Mongrels (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Mongrels, formerly known under the working titles of We Are Mongrels and The Un-Natural World, is a British puppet-based
situation comedy
series first broadcast on BBC Three
between 22 June and 10 August 2010, with a making-of
documentary entitled "Mongrels Uncovered" broadcast on 11 August 2010. A second series of Mongrels began airing on 7 November, 2011.
The series revolves around the lives of five anthropomorphic
animals who hang around the back of a pub
in Millwall
, the Isle of Dogs
, London
. The characters are Nelson, a metrosexual
fox
(voiced by Rufus Jones
, performed by Andy Heath
); Destiny, a self-centred Afghan hound
(voiced by Lucy Montgomery
, performed by Richard Coombs
); Marion, a "borderline-retarded
" cat
(voiced by Dan Tetsell
, performed by Warrick Brownlow-Pike
); Kali, a grudge-bearing pigeon (voiced by Katy Brand
, performed by Iestyn Evans
); and Vince, a sociopathic foul-mouthed fox (voiced by Paul Kaye
, performed by various puppeteer
s).
The show is aimed at an adult audience, features "neutering
, incontinence
, cannibalism
and catnip overdoses" and humour styles such as slapstick
and farce
. For example, the first episode begins with a scene in which Marion, portrayed as desperately trying to revive his deceased owner, learns she has actually been dead for four months, whereupon he casually gives his cat friends permission to eat her. Mongrels has attracted accusations of plagiarism
, with claims that Mongrels stole ideas from a similar Channel 4
show called Pets
.
lifestyle. Described as: "The only wild fox in East London with subscriptions to all the major broadsheet
s (excluding The Sunday Times
), Nelson is, as he never tires of introducing himself at dinner parties… 'An urbane fox!'"
Nelson's love interest is Destiny (Canis self-absorbedbitchicus), an Afghan hound. However, Destiny has no interest in Nelson. She is the pet dog of Gary (Tony Way
), the landlord of The Lord Nelson. However, like the other humans that appear in the series, he cannot understand what Destiny or what the other animals are saying. Elsewhere there is Marion (Felis retardicus), an idiotic cat to whom Nelson acts as a father-figure. Marion has been abandoned by several owners and is very corruptible. Then there is Kali (Aves aggravaticus), a pigeon who likes to revel in the misfortune of others. She has several grudges, including a hatred of all humans and foxes for the way they treat birds. Lastly, there is Vince (Vulpus c***itcus), a violent, foul-mouthed fox who considers himself a proper animal. Almost all his lines contain at least one swear word
that is always bleeped
over.
There is no over-riding story arc between episodes, but each episode does contain recurring elements. During each episode there are cutaways from the main plot to create extra gags. Most episodes also features at least one celebrity appearance and every episode features a comic song.
children's show Ripley and Scuff
.
Miller described Mongrels as: "an adult sitcom, trying to do for puppetry what American shows like The Simpsons
have done for animation
. Obviously that's aiming very high. Think [stage musical] Avenue Q
meets Family Guy but with puppet animals." He also said that: "We wanted to make something that had the pace of an American animation but with British sensibilities, that was adult, but not crude, that was based in the realities of the animal world, and that didn't rely on the puppets to do the comedy."
The original idea, known as The Un-Natural World was of an urban fox living in Brixton
called Nelson, who was so used to living in the city that he had lost any sense of being an animal. It also featured a cat, Marion, who was trying to encourage Nelson to be more animal-like.
While Miller was working on BBC Three sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
he pitched the idea to producer Stephen McCrum. McCrum criticised the way Miller ended the first script, which ended with Nelson and Marion leave where they live. McCrum told him it was best to set the series in a single place rather than have the characters move from one place to another. McCrum then suggested taking Nelson and Marion, and writing a script about them. After reading the new script, another Two Pints writer, Jon Brown came in to write new scripts. At this time rules were set out with regards to writing the show, such as the animals could not be dressed in clothes unless it was in a flashback sequence or a during song.
