Angelo

* Angelo #2
* Angelo #1

Tim Whitnall as Angelo (Series 9 - 1997)

Tyler Butterworth as Angelo (Series 1 - 1989)

**Angelo** is the titular alien character of *Mike and Angelo*.

After emerging from a wardrobe on Earth with no knowledge of himself or the planet he has landed on, Angelo becomes a 'lodger' at 7 Larkswood Lane. He is usually the one responsible for the outlandish situations which occur in the show.

## Characteristics

### Personality

Angelo is an optimistic and enthusiastic character known for being fun loving and childlike. Memorably, Angelo is also shown to crack impressions regularly when speaking to people - sometimes even using them to wriggle out of trouble. He also has a habit of backing these impressions up with elaborate costumes, which he can magic up in seconds.

Angelo's personality can however be abrasive to some, especially to more serious types, like Brett Douglas or Mr Pinner. Even his friends, such as Katy Andrews are shown to find his behaviour overbearing at times. He is also naïve and shown to lack common sense - things assumed to be caused by his alien nature. This, and his unusual inventions cause him to be a very destructive character, despite his well intentions.

Angelo spends most of his time working on inventions in his attic, or partaking in some sort of one-off hobby. He regularly pulls others, especially one of the Mikes, into mad schemes - usually involving inventions and ideas designed to help his friends out, but they have a habit of frequently going wrong in some way. He also aids his friends in their own plans, with similar results.

Despite all this, Angelo knows when he needs to seriously help his friends in a prediciment. For example - in the Series 6 episode "A Wonderful Wife", he stops the potential breakup of Mike Mason's parents by showing his mother Patti an alternative reality where she was never together with her husband Barney. He also frequently will sit down and listen to one of the Mikes if something is bothering them.

### Abilities

> " 'She who hesitates, levitates'... well they do where I come from anyway!"
>
> - Angelo, "The Hovel" (S4:E3)

As he is not from Earth, Angelo has many talents and skills which are superhuman in comparison to the humans he is around. This is a list of his most noteable powers:

* **Ability to levitate/walk on walls and ceilings** - the most famous ability of Angelo's - allows him to leap onto the ceiling from the floor and to hover off the ground. It is even shown that Angelo usually sleeps while levitating. Particularly famously, he juggles upside down on the ceiling.
* **Ability to create devices and machines from human technology** - Angelo is frequently seen in the show to create 'magical' devices from ordinary domestic appliances. Some of his inventions include a time machine, a 3D photocopier and a shrink ray. Angelo usually titles his inventions with "The Angelo, Patent-Pending..." as a prefix.
* **Ability to create costumes and environments from thin air** - While Angelo can be seen taking his time to create environments and put on costumes in certain scenes, it is also implied he can magic them up quickly if he needs to. In environments created by Angelo, there is frequently an audio reverb/echo present.
* **Ability to Teleport** - Allows Angelo to 'ping' from one place to another. Examples include moments in "A Wonderful Wife" (S6:E10), "Private Angelo" (S8:E2) and "Mike Meets Angelo" (S1:E1).
* **Ability to walk/run at superspeed** - Angelo can run and do tasks at super speeds. In "Mother's Comeback" (S4:E5), he noteably runs numerous laps of the M25 as an early morning run. This ability was seen frequently in earlier episodes but only appears very occasionally in later episodes.
* **Ability to talk to plants and animals** - Angelo is shown to talk plants and animals in numerous episodes of the show. In the episode, "Mother Finds Out" (S3:E11), Mr Pinner uses this as a piece of his evidence that Angelo is an alien.
* **Telekinesis** - in very specific earlier episodes, Angelo is seen to be able to move objects with his mind. This may have been eventually retconned - Angelo rarely, if ever, does it beyond Series 3.
* **Regeneration** - inspired by Doctor Who, was used in reality to transition from Tyler Butterworth to Tim Whitnall as the actor for Angelo.
* **Ability to reverse time** - seen only once in "Mother Finds Out" (S3:E11). Just as Angelo is to be taken away by the Police, he reverses time by a few days by turning himself anti-clockwise rapidly with his hands on his head. He also rewrites history - changing the events which led up to that moment.

Throughout the series' run, Angelo's superhuman abilities gradually took a backseat, with his ability to create unusual machines becoming a more prominent aspect to the character. It is unknown as to why this change occured but the typical assumption is that it was related to the style changes to the show going from comedy-drama to sitcom.

