Bananaman Bananaman is an 80’s children’s TV cartoon that ‘The Goodies’ reunited for, to lend their voices to the characters of the programme. Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden, plus Jill Shilling provide the voices. The rights to the Bananaman name are owned by D.C. Thompson, the same company that owns the Dandy & Beano comics. Bananaman regularly appears in the Dandy comic. Story At 29 Acacia Road a little boy called Eric lives. He looks like a normal boy, until he eats a Banana, when he miraculously turns into the crime fighter - Bananaman. But there is one problem with this transformation, he swaps his intelligence for muscles. So you see Bananaman can be a little bit thick! Luckily a talking crow, called Crow, keeps an eye on him and tries to steer him in the right direction. Bananaman Characters Eric Amazingly, no one knows that Eric is Bananaman, even Chief O'Reilly, who calls Eric to get in contact with Bananaman. Eric has a bit of a fetish about bananas. If you look around his house, you will find a Banana Telephone, a Banana Headboard / Lamp / Clock / Picture etc in his bedroom. It must cost Eric a fortune in ceilings because each time he turns into Bananaman, he flies straight through the ceiling (does he never learn?), oh and he's scared of spiders. Bananaman The dim witted banana hero is just not all there. He may have the strength of 20 men, but he doesn't have the equivalent number of brain cells. But if he needs some extra energy, then he can super charge himself by eating another banana (where does he put them all?). His heart is in the right place (even if his brain isn't) and he puts his muscle to good use by (mainly) bashing General Blight. But these are not ordinary bashings, but comical ones, as he lets fly with comical one liners in-between all the bashing. He is easily confused. The Heavy mob talked their way out of capture by saying that the booty in front of them was in fact their schoolboy trophies. I can't believe he fell for that one! If you need to contact him whilst he's out on a mission, the you can contact him on his Banana Phone. It doesn't look much like a phone, instead it looks more like Bananaman putting his little finger and thumb up to his ear and talking (I used to do this as a kid, but no one replied to me!). He has one other weakness, standing in front of the mirror. As if you hadn't noticed, he's rather vain. Crow He is the brains of the Bananaman operation and whispers ideas into the banana bonce's ears when trouble is close. Also he seems to carry a never ending supply of banana's for him, which confuses me, where does he carry them (big pockets?). He's a bit too clever sometimes and comes across as a smarmy crow. Chief O'Reilly He's an Irish Police Chief, who has a police light in his hat (strange fellow!). He's always on the phone asking Eric to get in touch with Bananaman, but I'm still trying to workout why he thinks a school boy is his link to Bananaman. As you can see, he is a rather portly fellow and from what I can see, it's all the eating he keeps doing (massive sandwiches etc). General Blight He is Bananaman's number one enemy and it always striving for world domination. He's a short fellow, that really needs to see an anger management councillor. But he does have a gentler side as he speaks a bit childish when talking to women, as if he is still talking to his nanny (the wuss!). He doesn't like to be called GB for some reason, so that makes people call him it more. Also I don't think he likes shaving, as he seems to always have 5 O'clock shadow. Plus he has a rather big nose! He seems to have a fetish for dressing up as a Pirate Captain and he gets the Heavy Mob to be his pirates! Oh and don't even go there about the green lycra cat suit that he wears. Doctor Gloom Dr Gloom works out of his surgery, which is a creepy house on hangman's hill, which amazingly looks like a castle from the inside - weird eh? From this place he cooks up most of his concoctions, which is normally a machine of some description. The strange thing, is that this machine looks identical to his last one, but has a new name pinned onto it. Could he be recycling the same machine? Yes! So one moment it is an age reversal machine, which he tried to use on Bananaman. But luckily for the porridge brained hero, it didn't work and the machine was turned on Dr Gloom.  