The new script was then pitched to the BBC. The pitch tape they made was based on the same pitch used by The Muppet Show
. This was done as a tribute to it, with Miller arguing that when The Muppet Show did it , "it just must have just knocked the socks off the people who saw it, because it's like nothing you've ever seen before, and we thought: 'Why fix what ain't broke", so we did our own very British version of that." The producers liked it but did not fully understand what the show was about. Miller, Brown and a third writer, Daniel Peak began to write scripts over a period of four years. A pilot was eventually filmed and the BBC commissioned a full series, targeted at adults. Despite the adult nature, Millar did not want to make the show too crude
. Eight episodes were filmed so as to spread the cost of making the series over each episode.
and likeable. Developing the character of Destiny, Nelson's love interest, was a challenge to the programme makers. Kali was created to be a villain, with Millar describing her as a "Hitler
-figure". Vince was partly based on the brash version of Nelson.
In the unbroadcast pilot We Are Mongrels, another character was included called Debbie. Debbie was a suicidal
chicken
who never left her coop
. However, it was decided that the character did not go anywhere and could not be sustained for a full series, so the character was axed. Another chicken character called Wendy appeared in the first broadcast episode as a reference to Debbie. Both characters had the same voice actress, Ruth Bratt, who performed Wendy's voice in exactly the same manner as that of Debbie.
It was then decided by the creators to make Marion a foreign character and to find an accent that reflected this. There was discussion about Iran
ian-British comic Omid Djalili
playing the role. In the end, Tetsell was cast after auditioning with a poor version of Djalili's Iranian accent. Tetsell describes the voice as a mixture of, "every accent
on the planet", but with the joke that Marion was meant to be a Persian cat.
.
The show's puppeteers claim there are different problems working with different characters. For example, Destiny is the largest puppet and so moving her is more difficult. As Marion spends much of his time sitting on top of a rubbish bin, his puppeteer, Brownlow-Pike, has to stand inside a bottomless bin for long periods of time. Kali is said to be the most difficult puppet to work with, because as she has no hands she is limited to what she can hold.
. The other is that none of the characters were mongrels
. Therefore new suggestions were called for. Rejected titles included I, Nelson; Humans! Everywhere!; The Garden Gang; Undergrowth and Never Been Stroked. The last of these titles was rejected after one of the show's additional writers, Danielle Ward
; "said it sounded like 'a makeover show for virgins'." During this time the crew referred to the show as Mongrels and it eventually became the show's title.
When writing for Vince the writers blanked out all of the characters swearing like it is done on the show, but when it came to recording the programme the swear words had to be put in for Kaye to read them. During read-throughs of the scripts, a toy horn was honked whenever Kaye swore to give an idea of what it would sound like during the programme.
The show also aims to be environmentally friendly in its production. A report from the BBC's in-house publication Ariel
: "From reusable water bottles filled from tanks of tap water to double-sided scripts, Mongrels is aiming to be the most sustainable production at the BBC." The production team also use reusable or compostable cutlery
in their canteen, reducing any future merchandise packaging to just a barcode, and replacing conventional lighting with fluorescent tube lights. This last move reduced the electricity bill for the second series by a third, saving £500 a week.
Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror wrote: "While most of it is very funny, some of the gags about Harold Shipman
completely misjudge the tone. Maybe the age group BBC3 is aimed at reckon anything is fair game for comedy. Have a word please, someone."
The Independent
s Tom Sutcliffe
said that: "It does have its laughs, though, because the script isn't entirely about crass shock value", but that the sitcom, while aimed at adults, is "not really for grown-ups."
Sam Wollaston of The Guardian
was mainly positive about Mongrels, but said that the main reason he thought it was funny was because it depicted "cuddly children's toys [...] saying things you wouldn't normally expect cuddly children's toys to say. Like 'You are such a cock-end'", and that, "the novelty will wear off at some point not too far away".
According to BARB
the average ratings for each episode was around 300,000 viewers.
Craft and Design Award 2009-2010 for "Production Design - Entertainment and Non-Drama" led by production designer
Simon Rogers. It was also nominated for the award for "Tape and Film Editing - Entertainment and Situation Comedy" led by film editor
Nigel Williams, but lost to Pete versus Life
.
