Chorlton And The Wheelies, 1976
Chorlton and The Wheelies was created by Cosgrove – Hall who would later have further success with Danger Mouse.
It ran for three series wheeling up forty episodes along the way between 1976 and 1979. The series was broadcast in the lunchtime slot, a popular slot for kids TV in the day.
The main character Chorlton gets his name from a superb of Manchester where the Cosgrove-Hall studios were based. The idea for the ‘wheelies’ characters came about after the difficulties of moving many different characters using stop-frame animation (very popular at the time).
Characters on wheels were easier to manipulate than those with legs that needed fractionally moving many times for each second of filming. Similarly, choosing teleportation as Fenella’s principal means of transportation means that usually Chorlton is the only character whose walking needs to be animated.
Summary
Welcome to Wheelie World where the inhabitants move around by means of wheels. The inhabitants are perpetually happy.
However all kids shows need a baddy and Chorlton And The Wheelies is no exception. The Wheelies are in conflict with Fenella The Kettle Witch who hates happiness and uses all her powers to make the wheelies unhappy.
The wheelies have adopted into their society a “happiness dragon” Chorlton. His perpetual happiness keeps Frenella’s magic in check.
Plots were very simple, mainly revolving around Fenella’s schemes to make the wheelies unhappy and Chorlton’s accidental rectification of everything that goes wrong.
Clips
Narrated By: Joe Lynch
Details
Channel: ITV
Created By: Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall
Written By: Brian Trueman
Original Transmission Dates: 27th September 1976 – 18th June 1979