Truckers (1992 TV series)
| Truckers | |
|---|---|
| Starring |
Joe McGann Debra Gillett Rosalie Williams John Jardine |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 10 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Cosgrove Hall Productions Thames Television |
| Distributor | FremantleMedia |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV Network (CITV) |
| Original release | 10 January – 3 April 1992 |
Truckers is a stop motion animated series, an adaptation of the first book of Terry Pratchett's The Nome Trilogy, produced in the United Kingdom by Cosgrove Hall for TV, then released on VHS, though edited together into a feature-length film. Cosgrove Hall had plans to produce follow-ups for the remaining two books in the series, but these plans were shelved due to a change of management in the early 1990s. The series consisted of 13 ten-minute episodes. The start of each episode would review the story up until then. At the end of each episode, there would be a cliffhanger, and the program would be continued the following week.
Masklin the Nome and his companions flee their unsustainable motorway-verge home and discover a race of Nomes living in a department store scheduled for demolition. Things are complicated by the store Nomes' religion, which states ‘The Store’ consists of the entire universe, and denies the existence of the ‘outside’.
Masklin discovers from a mysterious object simply called 'The Thing' that all Nomes are descended from extraterrestrial explorers who crashed on Earth thousands of years ago. The Thing, actually a sentient computer from the original Nome starship, helps Masklin plan the escape from the doomed store. Through skill, courage and sheer good luck, Masklin and his friends manage to successfully evacuate the store Nomes before their home is destroyed.
Prices Slashed sees Gurder stood in the lorry angrily denouncing the 'Demon', and is startled into dropping his lighted cigarette into the petrol. With no time for Dorcas to fix the door, the lorry crashes through it moments before the petrol ignites and causes an explosion. They stop a short way down the street to see the store on fire. They drive off and, after a number of close calls, a police car begins pursuing them. The first scene of the first episode then repeats, this time showing Masklin and Dorcas cutting the police car's wiring while the nomes in the truck hide.
The lorry comes to a stop in an abandoned quarry near an airport. Masklin tells the others that they must move on at some point and try to get home. As they watch Concorde fly over, Dorcas remarks that it would be easier to drive than a lorry because it only has three wheels.
The series was made into a short hardcover book published by Ladybird Press in 1992. The book included colour photos from the series.
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