In 2011, Brown won the BAFTA Craft Award
for "Break-through Talent". The series is currently nominated for the Ursa Major Award for "Best Anthrompomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series".
, in which they performed the song "Middle Class is Magical" from the seventh episode of the first series, "Marion The Superfluous Feed Character". The performance was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
, and later broadcast on BBC Two
on 27 August, 2011.
Fit2Fill which claimed the BBC "ripped off" their 2001 Channel 4 sitcom Pets. Fit2Fill claimed they received 30 emails from people saying the series were similar, and they once pitched the idea of Pets to then BBC head of comedy Mark Freeland, who also acted as the executive producer of Mongrels.
The producer of Pets, Andrew Barclay said: "We checked the BBC's Mongrels website this morning and the Beeb do appear to have hired the same puppet builders and puppeteers as Pets. We also notice that Mongrels executive producer is Mark Freeland, to whom we did once pitch a Pets follow-up show."
Comments have been made with regards to the plotlines of some episodes and the similarities between characters. For example, it is claimed that "Both shows feature a conflict between a foul-mouthed character and a more posh character (Nelson and Vince in Mongrels, Hamish and Trevor in Pets)", that "Both shows feature an idiotic character (Marion in Mongrels, JP in Pets)", and "Both shows feature a self-absorbed female character (Destiny in Mongrels, Davina in Pets).
The co-creator and co-producer of Pets, Brian West, went on to post his views on a BBC blog post about Mongrels. Following this, a telephone conversation between West and Mongrels producer McCrum took place where McCrum, "claimed that no-one from the BBC production team had watched Pets before or during the development and production of their series." From this West responded that: "We might therefore conclude that any similarities between the two shows is 100% coincidental." West left people to judge for themselves whether Pets had been copied.
Afterwards, Andy Heath, a puppet builder who worked for both Mongrels and Pets, said on the same blog that he met Adam Miller in 2002 after he [Heath] finished working on Pets in 2000, to work on Ripley and Scuff. Miller then began developing the idea for Mongrels in 2004. Heath then went on to say:
(region 2 and 4
) and Blu-ray disc
(region 2) on 16 August 2010. The DVD and Blu-ray discs featured the unbroadcast pilot amongst their extras.
Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
series first broadcast on BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
between 22 June and 10 August 2010, with a making-of
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
documentary entitled "Mongrels Uncovered" broadcast on 11 August 2010. A second series of Mongrels began airing on 7 November, 2011.
The series revolves around the lives of five anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
animals who hang around the back of a pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Millwall
Millwall
Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the south of the developments at West India Docks, including Canary Wharf.-History:...
, the Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a former island in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames.-Etymology:...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The characters are Nelson, a metrosexual
Metrosexual
Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
(voiced by Rufus Jones
Rufus Jones (actor)
Rufus Jones is an English actor, comedian and writer.Rufus is a member of the five-man British comedy sketch group the Dutch Elm Conservatoire. The group were nominated for the prestigious Perrier award at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe....
, performed by Andy Heath
Andy Heath (puppeteer)
Andy Heath is a British television puppeteer most noted for working as the head puppeteer for the BBC Three situation comedy Mongrels, where he controls the main character, Nelson the metrosexual fox.. He also puppeteered Hacker T...
); Destiny, a self-centred Afghan hound
Afghan Hound
The Afghan Hound is one of the oldest sighthound dog breeds. Distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat and its tail with a ring curl at the end, the breed acquired its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan, where it was originally used to hunt hares and gazelles by coursing them....
(voiced by Lucy Montgomery
Lucy Montgomery (actor)
Lucy Montgomery is an English comedian, actress and writer, best known for her radio and television work.Montgomery is married to fellow comedian Rhys Thomas; they have two daughters – Polly and Rosie Rae – and live in London.-Career:While at Cambridge University, Montgomery was a member of...
