Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde

**Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde** is a British children's television series which originally aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1995 and 1998.

## Plot

Julia Jekyll is the highly intelligent star pupil of the Rocket Academy, a school for gifted children. She develops a refreshing drink as part of a science project (her 'elixir'), however, the school bullies, Sharon and Nicola (known colloquially as the Blister Sisters; also the nieces of the science teacher, Mr. Blister), sabotage her project by adding a bottle of hair growth formula to the concoction. While presenting her project to the class, Julia drinks the elixir, and finds herself transformed into a monstrous creature, who she calls 'Harriet Hyde'. Ever since that moment, Julia has found herself unexpectedly transforming into Harriet Hyde at the most inopportune moments.

The series follows Julia's attempts to try and reverse the effects of the tainted elixir, and the various mishaps and adventures that occur as a result of her unexpected changes into Harriet Hyde.

## Cast and characters

### Rocket Academy staff

* **Memphis Rocket** (played by **Simon Green**)
* **Stella Rocket** (née Sparkle) (played by **Ann Emery**)
* **Lester Blister** (played by **Robert Portal** in series 1, **Dale Rapley** in series 2 and 3)
* **Mr Slime** (played by **Philip Philmar** in series 1 and 2, **Nigel Barden** in series 3)
* **Mrs Smith** (played by **Christine Lohr**)

### Rocket Academy pupils

* **Julia Jekyll** (played by **Olivia Hallinan**)
* **Harriet Hyde** (played by **John Asquith**, voiced by **Olivia Hallinan**)
* **Edward Knickers** (played by **Guy Edwards** in series 1 and 2, **Steven Webb** in series 3)
* **Nicola Blister** (played by **Tiffany Griffiths**)
* **Sharon Blister** (played by **Karen Salt**)
* **Roger** (played by **Anthony Tobias**)
* **Sarah Slocombe** (played by **Emma Barnett** in series 1, **Sarah McDonnell** in series 2 and 3)
* **Richard Kerrigan** (played by **John Matthew Lau** in 'Little Mrs Rocket', **James Muir** in 'Julia's Birthday')
* **Lucy Lastic** (played by **Naomi Waring** in 'Young Musician of the Century', **Amy Bingham** in 'Half Half Term')
* **Helen** (played by **Sarvi Menhaji**)
* **David** (played by **Tariq Shami**)
* **Roy** (played by **Luke Wyatt**)
* **Ron** (played by **Thomas Connor**)

### Regularly recurring characters

* **Moira Jekyll** (played by **Victoria Williams**)
* **Jerry Jekyll** (played by **Bill Fellows** in series 1 and 2, **Ian Keith** in series 3)
* **Jason Jitter** (played by **John Elmes**)
* **Mona Jitter** (played by **Susie Brann**)

### Occasional characters

* **Daisy Figgis** (played by **Josie Kidd**)
* **Pauline 'Granny' Jekyll** (played by **Lila Kaye**)
* **Sid Snap** (played by **Scott Harvey**)
* **Sister Blister** (played by **Richenda Carey**)

### One-time characters

* **Alf Sparkle** (played by **Christopher Biggins**)
* **Amber Python** (played by **Natalie Forbes**)
* **Arnold Stokes** (played by **Tony Aitken**)
* **Aunt Cassandra** (played by **Lynda Bellingham**)
* **Benny Blister** (played by **Michael Cantwell**)
* **Daffodil Jekyll** (played by **Natasha Gray**)
* **Edwina Hoover** (played by **Angela Vale**)
* **Emmeline Pond** (played by **Anna Kirke**)
* **Henry VIII** (played by **Martyn Ellis**)
* **Guido the Gorilla** (played by **Matt Raynor**)
* **Kevin Compost** (played by **Arthur Kelly**)
* **Professor Toulouse Pump** (played by **James Taylor**)
* **Rita LaSouper** (played by **Esta Charkham**)
* **Dave Benson Phillips** as **himself**
* **Santa Claus** (played by **Roger Hammond**)
* **Tim Tok Lim** (played by **David Y. Cheung**)
* **Willy Burnitt** (played by **David Sterne**)

## Production

### Title sequence

The title sequence features a wooden board with the words 'JULIA JEKYLL' carved into it. A shelf below these words holds a beaker full of boiling green liquid. A hand picks up the beaker and brings it towards the camera. Cartoon smoke and sparkles appear as the camera is entirely focused on the green liquid. A puff of green cartoon smoke erupts, revealing the wooden board again, now joined by the letters 'and Harriet Hyde' in black (**'and'**) and green (**'Harriet Hyde'**). A steady trickle of smoke pours off the newly-added letters.

