''Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde'' was a British

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...

which aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

(via Children's BBC and later CBBC) in the UK for 53 episodes between 1995 and 1998. The programme was a

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

with its premise being loosely based on

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's Gothic 1886 novella, ''

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

''.

Plot

Olivia Hallinan Olivia Hallinan (born 20 January 1985) is a British actress best known for her role as Laura Timmins in the BBC TV series ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' and also as Kim in the Channel 4 drama '' Sugar Rush.'' She also starred as Ellie in '' Girls ...

plays an intelligent schoolgirl named Julia Jekyll who makes a special drink called an elixir for a science project, but two school bullies named Nicola and Sharon known as "The Blister Sisters" sabotage her experiment by adding a hair restoring formula to it. When Julia sips the drink during a demonstration, she turns into a huge hairy monster named Harriet Hyde that scares the living daylights out of most of the people around her, even though she is harmless and friendly to most. Julia's parents Jerry and Moira (who has a tendency to repeat herself literally whenever someone says "You can say that again.") are fond of Harriet and believe she is Julia's friend, not knowing that Harriet and Julia were the same person. However their next-door neighbours, Jason and Mona Jitter, a neurotic couple who spent most of their time at a

therapist Therapist is a person who offers any kinds of therapy A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indi ...

's, were terrified of Harriet and had numerous unfortunate encounters with her. The Blister sisters repeatedly plot to get rid of Harriet but usually end up on the receiving end of her wrath, mostly being flung headfirst across the room. The effects of Harriet Hyde usually wear off after a while but unexpectedly keep coming back. Julia's best friend and fellow student from Rocket Academy, Edward Knickers is the only one who knows her secret and she has hard work trying to hide it from her parents, next door neighbours, the teachers and all the other fellow students whilst she tries to find a cure. Julia can often recognise when she is about to transform into Harriet and manages to hide away from everyone else (for example by pretending she is going to be sick and having to leave the room). Teachers at the Rocket Academy were the jolly hippie headmaster Memphis Rocket, his doting elderly mother who is a horrendous cook, and Lester Blister, the Blister sisters' cruel and scheming uncle who wishes to take over the school.

Main cast

Episodes

Series 1 (1995-1996)

Series 2 (1996)

Series 3 (1998)

References

External links

Julia Jekyll And Harriet Hyde
– from ''The bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy''. Retrieved 8 January 2007.
Episode guide
BBC children's television shows British children's comedy television series 1995 British television series debuts 1998 British television series endings 1990s British children's television series British television shows featuring puppetry English-language television shows Television series based on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Television series about children {{BBC-tv-prog-stub