, performed by Richard Coombs
Richard Coombs
Richard Coombs is a puppeteer from England, who has worked extensively on many British television shows, feature films, commercials & music videos. In 1987 & 1988, he worked on the ITV Saturday morning children's show, Get Fresh, where he operated the puppet, Gilbert the Alien, alongside fellow...
); Marion, a "borderline-retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
" cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
(voiced by Dan Tetsell
Dan Tetsell
Dan Tetsell is a comedian and writer for radio, television and stage. He has worked on a number of projects, including The Museum of Everything, That Was Then, This Is Now and Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections....
, performed by Warrick Brownlow-Pike
Warrick Brownlow-Pike
Warrick Brownlow-Pike is a British puppeteer.* Space Pirates, CBeebies* Carrie and David's Popshop, CBeebies, Scotland* Oucho T.Cactus, Puppeteer for CBBC with presenter Ed Petrie...
); Kali, a grudge-bearing pigeon (voiced by Katy Brand
Katy Brand
Katy Brand is an English actress, comedian and writer known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4....
, performed by Iestyn Evans
Iestyn Evans
Iestyn Evans is a television puppeteer most famous on his work on the BBC Three situation comedy Mongrels, where he is in control of the character of Kali the pigeon. He has also worked on children's programmes such as The Roly Mo Show and Fimbles....
); and Vince, a sociopathic foul-mouthed fox (voiced by Paul Kaye
Paul Kaye
Paul Kaye is an English comedian and actor. He achieved notoriety in 1995 portraying the character of Dennis Pennis, a shock interviewer on The Sunday Show...
, performed by various puppeteer
Puppeteer
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, such as a puppet, in real time to create the illusion of life. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or...
s).
The show is aimed at an adult audience, features "neutering
Neutering
Neutering, from the Latin neuter , is the removal of an animal's reproductive organ, either all of it or a considerably large part. The process is often used in reference to males whereas spaying is often reserved for females. Colloquially, both terms are often referred to as fixing...
, incontinence
Incontinence
Incontinence or Incontinent may refer to:*Fecal incontinence, the inability to control one's bowels*Incontinence *Incontinent , a 1981 album by Fad Gadget*Urinary incontinence, the involuntary excretion of urine...
, cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
and catnip overdoses" and humour styles such as slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
and farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
. For example, the first episode begins with a scene in which Marion, portrayed as desperately trying to revive his deceased owner, learns she has actually been dead for four months, whereupon he casually gives his cat friends permission to eat her. Mongrels has attracted accusations of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, with claims that Mongrels stole ideas from a similar Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
show called Pets
Pets (TV series)
Pets is an adult British puppet sitcom, produced by Fit2Fill Productions Limited. It was originally aired on Channel 4 and ran for two series, the first being broadcast in 2001, and the second in 2002...
.
Plot
Mongrels looks at the lives of five animals that hang around the back of a pub called The Lord Nelson in Millwall, on the Isle of Dogs in the East End of London. The hero of the series is Nelson (Vulpus metrosexualus), a fox who lives a metrosexualMetrosexual
Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
lifestyle. Described as: "The only wild fox in East London with subscriptions to all the major broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
s (excluding The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
), Nelson is, as he never tires of introducing himself at dinner parties… 'An urbane fox!'"
Nelson's love interest is Destiny (Canis self-absorbedbitchicus), an Afghan hound. However, Destiny has no interest in Nelson. She is the pet dog of Gary (Tony Way
Tony Way
Tony Way is an English actor, comedian, and writer, who is best known for playing various characters, in the hit BBC sketch comedy TV series Tittybangbang and playing the character Dave in the hit comedy movie, Ali G Indahouse....
), the landlord of The Lord Nelson. However, like the other humans that appear in the series, he cannot understand what Destiny or what the other animals are saying. Elsewhere there is Marion (Felis retardicus), an idiotic cat to whom Nelson acts as a father-figure. Marion has been abandoned by several owners and is very corruptible. Then there is Kali (Aves aggravaticus), a pigeon who likes to revel in the misfortune of others. She has several grudges, including a hatred of all humans and foxes for the way they treat birds. Lastly, there is Vince (Vulpus c***itcus), a violent, foul-mouthed fox who considers himself a proper animal. Almost all his lines contain at least one swear word
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
that is always bleeped
Bleep censor
A bleep censor is the replacement of profanity or classified information with a beep sound , in television or radio...
over.
