The Great Inventor

**The Great Inventor** is the seventh episode of the second series of Fireman Sam.

## Summary

Sam is preparing for the Great Inventor in Wales competition. One of his inventions is a robotic dustbin known as M.O.P. (Motorised Organiser and Polisher) designed to eliminate tidying up for humans. Unfortunately it goes slightly out of control, so Sam decides to think of another invention.

Whilst sneaking around Sam's back garden, Norman discovers Sam's motorised skateboard invention and decides to try it out. However once Norman gets the engine going, he cannot stop it. He tries grabbing hold of Sam's bed table to stop himself, but he just flies off the skateboard, crashes into M.O.P. and accidently knocks into its on-switch. M.O.P. comes to life and takes off through the garden gate with Norman in hot persuite. The machine soon reaches the high street and "clears" everything off the outside display at Dilys' shop. Dilys runs downstairs to stop M.O.P., leaving her hot iron on top of Norman's shirt.

Meanwhile Sam has made another invention, which is a remote control to activate the shutters, sirens and lights on Jupiter. However this invention quickly malfunctions and the remote blows up in Sam's hand.

Else where, M.O.P. has just rolled away down the high street after stealing some food from the cafe, when Bella and Dilys suddenly notice the black smoke coming from the upstairs window of the shop. Bella sends out the call and Sam and Elvis are on the case with B.A. sets for the electrical fire.

After Sam has put the fire out, Norman returns asking his mum if she's seen M.O.P. At that moment the Motorised Organiser and Polisher returns to the street, grabs hold of Norman and places him inside itself. Luckily Sam quickly switches it off before it can do anything else to Norman.

Later on, Sam is demonstrating yet another invention to Sarah and James in his garden: a robotic dog called Rusty which is no problem to look after at all. Suddenly James spots in Sam's newspaper cutting that the competition was last Friday. As Sam realises this, he accidentally throws Rusty's metal bone into its mouth and it breaks down. However since he missed out on the competion, Sam is not so fussed.

## Characters

* Fireman Sam
* Elvis Cridlington
* Station Officer Steele
* Sarah and James
* Dilys Price
* Norman Price
* Bella Lasagne
* MOP
* Rusty

## Locations

* Pontypandy Fire Station
* 3 Vale Road
* Dilys General Store

## Trivia

* In Wales, this is the fifteenth episode of the first series.
* A stock voice recording of Elvis saying “Power off Sam!” from Telly Trouble is used.
* Recording date: March 14, 1988.
* This story was used for a BBC Young Listeners audio cassette tape, read by Victor Spinetti. The version used on the audio cassette was re-named ‘Robot Mania’, and has been slightly re-written.
* The BBC programmes website and the BBC iPlayer both refer to this episode as **Sam The Great Inventor**.

## Home Media Releases

* Fireman Sam 4 - Snow Business
* Animation Spirit
* Norman's Tricky Day and Four Other Stories
* Fireman Sam's Bumper Video (1997)
* 2 on 1 - Tales from Pontypandy
* Action Stations!
* Treasure Hunt (UK DVD)
* Safe With Sam (UK DVD)

## Video

Fireman Sam - The Great Inventor (1988)English versionRhagor o Anturiaethau - Sam TânWales version
## References

1. ↑ Episode - BBC Programme Index - BBC Genome
2. ↑ Jump up to:2.0 2.1 BBC iPlayer - Fireman Sam - Series 1: 11. Sam The Great Inventor
3. ↑ Fireman Sam, Series 1, Sam The Great Inventor - CBeebies - BBC