El Nombre

El Nombre is a children's educational programme about an anthropomorphic Mexican gerbil character, originally from a series of educational sketches on Numbertime, the BBC schools programme about mathematics. He was also the only character to appear in all Numbertime episodes. His voice was provided by Steve Steen, while the other characters' voices were provided by Sophie Aldred, Kate Robbins, and (from 1999) former Blue Peter host Janet Ellis. For the ninth (and final) series of Numbertime in 2001, Michael Fenton-Stevens also provided voices of certain other characters in the El Nombre sketches.
The character's name means "The Name" in Spanish, not "The Number", which would be "El Número", but El Nombre does mean "The Number" in Catalan.
El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo (originally known as Santo Flamingo), home of Little Juan, his Mama, Pedro Gonzales, Juanita Conchita, Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Tanto the tarantula, Señor Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Señor Calculo the bank manager, Señor Manuel the greengrocer, Miss Constanza Bonanza the school teacher, Señora Fedora the balloon seller and mayor, Señor Loco the steam engine driver, Señor Chipito the carpenter and the local bandit Don Fandango (although it was not actually given a name until the fifth series of Numbertime premiered in January 1998); whenever he was needed, El Nombre swung into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character was a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and huge sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the townsfolk from injustice, and generally swinging around on his bullwhip – however, unlike Zorro, he was often quite inept (in fact, on one occasion, Tanto tipped a bucket of water onto him after he made him reenact the Incy Wincy Spider rhyme).
When El Nombre first appeared on Numbertime in 1993, his purpose was merely to write numbers in the desert sand and demonstrate the correct ways to form them as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance (and said "Again!" once he had finished, as it gave them an excuse to play again); this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series (as from the second series in 1995, he was given two sketches per episode) – and since his basic beginning, El Nombre went on to appear in a total of 79 (89, if counting those from the "revised" version of the first series) sketches on Numbertime before gaining a series of his own, acquiring dramatic storylines and a full cast of characters, while continuing to demonstrate mathematical concepts, albeit in a dramatic and entertaining way. The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created.
As well as being popular with schoolchildren, El Nombre also developed a cult following amongst students and parents, because of the many references to classic spaghetti Westerns; indeed, his popularity grew so much that in March 2004, the BBC released a 3-minute El Nombre theme song as a single.
A gerbil named Pablo also appeared in the ninth series of Numbertime after Juan entered a competition on Radio Flamingo to win a holiday to the seaside resort of Costa Fortuna and won; Juan, Mama, Pedro, Juanita and Maria met him when they arrived at the resort's hotel (because he was their guide to it), and he went on to front a ring-toss stall when they visited its fairground the following week.
Although none of the El Nombre sketches on Numbertime ever had a specific title, those of the first series were introduced by an announcer as "Episodes 1-10" (and they were slightly lengthened for the "revised" edition of that series, in September 1998; the third line of the opening song and his farewell catchphrase were also changed several times, to reflect the series' focus). All twenty-six episodes of the spin-off El Nombre series (thirteen in 2001 and a further thirteen in 2003), however, were titled – and their names are listed here.
The first six episodes of the first series were aired on BBC One as double bills in the CBBC strand on Fridays at 3:45 pm, while the next seven were aired individually on Wednesdays in the same timeslot; three episodes were later repeated on BBC Two as part of the CBBC Breakfast Show on 1 June, 19 July and 20 July 2001, but neither they, or the other ten episodes of the series, were repeated after that.
The second series was aired as double bills with in vision sign language on the CBeebies Channel on Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30 pm; after the last episode aired on 29 November, the first one was immediately repeated again, and the series concluded its second consecutive run in the same timeslot on 4 January 2004. All thirteen episodes were later repeated without signing on BBC Two in the CBeebies strand on Wednesdays from 7 January to 31 March 2004.
In October 2005, all twenty-six episodes were released on DVD by Maverick Entertainment; the first ten were previously released on a VHS entitled El Nombre to the Rescue by BBC Worldwide in 2001, which also featured an exclusive short (entitled Learn Your Numbers With Little Juan, and edited together from the El Nombre sketches of the "original" first series of Numbertime). Some of the El Nombre (and cell-animated) sketches of the "revised" first, second and fifth, and fourth series of Numbertime were also released by BBC Active in 2009 on three DVDs entitled Fun with Numbers – which all came with accompanying books featuring the characters, and were subtitled Counting 1 to 10, Shapes and Time (the featured sketches were mostly from the second series), and Adding and Taking Away respectively.
An Ealing Animation production for BBC Worldwide