There is no over-riding story arc between episodes, but each episode does contain recurring elements. During each episode there are cutaways from the main plot to create extra gags. Most episodes also features at least one celebrity appearance and every episode features a comic song.
Cast
- Rufus JonesRufus JonesRufus Matthew Jones was an American writer, magazine editor, philosopher, and college professor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Haverford Emergency Unit . One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century, he was a Quaker historian and theologian as well as a philosopher...
as the voice of Nelson, an urban fox who has embraced a middle-class, metrosexualMetrosexualMetrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
lifestyle. - Dan TetsellDan TetsellDan Tetsell is a comedian and writer for radio, television and stage. He has worked on a number of projects, including The Museum of Everything, That Was Then, This Is Now and Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections....
as the voice of Marion, a homeless Persian alley cat. - Lucy MontgomeryLucy Montgomery (actor)Lucy Montgomery is an English comedian, actress and writer, best known for her radio and television work.Montgomery is married to fellow comedian Rhys Thomas; they have two daughters – Polly and Rosie Rae – and live in London.-Career:While at Cambridge University, Montgomery was a member of...
as the voice of Destiny, a beautiful but spoiled Afghan Hound. - Katy BrandKaty BrandKaty Brand is an English actress, comedian and writer known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4....
as the voice of Kali, a cynical, vindictive and street smart pigeon. - Paul KayePaul KayePaul Kaye is an English comedian and actor. He achieved notoriety in 1995 portraying the character of Dennis Pennis, a shock interviewer on The Sunday Show...
as the voice of Vince, a violent, foul-mouthed sociopathic fox. - Tony WayTony WayTony Way is an English actor, comedian, and writer, who is best known for playing various characters, in the hit BBC sketch comedy TV series Tittybangbang and playing the character Dave in the hit comedy movie, Ali G Indahouse....
as Gary, Destiny's owner.
Creation
The show took five years to make. The idea was first suggested between the creator and director of Mongrels, Adam Miller, and the show's head puppeteer, Andy Heath, when they worked on ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
children's show Ripley and Scuff
Ripley and Scuff
Ripley and Scuff is a children's programme that was produced for ITV's children's strand CITV and originally aired from 7 January 2002 to 28 February 2003...
.
Miller described Mongrels as: "an adult sitcom, trying to do for puppetry what American shows like The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
have done for animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. Obviously that's aiming very high. Think [stage musical] Avenue Q
Avenue Q
Avenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller...
meets Family Guy but with puppet animals." He also said that: "We wanted to make something that had the pace of an American animation but with British sensibilities, that was adult, but not crude, that was based in the realities of the animal world, and that didn't rely on the puppets to do the comedy."
The original idea, known as The Un-Natural World was of an urban fox living in Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
called Nelson, who was so used to living in the city that he had lost any sense of being an animal. It also featured a cat, Marion, who was trying to encourage Nelson to be more animal-like.
While Miller was working on BBC Three sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps was a BBC sitcom created and written by Susan Nickson. It is set in the town of Runcorn in Cheshire, England, and initially revolves around the lives of five twenty-somethings, played by Ralf Little , Sheridan Smith , Will Mellor , Natalie Casey and...
he pitched the idea to producer Stephen McCrum. McCrum criticised the way Miller ended the first script, which ended with Nelson and Marion leave where they live. McCrum told him it was best to set the series in a single place rather than have the characters move from one place to another. McCrum then suggested taking Nelson and Marion, and writing a script about them. After reading the new script, another Two Pints writer, Jon Brown came in to write new scripts. At this time rules were set out with regards to writing the show, such as the animals could not be dressed in clothes unless it was in a flashback sequence or a during song.
