Bodger &amp; BadgerBodger &amp; Badger Bodger & Badger Bodger and Badger is a BBC children's comedy programme written by Andy Cunningham, first broadcast in 1989. It starred Cunningham as handyman Simon Bodger and his talking badger companion. The programme was spawned from some appearances the double act made in 1988 as part of the Saturday morning BBC1 children's programme On the Waterfront. Plot. The programme followed the exploits of Simon Bodger and his puppet companion, Badger, a badly-behaved badger with a proclivity for mashed potato. The first four series focused on Bodger's jobs as a handyman and his attempts to hide Badger  from his superiors. Series 1 was set at Troff's Nosherama, a café where Bodger worked as a cook. Series 2 and 3 were set at Letsby Avenue Junior School. Series 4 was set at Chessington World of Adventures, a real theme park in Surrey. From series 5, the character Mousey was introduced, a puppeted mouse with a fondness for cheese. The show was now set at Bodger's rented home and later his B&B hotel. Series 5-7 rarely mentioned Bodger's employment, suggesting he was now unemployed. The later series still focused on Bodger's attempts to hide  Badger from figures of authority, his landlady from Series 5-7 and the tourist information officer in series 9. These later episodes increased the slapstick humour with prominent comic sound effects and incidental music. Theme song. The programme had a memorable theme song sung by children. The music was composed by Peter Gosling and the lyrics written by Andy Cunningham. Various edits of the song were used over the years, with the full version used on the end credits of some episodes from 1989 to 1991. Characters and Cast. Main characters. It is not known for certain how Bodger originally  met Badger although the opening titles for the first three series suggest that they met when Bodger was purchasing a ticket to make a journey on a London Underground train and Badger (when a fully grown adult Badger) stole the ticket, only to meet him again on the train. In this sequence, Bodger first expresses dismissal of the event only to look puzzled by what has just happened a moment later. A later episode (after those titles stopped being used), however, suggests that Simon Bodger started looking after Badger when he was a badger cub. There were several different Badger  puppets used throughout the series - all looked very similar bar their ear sizes and the width of the two stripes down Badger's face and snout. The distance between Badger's eyes also varied throughout the show's run and the beret on the series one Badger puppet wasn't very flexible. In all other series it had more flexibility so it could swing round as Badger moved and talked. Badger's clothes changed regularly, but this was designed as a feature of the puppets. The puppet's eyes themselves also changed - always googly eyes around two to three inches  in diameter with pupils varying in size but around an inch in diameter. On some puppets the pupils could reach the bottoms of the eyes, in others, the pupils swing about in a "cradle" in the middle of the eyes. Series and Episodes. Series One (1989). Series 1 featured Bodger and Badger working in Troff's Nosherama, a run-down café with pretensions to being a restaurant. While Bodger worked in the kitchens as a chef, both he and Badger made friends with the waitress, Mavis. Troff's Nosherama was run by Mr Troff who was very arrogant, tight-fisted  and stubborn. Troff had no idea of Badger's presence until the end of the last episode in the series. It was not known during production whether another series was to be recommissioned, hence the last episode of this series is titled "The Final Episode". The closing titles of this series at first featured specially-shot clips of the cast (in character) then a specially-shot clip of Badger over the technical crew credits. This changed gradually through the series, slowly incorporating repeated clips of cast members (in character) from earlier in the episode, although these were occasionally interspersed with  the specially-shot clips, with the latter gradually being phased out. The specially-shot clip of Badger over the technical crew credits remained, however. All transmission data is taken from the BBC Genome project. This series was repeated on 8 consecutive Tuesdays from 13 February to 3 April 1990 on BBC1 at 3:50pm. Series Two (1991). Series 2 and 3 featured Bodger and Badger working at Letsby Avenue junior school; Simon worked as the caretaker, Badger made friends with the school children and crawled around the air vents - a method of transport he found most useful to keep hidden from  the school's teaching staff. Letsby Avenue's headmistress in this series was the overweight and nasty Mrs Trout, there was also the friendly and ditsy deputy head Miss Moon. This series was the first to be broadcast in NICAM stereo sound. All transmission data is taken from the BBC Genome project. This series was first repeated on Mondays from 6 to 27 April 1992 except the bank holiday 20 April. It then switched to Thursdays on 30 April and 7 May 1992. It then began Monday and Thursday repeats from Monday 11th to Thursday 21 May 1992, before moving  