King Rollo

For the tenth-century Viking ruler, see Rollo of Normandy.

King Rollo
Genre	Animation
Written by	David McKee
Narrated by	Ray Brooks
Composer	Duncan Lamont
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	5 minutes
Production company	King Rollo Films
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	1 October – 24 December 1980

King Rollo is a children's character, who was created by David McKee in 1980, starring in a series of books, animations narrated by Ray Brooks, and a comic strip in the magazine Buttons. Thirteen episodes of the animation were produced in 1980 by McKee's own King Rollo Films, and were originally shown as part of the pre-school 'See-Saw' strand.

The central character of the stories was Rollo himself, a childlike king who was always in need of advice and assistance from his friends. Among these were The Magician (a father figure); Cook (the king's cook, a mother figure, who was arguably the real ruler of the kingdom); his neighbour and girlfriend, Queen Gwen; King Frank; and Rollo's cat, Hamlet, who was generally portrayed as wiser than Rollo himself.

The animations used the same colourful cut-out paper look as McKee's other works, such as Mr Benn. The characters' legs would rotate outwards when walking until they were at right-angles to the sides of their body.

Episode Listing

• The Bread (1 October 1980)
• The Playroom (8 October 1980)
• The Bath (15 October 1980)
• The Dishes (22 October 1980)
• The New Shoes (29 October 1980)
• The Breakfast (5 November 1980)
• The Tree (12 November 1980)
• The Comic (19 November 1980)
• King Frank (26 November 1980)
• The Birthday (3 December 1980)
• The Balloons (10 December 1980)
• The Search (17 December 1980)
• The Dog (24 December 1980)

Broadcast

• United Kingdom
  • BBC1
  • BBC2
  • Nickelodeon
  • Nick Jr.
  • Nick Jr. Classics
• United States
  • Nickelodeon (Pinwheel)
  • Madison Square Garden Network (Calliope)
  • USA Network (Calliope)
• Hong Kong
  • TVB
• Singapore
  • MediaCorp Channel 5 (Play It Again, with Towser, Victor and Maria and Mr Benn)
• France
  • FR3
• Germany
  • BFBS

External links

• King Rollo at IMDb
• Toonhound