The new script was then pitched to the BBC. The pitch tape they made was based on the same pitch used by The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
. This was done as a tribute to it, with Miller arguing that when The Muppet Show did it , "it just must have just knocked the socks off the people who saw it, because it's like nothing you've ever seen before, and we thought: 'Why fix what ain't broke", so we did our own very British version of that." The producers liked it but did not fully understand what the show was about. Miller, Brown and a third writer, Daniel Peak began to write scripts over a period of four years. A pilot was eventually filmed and the BBC commissioned a full series, targeted at adults. Despite the adult nature, Millar did not want to make the show too crude
Off-color humor
The term off-color humor is an Americanism used to describe jokes, prose, poems, black comedy, blue comedy, insult comedy, cringe comedy and skits that deal with topics that are considered to be in poor taste or overly vulgar by the prevailing morality of a culture...
. Eight episodes were filmed so as to spread the cost of making the series over each episode.
Character development
When writing for the commissioned series began, the character of Nelson was originally depicted as being brash and obnoxious. This was later changed to make him more metrosexual, middle classMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
and likeable. Developing the character of Destiny, Nelson's love interest, was a challenge to the programme makers. Kali was created to be a villain, with Millar describing her as a "Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
-figure". Vince was partly based on the brash version of Nelson.
In the unbroadcast pilot We Are Mongrels, another character was included called Debbie. Debbie was a suicidal
Suicide crisis
A suicide crisis, suicidal crisis, or potential suicide, is a situation in which a person is attempting to kill him or herself or is seriously contemplating or planning to do so...
chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
who never left her coop
Chicken coop
A chicken coop is a building where female chickens are kept. Inside there are often nest boxes for egg laying and perches on which the birds can sleep, although coops for meat birds seldom have either of these features....
. However, it was decided that the character did not go anywhere and could not be sustained for a full series, so the character was axed. Another chicken character called Wendy appeared in the first broadcast episode as a reference to Debbie. Both characters had the same voice actress, Ruth Bratt, who performed Wendy's voice in exactly the same manner as that of Debbie.
Casting
Rufus Jones was the first person offered to play the role of Nelson. After several other auditions with other actors, Jones was called upon to play the part. Paul Kaye at one time provided the voice for Nelson before taking the role of Vince.It was then decided by the creators to make Marion a foreign character and to find an accent that reflected this. There was discussion about Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian-British comic Omid Djalili
Omid Djalili
Omid Djalili is a British Iranian stand-up comedian, actor, television producer and writer.-Personal life:Djalili was born in Chelsea, London to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself...
playing the role. In the end, Tetsell was cast after auditioning with a poor version of Djalili's Iranian accent. Tetsell describes the voice as a mixture of, "every accent
Accent
-Speech and language:* Accent , pronunciation characteristic of a certain locality* Accent , of a word* Stress , tone levels and emphasis used in many languages for words or grammar* A diacritical mark is also known as an accent....
on the planet", but with the joke that Marion was meant to be a Persian cat.
Puppets
When the puppet for Marion was first created, he was depicted as having stripy fur, but looked more like a mouse in the eyes of the crew, so his puppet was changed. Marion's image was based on topless photos of the comic actor James CordenJames Corden
James Kimberley Corden is an English actor, television writer, producer and presenter. He is co-creator and star of BBC comedy shows Gavin & Stacey and Horne & Corden, and acted in the 2009 film Lesbian Vampire Killers....
.
The show's puppeteers claim there are different problems working with different characters. For example, Destiny is the largest puppet and so moving her is more difficult. As Marion spends much of his time sitting on top of a rubbish bin, his puppeteer, Brownlow-Pike, has to stand inside a bottomless bin for long periods of time. Kali is said to be the most difficult puppet to work with, because as she has no hands she is limited to what she can hold.
Recording
The show was originally entitled We Are Mongrels, but the title had to be changed for two reasons: one was that the title was too similar to another BBC Three comedy show, We Are KlangWe Are Klang
We Are Klang is a three-piece sit-com group consisting of comedians Greg Davies, Steve Hall and Marek Larwood. Klang are noted for their anarchic and frequently rude comedy....
