King Rollo
GenreAnimation
Written byDavid McKee
Narrated byRay Brooks
ComposerDuncan Lamont
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Running time5 minutes
Production companyKing Rollo Films
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release1 October (1980-10-01) –
24 December 1980 (1980-12-24)

King Rollo is a children's character, created by David McKee in 1980. He is the main character in a series of books, animations[1] narrated by Ray Brooks, and a comic strip in the magazine Buttons. Thirteen episodes of the animation were produced in 1980 by McKee's own King Rollo Films, where the character is the company's mascot and namesake, and were originally shown as part of the pre-school 'See-Saw' strand.

Rollo himself is a childlike king who is always in need of advice and assistance from his friends. Among these are The Magician (a father figure); Cook (the king's cook, a mother figure, who was arguably the real ruler of the kingdom); his neighbour and girlfriend, Queen Gwen; King Frank; and Rollo's cat, Hamlet, who was generally portrayed as wiser than Rollo himself.[2]

The animations used the same colourful cut-out paper look as McKee's other works, such as Mr Benn. The 2D animation style saved on production costs.[3] The characters' legs would rotate outwards when walking until they were at right-angles to the sides of their body.[clarification needed]

Episodes

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No.TitleOriginal air date
1"The Bread"1 October 1980 (1980-10-01)
2"The Playroom"8 October 1980 (1980-10-08)
3"The Bath"15 October 1980 (1980-10-15)
4"The Dishes"22 October 1980 (1980-10-22)
5"The New Shoes"29 October 1980 (1980-10-29)
6"The Breakfast"5 November 1980 (1980-11-05)
7"The Tree"12 November 1980 (1980-11-12)
8"The Comic"19 November 1980 (1980-11-19)
9"King Frank"26 November 1980 (1980-11-26)
10"The Birthday"3 December 1980 (1980-12-03)
11"The Balloons"10 December 1980 (1980-12-10)
12"The Search"17 December 1980 (1980-12-17)
13"The Dog"24 December 1980 (1980-12-24)

Books

Collections

References

  1. ^ British Book News. National Book League. 1981. p. 255.
  2. ^ Reading Time. Children's Book Council of Australia, New South Wales Branch. 1980. p. 24.
  3. ^ Steemers, Jeanette (2010). Creating preschool television : a story of commerce, creativity and curriculum. Basingstoke, England New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 9780230274600.

External links


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