{{Infobox television , image = , caption = , alt_name = , genre =

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 ...

, creator =

Tony Ross Anthony Lee Ross (born 10 August 1938) is a British author and illustrator of children's picture books. In Britain, he is best known for writing and illustrating his Little Princess books and for illustrating the Horrid Henry series by Frances ...

, developer = , writer =

, director = , creative_director = , presenter = , starring = , judges = , voices = , narrated = Roy Kinnear , theme_music_composer = Duncan Lamont , opentheme = , endtheme = , composer = Duncan Lamont , country = United Kingdom , language = English , num_series = 1 , num_episodes = 26 , list_episodes = , executive_producer = , producer = Clive Juster , editor =

David McKee David John McKee (2 January 1935 – 6 April 2022) was a British writer and illustrator, chiefly of children's books and animations. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was UK nominee for the biennial, international Hans Chris ...

, location = , cinematography = , camera = , runtime = 5 minutes , company =

King Rollo Films King Rollo Films Ltd, known as King Rollo Films, is an animation production company established in 1978 by David McKee. For over 30 years, the company has been producing cartoons for children's television. Their studios are based in Honiton, Engla ...

, distributor = , channel =

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

, picture_format = , audio_format = , first_aired = {{start date, 1984, 9, 11, df=y , last_aired = {{end date, 1984, 10, 16, df=y , preceded_by = , followed_by = , related = Towser is a British series of children's books created by veteran children's writer and illustrator

and published by Anderson Press. The series is about an intelligent dog, Towser, and his friends The King, Dr. Smelly, and Sadie; and a variety of adversaries such as the Terrible Thing, the Water Rats, and Goblin Gobble.

Television series

The book series spawned an animated television series narrated by Roy Kinnear and made by British animation studios

(best known for making well known animated works for children such as ''

King Rollo King Rollo is a children's character, created by David McKee in 1980. He is the main character in a series of books, animations narrated by Ray Brooks, and a comic strip in the magazine ''Buttons''. Thirteen episodes of the animation were prod ...

'', '' Mr Benn'' and ''

Spot Spot or SPOT may refer to: Places * Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States * The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia * South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse People * Spot (produ ...

'') for ITV Central which ran for one season of 26 episodes. It was made in 1982 and aired on

as part of

Children's ITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

on 11 September 1984 and ending on 16 October on the same year. The series was also repeated on ITV in 1988 for a short while and aired one last time in August of that year as part of the summer morning programming on Children's ITV. Towser later aired on

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 ...

in 1990 and was shown as part of their block of classic children's television series ''Take 5'' in 1994 along with other children's programmes that had previously aired on other networks such as ''

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

'', '' Mio Mao'', '' The Magic Roundabout'', '' Willo the Wisp'', '' Tales of the Riverbank'', '' Mr Men'', ''

Fred Basset ''Fred Basset'' is a comic strip about a male basset hound. The cartoon was created by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham and published first in the ''Daily Mail'' on 8 July 1963. Fred's cartoon strips are renamed as ''Wurzel'' in Germany, ''Lill ...

'', ''

Ivor the Engine ''Ivor the Engine'' is a British cutout animation television series created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's Smallfilms company. It follows the adventures of a small green steam locomotive who lives in the "top left-hand corner of Wales" a ...

'' and ''

Roobarb ''Roobarb'' (also known as ''Roobarb and Custard'') is a British animated children's television series, created by Grange Calveley and originally shown on BBC1 just before the evening news. Each cartoon, written by Calveley and directed by Bob ...

''. It has also been broadcast on cable television on The Children's Channel and was shown there numerous of times from 1985 to 1996.

''Play It Again''

Towser was later joined by King Rollo Films' other television programmes '' Mr Benn'', ''

'' and ''

Victor and Maria ''Victor & Maria'' is a British animated children's television series produced by King Rollo Films. It originally broadcast on the British TV channel ITV in 1983, it told the stories of a large polar bear, Victor, and his friend Maria, a littl ...

'' and both of them aired with a 40-minute compilation programme called ''

Play It Again ''Play It Again'' is a documentary television series on BBC One, featuring celebrities trying to learn to play musical instruments. The series is produced by Diverse Production and started on 25 March 2007 and is narrated by Tamsin Greig. Epi ...

''. The theme song was sung by jazz and blues singer

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an e ...

Global broadcasts

Towser also aired in several different countries such as ABC TV in Australia (it first aired on the ABC in early 1984 several months before its UK television debut), TV One and

TV2 Channel 2 or TV 2 may refer to: Television networks, channels and stations *Channel 2 (Iran), operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting *Channel 2 (Israel), a commercial television station *, entertainment and music television in Latvia * ...

in New Zealand,

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

and M-Net in South Africa, XEIPN-TV 11 in Mexico, Channel 5 in Singapore (as part of ''Play It Again''),

NTA NTA may refer to: * Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, a method for visualizing and analyzing particles * National Tax Agency, the official tax collecting agency of Japan * National Tax Association, a non-profit organization in United States * Nati ...

in Nigeria and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

(being shown on the Nick Jr. series '' Eureeka's Castle'') and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

(being shown on the children's anthology series '' Small World'') in the US.

Availability

All 26 episodes of the show were released on DVD in the UK by Demand DVD in 2013.

Episodes

:01. Towser and the Terrible Thing :02. Towser and Sadie's Birthday :03. Towser and the Lion :04. Towser and the Water Rats :05. Towser and the Smile Machine :06. Towser and Goblin Gobble :07. Towser and the Magic Apple :08. Towser and the Nosey Parker :09. Towser and Sadie's Robot :10. Towser and the Holiday :11. Towser and the Alien Invader :12. Towser and the Funny Face :13. Towser and the Secret :14. Towser and the Wizard :15. Towser and the Dinner Party :16. Towser and the Dentist :17. Towser and Uncle Bosco :18. Towser and the Snowman :19. Towser and the Space Shot :20. Towser and the Flight :21. Towser and the Black Hole :22. Towser and the Haunted House :23. Towser and the Black Knight :24. Towser and the Dragon :25. Towser and the Slight Accident* :26. Towser and the Conjuror** *This was broadcast as the 26th and final episode **Despite being the final episode, this was broadcast as the very first one

External links

Toonhound
1984 British television series debuts 1984 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series 1980s British animated television series Animated television series about dogs British children's animated television shows British television shows based on children's books ITV children's television shows