. The other is that none of the characters were mongrels
Mixed breed
A mixed breed is a domesticated animal descended from multiple breeds of the same species, often breeding without any human intervention, recordkeeping, or selective breeding...
. Therefore new suggestions were called for. Rejected titles included I, Nelson; Humans! Everywhere!; The Garden Gang; Undergrowth and Never Been Stroked. The last of these titles was rejected after one of the show's additional writers, Danielle Ward
Danielle Ward
Danielle Ward is a British stand-up comedian and writer.-Career:In 2006 Ward won the Time Outs Critic's Choice award for Best Newcomer and wrote Take A Break Tales - exaggerated adaptations of women's magazine stories - in which she appeared with Neil Edmond, Emma Fryer and Isy Suttie at the...
; "said it sounded like 'a makeover show for virgins'." During this time the crew referred to the show as Mongrels and it eventually became the show's title.
When writing for Vince the writers blanked out all of the characters swearing like it is done on the show, but when it came to recording the programme the swear words had to be put in for Kaye to read them. During read-throughs of the scripts, a toy horn was honked whenever Kaye swore to give an idea of what it would sound like during the programme.
The show also aims to be environmentally friendly in its production. A report from the BBC's in-house publication Ariel
Ariel (newspaper)
Ariel is the in-house magazine/newspaper of the BBC, published weekly on Tuesdays, and named after the statue of Shakespeare's Prospero and Ariel by Eric Gill on the facade of the BBC's Broadcasting House, London....
: "From reusable water bottles filled from tanks of tap water to double-sided scripts, Mongrels is aiming to be the most sustainable production at the BBC." The production team also use reusable or compostable cutlery
Cutlery
Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...
in their canteen, reducing any future merchandise packaging to just a barcode, and replacing conventional lighting with fluorescent tube lights. This last move reduced the electricity bill for the second series by a third, saving £500 a week.
Reception
Mongrels has been given mixed reviews. The main comments have been that most of the jokes work, but some are in poor taste. A reviewer for tvBite.com said that the show was "a bit hit and miss" but also that, "the hits are genuinely funny and even the laugh-free moments have a well-written sheen. Time and effort have been spent on the jokes – and it shows."Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror wrote: "While most of it is very funny, some of the gags about Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman
Harold Fredrick Shipman was an English doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him....
completely misjudge the tone. Maybe the age group BBC3 is aimed at reckon anything is fair game for comedy. Have a word please, someone."
The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
s Tom Sutcliffe
Tom Sutcliffe (broadcaster)
Thomas Sutcliffe is a British journalist and arts broadcaster.Sutcliffe studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge...
said that: "It does have its laughs, though, because the script isn't entirely about crass shock value", but that the sitcom, while aimed at adults, is "not really for grown-ups."
Sam Wollaston of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
was mainly positive about Mongrels, but said that the main reason he thought it was funny was because it depicted "cuddly children's toys [...] saying things you wouldn't normally expect cuddly children's toys to say. Like 'You are such a cock-end'", and that, "the novelty will wear off at some point not too far away".
According to BARB
Barb
Barb may refer to:* A backward-facing point on a fish hook or similar implement, rendering extraction from the victim's flesh more difficult* Wind barbs for each station on a map of reported weather conditions...
the average ratings for each episode was around 300,000 viewers.
Awards and nominations
Mongrels won the Royal Television SocietyRoyal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Craft and Design Award 2009-2010 for "Production Design - Entertainment and Non-Drama" led by production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
Simon Rogers. It was also nominated for the award for "Tape and Film Editing - Entertainment and Situation Comedy" led by film editor
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
Nigel Williams, but lost to Pete versus Life
Pete versus Life
Pete versus Life is a Channel 4 sitcom created by George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore. It stars Rafe Spall and the first episode was aired on 6 August 2010...
.
In 2011, Brown won the BAFTA Craft Award
British Academy Television Craft Awards
The British Academy Television Craft Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1999.-External links:*...
for "Break-through Talent". The series is currently nominated for the Ursa Major Award for "Best Anthrompomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series".
