King Rollo | |
---|---|
Genre | Animation |
Written by | David McKee |
Narrated by | Ray Brooks |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 5 minutes |
Production company(s) | King Rollo Films |
Release | |
Original network | BBC1 |
Original release | 1 October – 24 December 1980 |
King Rollo was a children's character created by David McKee in 1979, starring in a series of books, animations 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, and were originally shown as part of the pre-school 'See-Saw' strand.
The central character of the stories was Rollo himself, a childlike king who was always in need of advice and assistance from his friends. Among these were The Magician (a father figure); Cook (the king's cook, a mother figure, who was arguably the real ruler of the kingdom); his neighbour, Queen Gwen; King Frank; and Rollo's cat, Hamlet, who was generally portrayed as wiser than Rollo himself.
The animations used the same colourful cut-out paper look as McKee's other works, such as Mr Benn. The characters' legs would rotate outwards when walking until they were at right-angles to the sides of their body.