Metal Mickey is a fictional five-foot-tallrobot, as well as the name of aspin-off television show starring the same character. The robot character was created, controlled and voiced (using aVocoder) byJohnny Edward.
The character of Metal Mickey first appeared on British television in theITV children's magazine showThe Saturday Banana, produced bySouthern Television in 1978.Humphrey Barclay saw Mickey onJimmy Savile'sJim'll Fix It television show. Seeing the children chatting in the marketplace with the friendly robot led to the creation of theMetal Mickey television show. Within a month the pilot had been video-taped, and shortly after this the series went live with its first six episodes. 41 episodes were made in total, broadcast over three separate series between September 1980 and January 1983. The show attracted viewing figures of around 12 million at its peak.[1]Micky Dolenz, formerly ofThe Monkees pop group, was brought in to produce and direct the series along with Nic Phillips and David Crossman.
In 2001, the show was voted number 58 in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Kids TV Shows.
| Metal Mickey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Colin Bostock-Smith |
| Starring | Metal Mickey |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Producer | Michael Dolenz |
| Production company | London Weekend Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 6 September 1980 (1980-09-06) – 15 January 1983 (1983-01-15) |
The television show was created underLWT'sHumphrey Barclay who describedMetal Mickey as a show "with the appeal ofStar Wars, theDaleks andMork and Mindy".[2] It ran from 1980 to 1983.
The series was set in the home of an ordinary British family, whose youngest child was a scienceboffin, who had created Metal Mickey to help around the home.[3] The family consisted of a mother and father, three children and a grandmother. The show was made byLondon Weekend Television and shown on theITV network, with the entire run of 41 episodes being written by comedy writerColin Bostock-Smith.[4]
British comedy actressIrene Handl played the grandmother, whom Mickey affectionately called "my little fruitbat" (she in turn would call him "Fluff"). 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 presenterNoel Edmonds, when he asked her whether she cried over the death ofE.T., "Why should I cry over a bleedin'Hoover attachment?"
Metal Mickey's catchphrase was "boogie, boogie", and his favourite treat were Atomic Thunderbusters (which had the appearance of lemonbonbons). At the height of the series' popularity, fizzbomb sweets were marketed in the UK under the name Metal Mickey's Atomic Thunderbusters.
The first two series ofMetal Mickey have been released on DVD. The third series was due to be released in mid-2009.
Metal Mickey was credited as artist on several record releases, some of them on his own label "Mickeypops":[5]
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