again to three consecutive Mondays 1 to 15 June 1992. All except the final episode were repeated on BBC1 at 3:50pm. The final episode was repeated on BBC2 in the same timeslot, owing to sports coverage on BBC1. This was the first time Bodger and Badger had been broadcast on BBC2. Series Three (1991). Series 3 is still set in Letsby Avenue junior school, but Mrs Trout was fired halfway through the series and Miss Moon became the new temporary headmistress until Mrs Bogart (Mrs Trout's sister) took over as headmistress, when Mrs Trout became a school governor. Like  the previous series, Badger's presence was knowledge to everyone in the school except the school teaching staff. From this series, the closing credits were edited down to contain only one verse of the theme song. This practice of edited down credits was to continue until the end of the series, with new surrounding graphics for series 9. The repeats of clips featuring characters for the actor credits continued, however, the specially-shot clip of Badger over the technical crew credits was gone, the number of credited technical crew roles having been dramatically reduced, so this portion of the end  credits consisted entirely of random clips from earlier in the episode (in chronological order). Transmission information is taken from the BBC Genome project. The first ten episodes of this 12-episode series were repeated on consecutive Tuesdays from 6 April to 8 June 1993 at 4:05pm on BBC1. The repeat run was not completed owing to shortening of the afternoon CBBC strand in subsequent weeks for Wimbledon and other various sporting events and there being no available slots in the weeks after those. Series Four (1993). Series 4 featured Bodger and Badger working at Chessington World of Adventures, a theme  park in Surrey. Bodger was the caretaker there, and Badger made friends with a girl called Holly who frequently visited the theme park. Owing to her mother being a staff member there, Holly was free to visit whenever she liked. Bodger's boss was Mr Beasley, who was nasty and obsessed with rules. Beasley kept trying to catch Badger to try to get Bodger chucked out. Series 4's episodes were cut down to 10 minutes, instead of 15. This is the least-remembered series of all. It is also the hardest to obtain copies of, there are no known  copies uploaded to the internet at the time of typing this article. This series was repeated on Mondays and Tuesdays, with an occasional gap of one week, from March to June 1996, commencing the week following the end of the original transmission of series 6. The opening titles to this series and the remaining series were edited short, so that by this point, the full verse of the theme song is not heard in both opening and closing titles (instead concentrating on one verse each). The opening titles now only contain clips from episodes in the series, with no material  specially shot for the opening titles. The practice of having clips from earlier in the episode of actors appearing in character over their credits in the closing credits sequence was gone, with random clips from the episode appearing in chronological order throughout the closing credits sequence. This would remain the normal fashion of episode credits for the series until the end (with a surrounding graphics change for series 9). All transmission data is taken from the BBC Genome project. Series Five (1995). Series 5 to 7 featured Bodger and Badger living in a rented bedsit flat (Exterior scenes were filmed  at No. 78 Grove Avenue, Hanwell in London). This was the beginning of the show's most popular and best-remembered period, series 5–7. Badger met his new friend Mousey in Series 5, a mouse who lived under the floorboards. She became a permanent fixture of the programme from that point onwards. Just as Bodger tries to keep Badger's presence hidden from figures of authority, Badger in turn kept Mousey's presence a secret from Bodger, because Bodger tried to get rid of Mousey in the first episode of Series 5 by setting traps. These episodes reverted to the  15-minute format. All transmission data was obtained from the BBC Genome project. From this series onwards, no repeat transmission data will be provided on this article, as the show's success beginning with this series meant that the show would be repeated much more regularly from this point onwards than it previously had been, leading to many more repeat dates for each individual episode. Series Six (1996). Bodger, Badger and Mousey are still living at the same flat as featured in series 5. This series mainly featured the pair having problems with their new landlady, Mrs Dribelle, and Elton  her sidekick who did all her dirty work. Mrs Dribelle did not allow her tenants to keep animals in her properties, so Bodger always had to hide Badger whenever she came to the flat. In between the transmissions of series 6 and 7, on Friday 28 June 1996 on BBC2, the characters of Bodger and Badger were special guests in an episode of CBBC's gameshow "To Me, To You", presented by the Chuckle Brothers. All transmission data was obtained from the BBC Genome project. Series Seven (1996–1997). Bodger, Badger and Mousey were still living in the same flat as  in series 