CBBC Memories – Brum.

Brum (CBBC, 1991-1994, 2001-2002)

This is yet more CBBC fun from the early-90s. The first thing that is notable about Brum is that this was produced by Ragdoll. They were known for producing a few other children’s shows at this point, including Pob’s Programme and Rosie And Jim, but they were also behind Teletubbies, which would go on to be an incredible success that would make people billionaires (well probably), but this was still in the future.

Brum featured the adventures of a small antique car (it looks like he has a face!). And it was another of those ideas. Everyone seems to know that Brum will drive off by himself to cause a stir wherever he goes except for the owner, who has no idea, thinking that he sits quietly in the museum. This was set in a place known as The Big Town, although the majority of the episodes were actually made on location in Birmingham.

The episodes contained no dialogue, just a few sound effects, including some from Brum who could be rather expressive, and he was often “bobbing his suspension” (well that’s what they call it now is it). The story was narrated by Toyah Willcox, who had been a pop star in the 80s of course, and she was still working as an actress too (she would also make a memorable performance in the later CBBC show Barmy Aunt Boomerang).

The episodes of Brum usually lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes, and there were two series in the 90s. Some of them were released on VHS, but I never had these. I do remember episodes being shown often though, including the parts of Brum moving and strange things happening (they never did an episode where he got done for having fake number plates though). Could this small car really be so adventurous?

I don’t remember this, but it seems that a decade on from the original run, some more episodes were made, and these were designed to also be shown on the new (at the time) digital channel CBeebies. And in more recent years, there were even more adventures, featuring a computer-generated version of our automobile hero that debuted online, and this would mean that the various stories span almost three decades now.