Bananaman

BANANAMAN
Made by: 101 Productions
Shown on: BBC
Years shown: 1983 onwards (probably still turning up on Nickelodeon)

Everyone remembers the deal: the marvellously-named Eric Twinge lives at 29 Acacia Road, and whenever he eats a banana he turns into Bananaman, “Ever alert for the call to action!” Muscle-bound, with an unfeasible jawline, and dressed in blue and yellow spandex, Bananaman was actually quite a prat, and more often than not needed help from his friend, Crow (a crow, as if you hadn’t guessed.)

Eric fancied the glamorous news-reader, Fiona, but she was only interested in his fruit-fuelled alter-ego, which is of course a steal from Superman; also, his enemies include General Blight, Dr Gloom and the alien Nerks, whose stupid names spoof the ludicrous villains from the 1960s Batman TV series. To make all this subversiveness credible, the voices were provided by comedy darlings The Goodies - Tim Brooke-Taylor (Eric), Graeme Garden (Bananaman) and Bill Oddie (the police commissioner.) Unfortunately, this didn’t stop the cartoon from being fairly lame, especially following the introduction of the hero’s friend and comrade, Appleman.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 4/10

(Thanks to a very strange foreign website for the borrowed pic!)