Roland Rat

Roland Rat is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously designed and operated Mooncat a puppet in the Children's ITV television programme Get Up and Go! He worked for Jim Henson, then the second series of The Young Ones. Claridge would later operate and voice Brian the Dinosaur for BBC's Parallel 9; create and direct Happy Monsters, a preschool series for Channel 5; and shoot a CGI series Mozart's Dog for Paramount Comedy.

Character summary

Roland lives beneath King's Cross railway station in The Ratcave and also in Ratcave2 under The Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles California. He has an infant brother called Little Reggie and had a relationship with a Guinea Pig called Glenis. His colleagues include dour Welsh technical whizz Errol the Hamster and over-enthusiastic self-appointed "number one ratfan" Kevin the Gerbil, who is from Leeds and loves pink buckets. Claridge actually provides voices for all the main characters: Roland Rat, Errol the Hamster, Kevin The Gerbil, Little Reggie, Fergie the Ferret and Roland's father Freddie as they often appear on screen together. Rolands car 'the Ratmobile' is a bright pink 1953 Ford Anglia.

Roland was notable for his brash and confident personality, which writer Colin Bostock-Smith states was established by Claridge and writer Richard Curtis.^[1]

History

TV-am

Roland Rat first appeared on Friday 1 April 1983^[2] (Good Friday) on the ailing breakfast television network TV-am, and is generally regarded as its saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". After a couple of months on TV-am, Roland took the audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million. Roland was launched at TV-am by Children's editor Anne Wood to give kids entertainment during the Easter holidays.^[3][4] Initially, Roland was featured as the host of The Shedvision Show, ostensibly broadcast from a wooden shack on the roof of TV-am's studios. On the strength of this, Roland was soon given a regular slot every morning introducing cartoons for younger viewers.

Arguably Roland Rat's golden age on TV-am was the period from summer 1983 until summer 1985. During this period, Roland and friends would feature in a half hour episode transmitted on school holiday weekdays on TV-am from 0850. The school summer holidays of 1983 and 1984 saw Rat on the Road in which Roland and Kevin would spend each week in a different town of the United Kingdom. One notable highlight during this period was the visit of Austrian racing driver Roland Ratzenberger who appeared on the show in a motor race against the Ratmobile ending with Ratzenberger's car^[5] being sabotaged by his near-namesake.

The character of Errol the Hamster was gradually drafted in during the first year as a VT technician responsible for running the cartoons inserted into the show. Errol eventually joined Roland and Kevin on location at Christmas in 1983 for Roland's Winter Wonderland which saw Roland, Kevin and Errol enjoying a skiing holiday together in Switzerland. The following year at Easter, Roland Rat hosted the show Roland Goes East set in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and covering the ill-fated film shoot of Roland's attempted movie debut, a martial arts film entitled Enter the Rodent.

Christmas 1984 saw Roland's Countdown to Christmas. TV-AM sold Roland Rat advent calendars, with Roland opening each door with the viewers at 7.20am every day, The final door had Roland and his friends in the snow. The Easter 1985 holidays saw Operation FOGI (Free Our Glenis Immediately) which revolved around the gang's attempts - eventually successful - to liberate Glenis The Guinea Pig from her life in the pets department of Harrods.

Roland last appeared on TV-am at the end of August 1985, when the last summer holiday slot was broadcast.^[6]

BBC

On 3 October 1985, he transferred to the BBC, for a three-year contract. Roland said, "I saved TVam and now I'm here to save the BBC."^[6]

Roland had a number of shows through his time at the BBC, most notably Roland Rat the Series, a chat show set in Roland's sewer home, now converted into a high-tech media centre called the Ratcave the show would intersperse the chat show segments with a storyline involving some sort of situation "behind the scenes". These series also featured Roland's parents, Iris and Freddie, his pet flea Colin, and his agent D'Arcy De Farcy. His girlfriend Glenis was joined by another female character called Roxanne Rat.

He also appeared in two spoof drama series, Tales of the Rodent Sherlock Holmes, in which he played Holmes with Kevin as Dr Watson, and Ratman, a Batman spoof with Kevin as his sidekick, "Pink Bucket Man". During Christmas 1985, British Telecom operated a free "ratphone" number on 0800 800 800.

Channel Five

In the late 1990s he made a series for Channel 5, called L.A. RAT, which featured Roland and friends living in Los Angeles.^[7] In 2003 Roland was a guest presenter for ITV children's CiTV.^[8]

Other appearances

Roland appeared on Big Brother UK several times, his first being 2004 in a task that involved the housemates playing a version of 20 Questions in order to guess the identity of various celebrities.

