Bad Penny (TV Series)

''Bad Penny'' is a

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

sitcom written by English comedy writer

Dean Wilkinson Dean Earle Wilkinson (born 18 April 1967) is an English comedy writer. He wrote the multi-award-winning ''SMTV Live and Chums'' for Ant & Dec, and scripted the Sony console game series LittleBigPlanet. Early life Dean Earle Wilkinson was born i ...

. It ran for two series (13 episodes) from 2003 to 2004. It starred CBBC presenter Anne Foy as the happy and sweet, yet troubled,

Penny Dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to ...

, who was constantly trying to thwart the surreal and crooked dealings of her wayward family. Penny's dim-witted and henpecked father, Pa, was played by comedian

Graham Fellows Graham David Fellows (born 22 May 1959) is an English actor and musician, best known for releasing the 1978 single "Jilted John", which reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart, and creating the comedic character John Shuttleworth in 1986. Jilted ...

a.k.a. John Shuttleworth. In each episode, Penny would also have to contend with strange and bizarre characters that stumbled through her wardrobe, an occasional portal to other worlds and dimensions. The noble Penny always strove to help characters such as a foul mouthed runaway scarecrow, a

Dickensian Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

rat-catcher A rat-catcher is a person who kills or captures rats as a professional form of pest control. Keeping the rat population under control was practiced in Europe to prevent the spread of diseases, most notoriously the Black Death, and to prevent d ...

chasing a giant rat called Lord Ironside, and Chips – a

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...

space pilot dog in a story that borrowed from the plot of the 1968 film, ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...

''. Indeed, the show's running catchphrase "This is a mad house, a mad house!" was taken directly from the film and was uttered once in every episode. The humour was a surreal blend of slapstick and intelligent dialogue with

Pythonesque Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...

self-contained stories, sub plots and throwaway

vignettes Vignette may refer to: * Vignette (entertainment), a sketch in a sketch comedy * Vignette (graphic design), decorative designs in books (originally in the form of leaves and vines) to separate sections or chapters * Vignette (literature), short, i ...

. The show's cast boasted a regular troupe of actors who played different parts each episode, including ''

That's Life! ''That's Life!'' was a satirical TV consumer affairs programme on the BBC, at its height regularly reaching audiences of fifteen to twenty million, and receiving 10–15,000 letters a week. The series broadcast on BBC1 for twenty-one years, ...

'''s

Adrian Mills Adrian Mills (born 16 July 1956) is a British television presenter and actor. He appeared on ''That's Life!'' with Esther Rantzen for seven years until 1994. Since then, he has presented talk show ''Central Weekend Live'', reported for BBC view ...

, ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'''s Martin Hancock and character actor Rusty Goffe who appeared in the original ''

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl. The film ...

'' as an

Oompa-Loompa This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', his 1972 sequel ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', and the former's film adaptations, ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971) and '' ...

, and the original ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' as a Jawa and a Droid. Goffe, coincidentally enough, played Goober in ''

Stupid! Stupid! is a British television comedy sketch show aimed at children of primary and secondary school age, which was first broadcast on CBBC and subsequently BBC One. Main characters King Stupid (played in Series 1 by Marcus Brigstocke, and Se ...

'', another CBBC show written by Dean Wilkinson. Series 1 was directed by

Graeme Harper Graeme Harper (born 11 March 1945) is a British television director. He is best known for his work on the science-fiction series ''Doctor Who'', for which he is the only person to have directed episodes of both the original run (1963–89) and ...

, who directed 1980s episodes of ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' as well as episodes of the 2006 series featuring

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

. 2003 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings 2000s British children's television series BBC children's television shows British children's science fiction television series BBC television sitcoms English-language television shows {{BBC-tv-prog-stub