Towser
Towser is a British series of children's books created by veteran children's writer and illustrator Tony Ross 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.
| Towser | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation |
| Created by | Tony Ross |
| Written by | Tony Ross |
| Narrated by | Roy Kinnear |
| Theme music composer | Duncan Lamont |
| Composer(s) | Duncan Lamont |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Clive Juster |
| Editor(s) | David McKee (script) |
| Running time | 5 minutes |
| Production company(s) | King Rollo Films |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 11 September – 16 October 1984 |
Television series
The series was later spawned into an animated television series narrated by Roy Kinnear and made by British animation studios King Rollo Films (best known for making well known animated works for children such as King Rollo, Mr Benn and Spot) running for one season and 26 episodes. It was made in 1982 and aired on ITV as part of Children's ITV on 11 September 1984 and ending on 16 October on the same year (The episode Towser and the Flight also aired on 9 October 1984 on the same day when the first season of the original series of the British long running children's series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends debuted). 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 in 1990 and was later 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, Mio Mao, The Magic Roundabout, Willo the Wisp, Tales of the Riverbank, Mr Men, Fred Basset, Ivor the Engine and Roobarb. It has also been broadcast on cable television on The Children's Channel and was shown there numerous of times since 1985 and kept airing until 1996.
Play It Again
Towser was later joined by King Rollo Films' other television programmes Mr Benn, King Rollo and Victor and Maria and both of them aired with a 40-minute compilation programme called Play It Again. The theme song was sung by jazz and blues singer George Melly.
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 in New Zealand, TV2, TV3 and M-Net in South Africa, XEIPN-TV 11 in Mexico, Channel 5 in Singapore (as part of Play It Again), NTA in Nigeria and Nickelodeon (being shown on the Nick Jr. series Eureeka's Castle) and Cartoon Network (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