In December 2007, Roland Rat appeared on a puppet special of the Weakest Link hosted by Anne Robinson which was originally broadcast on Friday 28 December 2007 at 18:00GMT on BBC One. Roland reached the final round with Soo from The Sooty Show which went to sudden death after initially drawing with four points each. Roland ultimately lost out to Soo's superior wisdom in the tense final standoff.

Roland appeared in the fourth episode of the second series of Ashes to Ashes. This appearance was anachronistic, as the show is set in 1982 whereas Roland didn't debut until the following year.

In 2008, Roland released a Christmas single, "Ding Dong Ding Dong (Christmas Down The Drain)" featuring Kevin, Errol and Reggie, available for download.

On the 11 February 2010, whilst making an appearance on BBC's The One Show to answer a question about how children's programmes have changed over the years, Roland Rat spent so much time joking about the presenters (Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley) that Adrian ended the interview before he answered the question.

In 2013 he has also offered to save struggling ITV breakfast show Daybreak by stepping in and repeating the astonishing turnaround he achieved in the 1980s for TV-am.

Music

Between 1983 and 1985, Roland had three UK chart hit singles including "Rat Rapping" and an album The Cassette Of The Album.^[9] A cassette version of the recording, entitled The Album was released concurrently. The cassette recording claimed to be the LP recording, and vice versa; spoken word sketches at the starts and ends of the sides on both releases revealed this to have been the result of a mix-up which could not be rectified for financial reasons. Each of the main characters contributed a song: Kevin the Gerbil's were "My Roland" and "Pink Bucket Reggae", Reggie's song was "It's Great Here, Innit", and Errol the Hamster contributed "Leeks Are Wonderful, Leeks Are Nice". Kevin the Gerbil also had a top 50 single with Summer Holiday. The second album, Living Legend was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman for BBC Records incorporating the theme tune and songs used in Roland Rat The Series.

TV-am serials (selected)

• The Spectacular Shedvision Show (1983) Set in a shed on the roof of the TVAM studios.
• Rat on the Road (1983) introduced Errol the Hamster in the final edition although Roland had ordered him by walkie-talkie to "Run VT" whenever it was time for the cartoon to air.
• Roland's Winter Wonderland (1983) - filmed in Switzerland
• Roland Goes East (1984) - filmed in Hong Kong. Introduced Little Reggie
• Rat on the Road II (1984) - featured Kevin's cover of Summer Holiday and Roland's cover of Love Me Tender.
• Operation FOGI (1984) - introduced Glenis the Guinea Pig who was rescued from the pet department in Harrod as a result of Operation FOGI (Free Our Glenis Immediately)
• Roland's Countdown to Christmas (1984) - featured Roland and friends singing a rewritten version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" featuring such paraphernalia associated with the show as Kevin's pink bucket, Errol's favourite leek pie and a Roland Rat Superstar cap.
• Roland's Rat Race (1985) - featured James Saxon as Roland's incompetent friend and conman D'Arcy De Farcey.
• The OWRRAS Summer Special (1985) - This stood for Official Worldwide Roland Rat Appreciation Society. Broadcast in the summer of 1985, a studio based programme like The Spectacular Shedvision Show and the half-term series Roland Live. The last TV-am Roland Rat series.

Video game

In 1985 Ocean Software produced a game called Roland's Rat Race for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The player had to guide Roland through the sewers of London and collect nine pieces of a door which, when complete, would allow him to rescue his companions in time for an appearance on TV-am. Roland had to avoid enemies in the form of animated wellington boots which could be temporarily incapacitated with a squirt of glue, which could also be used to stop tube trains in order to ride on them.

Merchandise

Roland Rat merchandising was extensive and the Hasbro range of soft toys was hugely popular. Roland has appeared on hundreds of items ranging from toothbrushes to wallpaper, bedding, stationery, mugs, canned pasta and children's glasses by Dolland and Aitchison .

Recent merchandise included a talking Roland Rat soft toy, fancy dress outfit, online game and Asda's George Clothing "teamed-up" with Roland to launch a new range of rat-themed clothing, including socks, t shirts, underwear and "superstar lounge pants".^[10]

UK releases

• Thorn EMI (1984–1988)
• BBC Video (1988)
• Contender Entertainment Group (2003)
• Digital Classics DVD (2010)

References

External links

• Roland Rat at the Internet Movie Database
• Fan website