Pedro Gonzales
| El Nombre | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Educational animation |
| Created by | Christopher Lillicrap |
| Developed by | Geoff Walker |
| Written by | Christopher Lillicrap |
| Directed by |
Chris Mendham Geoff Walker |
| Starring |
Steve Steen Sophie Aldred Kate Robbins Janet Ellis |
| Composer(s) | Christopher Lillicrap Steve Marshall |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Theresa Plummer-Andrews |
| Producer(s) |
Jilly Joseph Richard Randolph |
| Running time | 5 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One (Series 1), CBeebies (Series 2) |
| Original release | 5 January 2001 – 29 November 2003 |
El Nombre is an anthropomorphic Mexican gerbil character, originally from a series of educational sketches on Numbertime, the BBC schools programme about mathematics. He was also the only character to appear in all Numbertime episodes. His voice was provided by Steve Steen, while the other characters' voices were provided by Sophie Aldred, Kate Robbins, and (from 1999) former Blue Peter host Janet Ellis. For the ninth (and final) series of Numbertime in 2001, Michael Fenton-Stevens also provided voices of certain other characters in the El Nombre sketches.
The character's name means "The Name" in Spanish, not "The Number", which would be "El Número".
El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo (originally known as Santo Flamingo), home of Little Juan, his Mama, Pedro Gonzales, Juanita Conchita, Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Tanto the tarantula, Señor Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Señor Calculo the bank manager, Señor Manuel the greengrocer, Miss Constanza Bonanza the school teacher, Señora Fedora the balloon seller and mayor, Señor Loco the steam engine driver, Señor Chipito the carpenter and the local bandit Don Fandango (although it was not actually given a name until the fifth series of Numbertime premiered in January 1998); whenever he was needed, El Nombre swung into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character was a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and huge sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the townsfolk from injustice, and generally swinging around on his bullwhip - however, unlike Zorro, he was often quite inept (in fact, on one occasion, Tanto tipped a bucket of water onto him after he made him reenact the Incy Wincy Spider rhyme).
When El Nombre first appeared on Numbertime in 1993, his purpose was merely to write numbers in the desert sand and demonstrate the correct ways to form them as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance (and said "Again!" once he had finished, as it gave them an excuse to play again); this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series (as from the second series in 1995, he was given two sketches per episode) - and since his basic beginning, El Nombre went on to appear in a total of 79 (89, if counting those from the "revised" version of the first series) sketches on Numbertime before gaining a series of his own, acquiring dramatic storylines and a full cast of characters, while continuing to demonstrate mathematical concepts, albeit in a dramatic and entertaining way. The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created.
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Wikipedia