### Appearance

Angelo's appearance is noteable in that he typically dresses in very bright coloured clothing. He also often wears waistcoats - something that gets remarked upon many times throughout the series.

In the earlier series, he often had red-tinted hair as well. This was most noticable with Tim Whitnall's Angelo during Series 3 and (particularly) Series 4, when the whole upper portion of his hair was bright red.

## Personal History

### Pre-Show

Angelo is quite an enigmatic character - very little is known about his life before arriving on Earth so it is difficult to piece together his backstory.

Despite this, there is a few revelations in the show as to where he came from:

#### Origin

Angelo's origin is particularly complex. There was two, if not three, different explainations within the show to explain where he came from:

##### Latest Continuity

According to later episodes, Angelo hails from the planet Ptarg. It's inhabitants are physically similar to humans but with comparatively-superhuman talents - the most prominent of which being the ability to walk on ceilings.

##### Previous Continuity

In earlier incarnations of the show, Angelo's origins were made intentionally ambigious in order to add mystery to the show and character. All that was known about him was that he emerged from a wardrobe, had talents and knowledge beyond any human; and had no knowledge of his life until that point.

Despite this, the earlier series' still featured possible hints to him having a fixed origin - for example, the intro starts with an orange landscape with Angelo's ship; and the voiceover introduced in Series 2 reruns states he is from "another dimension, a different universe beyond infinity".

During the production of Series 1, writers Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro somewhat intended for Angelo to be an angel isntead of an alien. However, by Series 2 it was pretty much decided he was alien.

There were also some explainations for Angelo's origin used in publicity outside of the show, but these are usually considered non-canon as they have no mention in the actual show. These are:

* In early press coverage of the series, Angelo is written to have escaped from his home planet after it self-destructs (see the 1990 TV Times article on Angelo's ceiling walking for an example of this theory in use).
* That he came from "somewhere between Canvey Island and the Horsehead Nebula". This phrase was commonly used outside the show roughly around about Series 5 and Series 7, where it was used in CITV adverts and was even uttered by Tim Whitnall himself in an appearance on What's up Doc? The phrase is particularly noteable for it's reference to Canvey Island, which is the real-life hometown of Tim Whitnall.

The exact crossover from the previous continuity to the later Ptargian origin story is hard to pin down. Angelo was decided to be an alien right before Series 2, while Ptarg is certainly mentioned sometime around Series 10 as being his home planet.

#### Known Family

> "You've never ever listened to me, have you? You've never ever heard a single word I've ever said! Always so busy, busy, busy - running around doing things for me, without ever once asking me what I really want!"
>
> - Angelo, to his Dad, "Like Father Like Son" (S6:E3)

One of the only things somewhat known about Angelo is his family. Two members of Angelo's family appear in the show - his dad, who arrives on Earth in the episode "Like Father, Like Son" (S6:E3), and his Auntie Jeannie who appears in "Mister Sensible" (S10:E10). He also makes a passing reference to his mother in "Angelo and Cleopatra" (S9:E6).

Angelo's relationship with his dad is suggested to be quite poor before the events of "Like Father, Like Son". Angelo accuses him of never once listening to him - mentioning that he was pushed into doing activities he did not want to do frequently when he was younger. They both end up resolving their issues with each other in the last part of that episode.

#### Reputation

> "You've interfered once to often, my friend! We've had our suspicions about you for a long, long time."
>
> - Mr X, to Angelo, "A Turn Up For The Books" (S9:E10)

This one is less clear but may still be possibly noteable: Angelo before coming to Earth may have had a bit of a reputation. In the episode "A Turn Up For The Books" (S9:E10), Mr X, an alien working for an intergalactic federation, mentions that Angelo has been a subject of suspision for a long time for interfering. However, it's unclear if this means just his on-screen actions on Earth, or that as well as something he did before.

### During the Show

It is unknown as to why Angelo left his home planet - but whatever happened, he arrived to Earth with no knowledge of where he was, who he was or where he came from.

As seen in the titles, Angelo arrived in a pyramid-shaped transporter which morphs into the wardrobe he emerges from in the first episode. In this episode, Mike King (Mike no.1) opens the wardrobe after hearing strange noises from it, releasing Angelo from inside. Initially, both him and Mike are terrified of each other - with Angelo going as far enough to cower in one corner of the ceiling. Eventually, they learn that the other is not dangerous and become friends, partially out of necessity as neither of them know anyone else. Rita King, Mike's mother, also learns of Angelo soon into the first series, and is weary of him at first. However, they also end up as friends. Rita and Mike then both strive to maintain Angelo's secret from the rest of the world by letting him stay with them.