5 and 6. After series 6, though, series 7 returned to the format of more everyday adventures and various people moved into the flat upstairs, including a slimy trickster called Mr Smart and Mrs Dribelle's niece, Vicky. Mrs Dribelle herself lived in the upstairs flat temporarily while her house was renovated. Some of the sound effects used are shared from the Sonic the Hedgehog games. This was the longest-running series, running for six months with a clip show halfway through the series and another at the end. During this series, on Friday 14 March 1997 (Comic  Relief day 1997), Bodger and Badger were special guests in a special Comic Relief-themed episode of the CBBC game show "The Friday Zone", entitled "The Red Nose Zone". All transmission data is taken from the BBC Genome project. Series Eight (1997–1998). Series 8 and 9 featured Bodger and Badger running a Bed & Breakfast hotel in the fictional seaside town of Puddleford (location filming for series 8 and 9 took place around Brighton). Various guests stayed at the hotel over the course of the two series and again Bodger kept Badger's presence a secret from all of them. Guests  included two Spanish flamenco dancers, Miss Peake (a bad-tempered school teacher), Mr Tucknott (a dim-witted bank manager), the bubbly Mrs Bobbins, Miss Piper (a mad old woman) and Mr Wilson (a pathetic trainee bank manager). In Series 8 the characters of Millie the Milkwoman and China the dog were introduced, who featured in the show until the very end. Millie was friends with Bodger and knew about Badger, as he was friends with her dog, China. Series 8 also featured the return of Mr Smart, as he ran the B&B next door to Bodger's. Smart never seemed  to have any guests staying at his hotel and was always trying to steal Bodger's. This was the first series to use the 1997 BBC branding and the last series to use the cream-coloured background for its title card and end credits. All transmission data is taken from the BBC Genome project. Series Nine (1998–1999). Series 9 continued with the setting of series 8, with Bodger still running his hotel with Badger and (unwittingly) Mousey in tow. In this series the character of Mrs Melly was introduced, the bossy tourist information officer who stopped people from having fun  on the beach outside her office. She hated Bodger and refused to recommend his B&B to tourists although she was kind to him in one episode - "Hundreds And Thousands". The opening titles changed this series and no longer featured the Bodger & Badger logo. Andy Cunningham revealed in an interview for a book that Bodger and Badger ended its ten-year run in 1999 when the Head of BBC Children's Programmes - Christopher Pilkington (who had commissioned the show in 1989 and championed it since then) - left his post and the programme was not renewed by his successors - Andy said that  he was not surprised by this, but he didn't reveal why. He mentioned that he didn't mind this anyway as he said he was struggling for inspiration for things to do with mashed potato towards the end of the show's run. Reference All transmission dates were obtained from the BBC Genome project. Popularity. In 2000 and 2001 all episodes of Bodger and Badger were repeated on archive children's programming strand CBBC on Choice on the BBC Choice digital TV channel. Additionally, they were broadcast on CBeebies in 2002 but then disappeared from schedules until 2005 when  the CBBC channel began a repeat of series 6–9. Since 2008 it has not been shown at all, although recorded episodes have surfaced on the internet and exist on YouTube. "Bodger and Badger" has enjoyed something of a cult status, particularly among teenagers and young adults who grew up with the programme. It has also found popularity amongst students, tuning into daytime re-runs. As such, it has led to a popular tour of UK universities; 'Mashed Potato Theme Nights' were held at various universities, including Hull, Aston, Warwick, Bath, Buckinghamshire New and Aberystwyth. A DVD, 'Bodger and Badger: Live ', was released on 6 November 2006. Bodger and Badger have also since appeared in other venues, most notably in the kids' field at Glastonbury Festival, where a routine aimed primarily at children is also cleverly seeded with knowing in-jokes about the festival and the people attending it. In 2007, two adverts were filmed for instant mashed potato brand Smash, the first in a planned series of adverts for a new marketing campaign featuring the two characters and playing on Badger's love of mashed potato. However, whilst the first two adverts were completed and shown at trade fairs, as  well as some industry literature featuring the characters released, the ad campaign was ultimately dropped and never aired, due to the BBC still owning the rights to the "Bodger and Badger" name and concept, which would conflict with the BBC's obligation to not use any of its programmes or stars to promote commercial properties. Andy Cunningham died of duodenal cancer on 5 June 2017, aged 67. Bodger & Badger Bodger and Badger is a BBC children's comedy programme written by Andy Cunningham, first broadcast in 1989. It starred Cunningham as handyman Simon Bodger and his talking badger companion. The