Emu's World
| Emu's TV Series | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Children's television |
| Created by | Rod Hull |
| Written by | Rod Hull |
| Directed by | Colin Clews (ITV shows) |
| Presented by | Rod Hull |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production company(s) | Central Independent Television, BBC |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV Network (CITV), BBC |
Emu was an anarchic British television puppet of Rod Hull, and after successfully appearing on a number of variety shows, he was given his own television series on the BBC, then on ITV.
Emu's Broadcasting Company (1975–1980) was a children's television series featuring Rod Hull and Emu running their own television station, which parodied many BBC series of the time. Supporting Rod Hull and his emu puppet were Billy Dainty who played a James Bond pastiche called Captain Perceval and Barbara New who played the tea lady.
In 1981, Emu and Rod Hull were offered additional series by the newly awarded ITV franchise Central Independent Television, which also introduced a green witch called Grotbags (played by the singer and comedian Carol Lee Scott), with Rod and Emu living in a pink windmill.
The premise of the show was simple: each week Grotbags threatened and tried to steal Emu so that once captured (in Grotbags' own words) she would be able to use its "special powers" to control all the "brats" in the world.
The Series morphed into Pink Windmill Show and carried on from Emu's World, but the format also featured viewer phone-ins, as well as a segment in Grotbags' grotto, based on the format of the "take the money or open the box" segment of Take Your Pick! where selected members of the audience whom Grotbags had "taken prisoner" were offered the chance to either take a selection of prizes or exchange them for either stellar prizes or booby prizes contained in a numbered mini-cauldron which they had selected. Grotbags would react with delight when contestants won a booby prize or rejected a star prize and with fury when the reverse occurred. There was also lots of singing and dancing, and this show achieved enormous popularity during its early years. The show is probably now most fondly remembered for Rod Hull's catchphrase "There's somebody at the door, there's somebody at the door" every time a visitor rang the doorbell (which 'sneezed' loudly when pressed) at the Pink Windmill's entrance. In addition, a segment from the first episode, in which the "Pink Windmill Kids" rhythmically introduce themselves before launching into a rendition of "Can't Stop the Music", became an Internet meme in late 2016.
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