At the start of Series 3 (in the episode "The New Angelo"), Angelo mysteriously falls ill. He deteriorates quickly and ends up near death on the sofa - but regenerates into a new form (Tim Whitnall's Angelo) before anything worse happens to him.  This scene was (unsurprisingly) inspired by a very similar concept in Doctor Who.

Then, at the start of Series 4 - Mike King leaves and instead Ellie (who is staying for a few weeks) fills the role as Angelo's sidekick. This would change again at the start of Series 5 with the introduction of Mike Mason, the nephew of Rita, who would remain as Angelo's sidekick until the end of Series 10.

The episode "Like Father, Like Son" (S6:E3) marks the first time Angelo's old life catches up with him in the series. In this epsiode Angelo's Dad arrives in a ship and tries to beckon him to come home with him. Angelo reluctantly agrees at first, but eventually convinces his dad to leave him after realising how much happier he is on Earth.

At the beginning of Series 7, Rita is replaced as the head of the household with Scottish housekeeper Katy - who is equally sceptical of Angelo's plans and experiments, if not more so.

In "A Turn Up For The Books" (S9:E10), Angelo is sent to trial in a galactic court, in a sequence presumably influenced by the Sixth Doctor serial "The Trial of a Time Lord" in Doctor Who.

Angelo enjoys a brief stint of fame under the guise of Hank Sinatra - an American-accented country singer who he wins in-universe TV talent show "Stairway to the Stars" as in the episode "Stars in His Eyes" (S10:E7). This character would later play a part in the final episode of the show.

In Series 11, his sidekick became Michaela "Mickey" Fawkes-Bentley, the third and only female Mike. Finally, in Series 12, he was sidkicked by Katy's nephew, Mike (no.4).

In the final episode, Angelo becomes famous perfoming as Hank Sinatra in an advert for Huckleberry's Ice Cream. For this advert, he sings a parody of his song ("Ten Gallon Hat") called "Ten Gallon Tub". The advert is a roaring sucess and Angelo is made famous globally for being Hank.

### After the Show

It is unknown as to what happened to Angelo, nor the other characters after the last episode. It may be the case, considering the suggestions in the final scene, that Angelo either might have enjoyed further success as Hank, or rejected Mr Huckleberry's offer - it is difficult to judge precisely what happened next. Any way, it was a happy ending for Angelo.

## Episodes

Angelo is the only character to appear in every single episode of *Mike and Angelo,* so does not have his own individual list on this wiki. However, there are seperate lists for which episodes feature each version of Angelo:

* Category:Episodes featuring Tyler Butterworth's Angelo
* Category:Episodes featuring Tim Whitnall's Angelo

## Gallery

Angelo (first incarnation) after he has settled in, in Series 2A TV Times publicity shot of Tim Whitnall's Angelo, from the week in which he took over the role.Angelo (second incarnation) as he was in Series 4A rough sketch of Angelo's Series 3 - Series 4 badge, which he wears constantly.Angelo (second incarnation) as he was in Series 5.Angelo (second incarnation) in Series 8.
## References

1. ↑ Glad You Remember - Mike and Angelo[1] https://gladyouremember.webs.com/mikeangelo.htm
2. ↑ Intro featuring a planet and voice over - https://youtu.be/9dfI6coE1-gt=255
3. ↑ 'The Enyclopedia of TV Science Fiction' by Roger Fulton (1997), pg. 266 - https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoftv0000fult/page/266/mode/2up
4. ↑ What's up Doc? S3:E20 - Interview with Tim Whitnall and Michael Benz (c. Series 7 /1995) - https://youtu.be/tLHzZ8yb3bs?t=506
5. ↑ CITV's Starfax on Angelo (c. Series 5 /1993) - https://youtu.be/FCSM7bS9hUI?t=10
6. ↑ Tim Whitnall - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim\_Whitnall
7. ↑ Mother Reference - https://youtu.be/McWt6MfdbQA?t=475
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Father episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7OJ86ljW5E
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Mr X episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3meXcaXeqSs
10. ↑ The Regeneration scene - https://youtu.be/JoBFqM5sC4Q?t=1082
11. ↑ Final episode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElDuwcm2nGk