Its amazing that he looked just as ugly when he was a kid (I know, I thought that was impossible too). The next moment its a Clone Making Machine fitted with a coin slot (maybe he was fed up with General Blight freeloading?), followed by an Invisibility Machine, what next? So, how did he get to know General Blight? Well, he grew up with him at school, where they became friends. He used to call the General, Beaky. The Heavy Mob The Heavy Mob are a gang of crooks that are lead by Eddie the Gent, who as his name suggests, sounds like the perfect English gentleman. But don't let that fool you, as he would try to steal anything from you, and try to talk his way out of a any situation. The gang is made up of the following (see picture, from left to right) Fingers, Maurice the Muscle, Rembrandt and Eddie the Gent. The Mole He is a Legendary figure from the underground of crime. Amazingly, he owns a Mole Machine, which can tunnel underground (you were surprised about that too?). He has even used the machine to create an escape tunnel for The Heavy Mob. The Weatherman He flies around in his lighter than air ship (which can also go underwater), by controlling the weather and causing havoc. He has a Freeze Gun and he controls Ice Station Zero, which is like a giant storage battery. It draws cold energy from the polar ice and snow. He then converts the cold energy to bad weather by radio impulse to his control panel. His Snowman robot guards the place. The Snowman This is one of Bananaman's most cold hearted villains, who is the first welsh Snowman I've come across. The Weather Man sends him out on missions to destroy Bananaman, but he is such hot stuff that the Snowman just melts away into the background (snigger!). He kidnapped mountain climbers to help him create an army of robotic Snowmen. King Zorg He is helping General Blight take over the world, well, that's what the General things. In reality if General Blight succeeded than he would then he would forcibly take control from him. Initially he wanted Bananaman to give them the location of all Military Installations and Chinese Takeaways before they invade, but again this plan ultimately failed. There is one other thing he does do, which is to command an entire fleet of Nerk Starships. So don't annoy him! Nerks They aren't too itelligent and take orders from Mighty Zorg (see above). One thing they do love is to take forever introducing King Zorg, which bores the King to pieces. Auntie She is the Deadliest assassin of all time and is General Blight's Hit Lady. She carries a Walkie-Talkie to speak with the General, but she confuses the hell out of him when she speaks using CBI handles (that's a 10 - 4). She even had the privilege to run Bananaman over in a steam roller after she knitted him a sleeveless jumper. But his spirit wasn't flattened (groan!) and he bounced right back to defeat her. Fiona Fiona is the news reader that Bananaman has got a crush on and is called the 'Sweetheart of the Airwaves'. She is always in the thick of things and was even kidnapped by Pong Ping the giant gorilla. She thinks Bananaman is 'Mr Wonderful' and has even invited him to appear on her own TV Show called 'Memory Lane'. Appleman He was created by Dr Gloom and has muscles when no other man has them (in his feet!). He has a country bumkin accent and is really a bad apple that is rotten to the core. He is the brawn of the operation, but if he gets scared, he starts shouting - ooh, arh, ooh, arh, ooh, arh. Make sure you don't get maggots near him, otherwise he'll be off like a shot. Captain Cream Not too much to say about him. All he seems to do is go around stealing ingredients to cream based products, then making the products with a bad smell / flavour (that's really adult, isn't it?). His calling card is a stale cream bun. Samantha Not really sure what she does at all, but she is Eric's cousin. Bananaman Images (click to enlarge) Bananaman T-Shirts T-Shirts (Europe) - Bananaman T-Shirts Bananaman DVDs Region 2 (Europe) - Bananaman DVDs Region 1 (USA) - NONE Bananaman Episodes Series 1 (1983)  1. Bananaman Meets Dr Gloom  2. The Big Breakout  3. Ice Station Zero  4. Alien Planet  5. The Kidnap Caper  6. House on Hangman's Hill  7. Destination Danger  8. Wall of Death  9. Jaws of Steel  10. Banana Kid  11. Auntie's Back in Town  12. Tunnel of Terror  Series 2 (1984)  1. Mystery at the Old Mine  2. Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas  3. Trouble at the Mill  4. The Web of Evil  5. The Mummy's Curse  6. The Night Patrol  7. Fog of Fear  8. A Tank Full of Trouble  9. Double Trouble  10. The Last Banana  11. Intergalactic Olympics  12. The Night Patrol  13. The Final Orbit  Series 3 (1986)  1. Disaster at Devil's Cove  2. Night of the Nerks  3. The Snowman Cometh  4. Pirate TV Station  5. Battle of the Bridge  6. Harbour of Lost Ships  7. Visibility Zero  8. Battle of the Century  9. The Perils of Ping Pong  10. The Great Air Race  11. Cavern of the Lost  12. Clown Capers  13. Banana Junction  14. The Crown Jewel Caper  15. Operation Total Bananaman Video Intro © JedisParadise.com Toys & Gifts T-Shirts Bargain DVDs