- Metal Mickey
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This article is about the 1980s TV show. For Suede song, see Metal Mickey (song).
Metal Mickey, a robot character on UK children's television in the 1980s
Metal Mickey was a five-foot-tall fictional robot, which was created, controlled and voiced by Johnny Edward. A modernised vision of a 1950s space toy, Metal Mickey first appeared on British television in the ITV children's magazine show The Saturday Banana, produced by Southern Television in 1978. Humphrey Barclay saw Mickey on Jimmy Saville's 'Jim'll Fix It' and seeing the kids chatting in the marketplace with our friendly robot, he realised this was what he was looking for! The Metal Mickey TV Show was born... within a month the pilot was video-taped and shortly the series went live with its first six episodes. Thirty-nine episodes were made in all, 12 million viewers (Jictar rating)
Micky Dolenz, formerly of The Monkees pop group, was brought in to produce and direct along with Nic Phillips and David Crossman.
Contents
The Metal Mickey TV Show
The Metal Mickey TV Show ran from 1980 to 1983. The show was set in the home of an ordinary British family, whose youngest child was a science boffin, who had created Metal Mickey to help around the home. The family consisted of a mother and father, three children and a grandmother. The show was made by London Weekend Television and shown on ITV network.
British comedy actress Irene Handl played the grandmother, whom Mickey affectionately called "my little fruitbat". He also referred to his inventor as "Clever Clogs", his inventor's sister as "Stringbean" and their father as "Bootface". Handl was never at home with science fiction, either watching it or appearing in it. She famously told BBC presenter Noel Edmonds, when he asked her whether she cried over the death of E.T., "Why should I cry over a bleedin' Hoover attachment?"
Metal Mickey's catchphrase was "boogie, boogie", and his favourite treat was Atomic Thunderbusters (which had the appearance of lemon bonbons).
Cast
- Michael Stainton ... Father
- Georgina Melville ... Mother
- Ashley Knight ... Ken
- Lucinda Bateson ... Haley
- Lola Young ... Janey
- Gary Shail ... Steve
- Metal Mickey ... Metal Mickey
- Irene Handl ... Granny
Production credits
- Directors: Michael Dolenz, David Crossman, Nic Phillips
- Producer: Michael Dolenz
- Writer: Colin Bostock-Smith
- Designers: Mike Oxley, Rae George, David Catley, James Dillion, Phil Coulter
- Music: Phil Coulter
DVD releases
The first two series of Metal Mickey have been released on DVD. The third series was due to be released in mid 2009.
See also
- List of fictional robots and androids
- Science fiction sitcom
External links
Categories:- Children's ITV television programmes
- Fictional robots
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