The title sequence was designed by Pete Wane. The model background and lettering was made by Alan Kemp, and compositing for the title sequence was done by Malcolm Dalton in the BBC's 'Quantel Harry' effects compositing system.

### Theme music

Based on the information available, there appears to be two variants of the opening theme. The only major difference is the adjustment of two notes; two D notes are brought up to E in the second variation. The second variation is the theme that features on all known archived copies recorded from television broadcasts. The first variation has been made available by way of the BBC Motion Graphics Archive.

It is possible that the copies of the episodes available online originate from repeat broadcasts which have been amended to use the second variant of the theme for the purpose of consistency (series one was repeated in 1997; four months after the conclusion of series two).

## Episodes

*Further information: List of episodes*

A total of fifty-three episodes of Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, across three series, were produced during its run, which were broadcast on BBC One from 29 September 1995 to 2 April 1998. Each series also had a run of repeats on BBC One, which typically aired shortly after the series succeeding it had finished airing.

The show was also repeated on CBBC from 28 October 2002 to 3 January 2003, although there is no information available as to which series was repeated between these dates. It is likely, however, that it was series one that was repeated.

The series was solely written by Jim Eldridge and Jeremy Swan, who wrote 35 and 18 respectively of the 53 total episodes.

### Series 1

Series 1 was broadcast on BBC One every Friday at 16:20 (with the exception of episodes 2, 12, 13 and 15-23, which were broadcast at 16:15) from 29 September 1995 to 15 March 1996. No episode was broadcast on 29 December 1995, however.

The series was repeated on BBC One every Tuesday and Thursday at 16:20 from 8 April 1997 to 26 June 1997.

### Series 2

Series 3 was broadcast on BBC One every Thursday at 16:20 (with the exception of episode 10, which was broadcast at 16:25) from 12 September 1996 to 19 December 1996.

The series was repeated on BBC One every Tuesday and Thursday at 16:20 (with the exception of episodes 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12, which were broadcast at 16:25) from 7 April 1998 to 26 May 1998, although the episodes 'In The Net' and 'Famed' were not included in this run of repeats; as such, no episodes were aired on Tuesday 5 May 1998 or Thursday 21 May 1998.

### Series 3

Series 3 was broadcast on BBC One every Thursday at 16:20 from 8 January 1998 to 2 April 1998.

The series was repeated on BBC One every Tuesday and Thursday at 16:20 (with the exception of episode 14, which was broadcast at 16:25) from 6 April 1999 to 20 May 1999.

## International broadcasts

Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde was broadcast on the satellite/cable channel BBC Prime from 1996 until 1998. This channel was available across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, expanding to Asia in 2004.

The show was supposedly well-received in China - if the program was indeed aired in China, it was likely broadcast as part of BBC Prime's Asian service. This means that Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde could have been aired in China as late as 2004/2005.

## Home media

There were no official home media releases of Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, however off-air VHS recordings of all episodes of the show have been uploaded to the Internet Archive, as well as to YouTube.

## Archive status

Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde exists in the BBC archives in its entirety. The master copies of the show were originally stored on D-3 digital videocassette, however these have since been dubbed onto Digital Betacam tape. The BBC are in the process of digitising the entirety of their archive holdings, however it is unknown whether Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde has been digitised at this stage.

Off-air VHS recordings have found their way online over the years, with all episodes being available to watch on YouTube and the Internet Archive.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/bbc-motion-graphics-archive/julia-jekyll-and-harriet-hyde-1995