''House of Rock'' is a satirical

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

that aired on the UK's

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

from 2000 to 2002. It revolved around the afterlives of some of the world's most famous dead rock stars, including

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

and

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted int ...

. Bolan was replaced in the second series by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. Forced to share a house in

limbo In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...

, they try to cope with isolation, clashing personalities and relentless boredom. The show aired as part of Channel 4's late-night 4 Music. Often, segments of the episode would appear as links between videos, reminiscent of

Beavis and Butthead ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, an ...

. On average, each episode from the first series was 5 minutes long, while each episode from the second series was 10 minutes long. The characters occupy a huge rundown house in a bleak, depressing landscape with nothing around seemingly for miles. Much of the comedy comes from each character's frustrations with their surroundings, associates and inability to do anything further now they're dead.

Characters

Freddie Mercury

Extremely theatrical and flamboyant, Freddie is highly strung and quick to anger. He openly despises all of his housemates, especially the Notorious B.I.G. He keeps a cat called Galileo.

John Denver

The group's only optimist, John is sweet and naïve, convinced there is some hope of emerging from limbo. As such he is constantly abused and berated by other more cynical housemates. His love of peace has led him to severely suppress his anger. John can often be heard using phrases used in ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animation, animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative List of Scooby-Doo media, media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the orig ...

'', such as "jinkies!"

Kurt Cobain

Paranoid and depressed, Kurt is so tired of life he owns a pad of pre-printed suicide notes that he can stick anywhere like

Post-it notes A Post-it Note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easily ...

. Nevertheless, he is quite friendly, especially with Biggie and John. Kurt's dream is to be series champion on the UK gameshow ''

Fifteen to One ''Fifteen to One'' is a British general knowledge quiz show broadcast on Channel 4. It originally ran from 11 January 1988 to 19 December 2003 and had a reputation for being one of the toughest quizzes on TV. Throughout the show's original run, ...

''.

The Notorious B.I.G.

Known as "Biggie" within the house, Notorious is especially depressed with limbo, since he has had to leave all the trappings of his hip-hop lifestyle behind. Sometimes his sexual frustration is so great he has to take it out on the house's postman, a constantly shuddering

Sid Vicious John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...

. He cannot stand Freddie Mercury, and would have shot him long ago if his gun was capable of doing anything.

Marc Bolan

The house's resident

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

, elfin Marc is only capable of talking in twee rhyming couplets in the style of his lyrics. Frustrated with his hippie sensibilities and feyness, when Satan

Davina McCall Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She was the presenter of the reality show ''Big Brother (UK), Big Brother'' during its run on Channel 4 between 2000 and 2010. She also hosted Channel 4's '' ...

demands one of their number join her in hell '' Big Brother'' style, the group agree on Marc. They are then horrified to discover his replacement is the peace-and-love obsessed John Lennon.

John Lennon

John, pompous and pretentious, with a droning Scouse voice. He comes with his own Yellow Submarine, which he wears around his waist at all times.

Cast

Richard Preddy Richard Preddy (died 7 July 2020) was a British comedy writer and performer, most noted for working in the sketch show ''Smack the Pony'' and the sitcom ''Green Wing''. He had a working partnership with fellow writer Gary Howe since 1987. Perf ...

- (voices -

& others) *

Gary Howe Gary Howe is a British comedy writer and performer, most noted for working in the sketch show ''Smack the Pony'' and the sitcom ''Green Wing''. He has had a working partnership with fellow writer Richard Preddy since 1988. Renowned zoologist ...

- (voices -

& others) *

Gavin Claxton Gavin Claxton (born 19 July 1966, in Derby, England) is a British film producer, producer, screenwriter and film director, director of the feature film comedy The All Together starring Martin Freeman and Danny Dyer. He is also producer, co-writer ...

- (voices -

& others) *Cavin Cornwall - (voices -

) *

Morwenna Banks Tamsin Morwenna Banks (born 20 September 1961) is a British comedy actress, writer and producer. She appeared in the Channel 4 comedy sketch show '' Absolutely'', and wrote, produced, and appeared in the British ensemble film ''The Announcemen ...

(voices)

Crew

- Writer *

- Writer *Stuart Evans - Animation Director *

- Producer

External links