerged when Bill or Bernie guessed the times that its hands had been moved to (regardless of whether they were o'clocks or not), to blow a horn (or imitate a buzzer, as Bill guessed two of them improperly: "The short hand is on the 9, so it's...9 o'clock!" when it was really 9:30, and "One hand pointing at the 6, one hand pointing at the 12, half past 12!" when it was really 6:00), then hit a gong when they guessed the last one correctly; he also flew out of the clock to join them for their tea at the end of the sketch, when Bill told him to "Come on!".

The four shapes at the end of this series' episodes had been redesigned from the ones of the three previous series, and were differently coloured to their originals as well; also, in 1999, this series was released on VHS as a "Video Plus Pack" by BBC Educational Publishing.

Series 6: Numbers 11 to 20 (Spring 1999)

The sixth series (which was, again, aimed at five- to six-year-olds) comprised five episodes focusing on the numbers 11, 12, 15, 17 and 20, in order; they did not cover the numbers 13, 14, 16, 18 and 19 (except in their opening titles with images of thirteen blocks, fourteen pencils, sixteen leaves, eighteen buttons and nineteen crayons). Each episode would open with Bill and Bernie finding the position of the episode's number on their number line (which had been carried over from the "revised" version of the first series) - and in this series, El Nombre was given an enemy named Don Fandango, who stole twenty gold coins from the bank of Santo Flamingo (which was managed by Señor Calculo) in the last episode.

In 2000, both this series and the seventh one were released on VHS as "Video Plus Packs", by BBC Educational Publishing; on 4 May 2012, this one was rereleased on DVD as a "DVD Plus Pack" by BBC Active, with an accompanying teachers' book. The pack also contained an audio CD, featuring songs from the series (and initially released as an audio cassette) - and this one is still in print.

Series 7: Numbers up to 100 (Autumn 1999)

The seventh series, which was once again aimed at five- to six-year-olds, comprised five episodes focusing on how to add and identify two-figure numbers up to 100; each episode would open with Bill and Bernie, whose number line had been replaced by a number square, and joined by a caterpillar named Limo, who would crawl around the square to count out the numbers they required.

Series 8: Money (2000)

The eighth series, which is aimed at five- to seven-year-olds, comprised ten episodes focusing on coin recognition, money problems, coin equivalents and change; each episode would open with eight "money-spiders" (one for each coin - 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2) coming down into view from the top of a tree. In this series, El Nombre also introduced the currency of pounds and pence to Santo Flamingo - and the recurring song from the first series, Numbers All Around, was also reworked (to focus on coins instead of numbers). This series also introduced the recurring sketch of Screensaver, which featured a screen named Screen (voiced by Sue Elliott-Nicholls), a variety of customers (who were all played by one-time Spitting Image impressionist Michael Fenton-Stevens), and a robot named T1L (pronounced "Til", and played by Paul Vates); it also saw former Blue Peter host Janet Ellis joining the El Nombre cast. This series was also directed by Robin Carr, who had previously directed the third series of the BBC's World War II sitcom 'Allo 'Allo with co-creator David Croft in 1986.

Series 9: Addition and Subtraction (2001)

The ninth (and final) series, which is aimed at six- to seven-year-olds, comprised ten episodes focusing on the concepts of adding and subtracting similar to the fourth series (only without Lolita, live-action sketches based on nursery rhymes, or Test the Toad); in this series, Numbertime News, which had appeared in five episodes of the first series with Sammy Sport (played by Andy McEwan), along with one episode of the fourth series with Rebecca Testament (played by Issy Van Randwyck), became a recurring sketch, with anchorwoman Tara Boomdeay (played by Elisabeth Sladen, who had played Sarah-Jane on Doctor Who, as well as several characters in fifteen episodes over the third and aforementioned fourth series) and roving reporter Brad Quiff (played by Ian Connaughton). This series also introduced the character of Addem (voiced by Brian Bowles), a snake who discovered the series' concept in the company of an ant named Ann (voiced by Moir Leslie) and a hundred other ants (voiced by Richard Pearce).

Radio series

The first series was accompanied by a ten-part radio series on BBC School Radio entitled Radio Numbertime, which again focused on the numbers 1-10, in order; it ran from 21 September to 30 November 1993. Another radio series, which was entitled simply Numbertime like the television series, was broadcast on BBC School Radio from 29 September 2000 to 26 March 2003 - and a third radio series, which was again entitled Numbertime like the defunct television series, was broadcast on BBC School Radio from 1 May to 26 June 2014.[5]

References

  1. ↑ YouTube - BBC Schools Numbertime Number 5
  2. ↑ YouTube - BBC Schools Numbertime Shapes
  3. ↑ Waterstones.com - Numbertime More or Less DVD Plus Pack
  4. ↑ YouTube - El Nombre Single
  5. ↑ BBC - Schools Radio - Numbertime
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