Appearances in other programmes
On 13 August, 2011, the cast of Mongrels took part in the first ever Comedy PromThe Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
, in which they performed the song "Middle Class is Magical" from the seventh episode of the first series, "Marion The Superfluous Feed Character". The performance was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
, and later broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 27 August, 2011.
Plagiarism accusations
Mongrels has attracted anger from production companyProduction company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
Fit2Fill which claimed the BBC "ripped off" their 2001 Channel 4 sitcom Pets. Fit2Fill claimed they received 30 emails from people saying the series were similar, and they once pitched the idea of Pets to then BBC head of comedy Mark Freeland, who also acted as the executive producer of Mongrels.
The producer of Pets, Andrew Barclay said: "We checked the BBC's Mongrels website this morning and the Beeb do appear to have hired the same puppet builders and puppeteers as Pets. We also notice that Mongrels executive producer is Mark Freeland, to whom we did once pitch a Pets follow-up show."
Comments have been made with regards to the plotlines of some episodes and the similarities between characters. For example, it is claimed that "Both shows feature a conflict between a foul-mouthed character and a more posh character (Nelson and Vince in Mongrels, Hamish and Trevor in Pets)", that "Both shows feature an idiotic character (Marion in Mongrels, JP in Pets)", and "Both shows feature a self-absorbed female character (Destiny in Mongrels, Davina in Pets).
The co-creator and co-producer of Pets, Brian West, went on to post his views on a BBC blog post about Mongrels. Following this, a telephone conversation between West and Mongrels producer McCrum took place where McCrum, "claimed that no-one from the BBC production team had watched Pets before or during the development and production of their series." From this West responded that: "We might therefore conclude that any similarities between the two shows is 100% coincidental." West left people to judge for themselves whether Pets had been copied.
Afterwards, Andy Heath, a puppet builder who worked for both Mongrels and Pets, said on the same blog that he met Adam Miller in 2002 after he [Heath] finished working on Pets in 2000, to work on Ripley and Scuff. Miller then began developing the idea for Mongrels in 2004. Heath then went on to say:
"Pets was Pets. Mongrels is Mongrels. If, as a viewer, you can sit down and say they are the same, then there is little point of making any new shows, if the slightest similarity (puppets and animals) can be suggested as idea stealing. I am surprised Basil BrushBasil BrushBasil Brush is a fictional anthropomorphic fox raconteur, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts and comic strips...
hasn't been on the blower, as he is a fox, and that must be a copy! Right? I worked on both, and know for a fact where they both come from. Two very different ideas."
Merchandise
The first series of Mongrels was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
(region 2 and 4
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
) and Blu-ray disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
(region 2) on 16 August 2010. The DVD and Blu-ray discs featured the unbroadcast pilot amongst their extras.
See also
- PetsPets (TV series)Pets is an adult British puppet sitcom, produced by Fit2Fill Productions Limited. It was originally aired on Channel 4 and ran for two series, the first being broadcast in 2001, and the second in 2002...
- The FeralsThe FeralsThe Ferals is an Australian children's comedy television series created by Wendy Gray and Claire Henderson and produced by the ABC. It ran from 1994 to 1995, and it featured a mixture of people and animal puppets known as the "Ferals." It was lauded for its irreverent humour and distinctive...
- Fur TVFur TVFur TV is a comedy puppet show produced by MTV Networks Europe and airs on MTV channels throughout Europe. The show uses Muppets style puppetry, but in a more adult setting. The characters are shown to undertake human activities such as drinking and having sex.-Cast:The main characters are Fat Ed...
- Meet the FeeblesMeet the FeeblesMeet the Feebles is a 1989 black comedy film directed by Peter Jackson. It features Jim Henson-esque puppets in a perverse comic satire. Like Henson's Muppets, the Feebles are animal-figured puppets assembled together as members of a theatre troupe...
- Avenue QAvenue QAvenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller...
External links
- Script from Mongrels Series 1, Episode 3 from BBC Writers Room
- Mongrels Interview 2011