The Adventures of Sir Prancelot

The Adventures of Sir Prancelot is a British children's animated television programme written and produced by John Ryan. It followed the adventures of Sir Prancelot, an eccentric inventor-knight who heads for the Crusades in the Holy Land. It was first transmitted on BBC 1 on Thursday, 13 January 1972. Plot To escape both his bank manager and his overbearing wife Lady Histeria, Prancelot decides to join the crusades. He is dismayed when he learns that Histeria intends to accompany him and eventually the entire household – including the children Sim and Sue, the miserly majordomo Girth, a cockney minstrel (who is also the show's narrator) and several serfs – set sail for adventure. They repeatedly fall foul of the dastardly Count Otto "The Blot" but always escape by some contrivance of Sir Prancelot himself. After many unlikely adventures they arrive in the Holy Land to discover they are 50 years too late. After a final showdown with Count Otto they return to England in a rocket ship also invented by Sir Prancelot. Production The Sir Prancelot animation came from the same stable as Captain Pugwash and was in a similar style. All voices were performed by Peter Hawkins. The music was composed by Alan Parker. Episode 5 was never made due to being John Ryan’s unlucky number. Only the first nineteen episodes were released on VHS, but the remaining episodes were adapted into vinyl form. Characters Sir Prancelot, an inventor-knight and would-be Crusader Lady Histeria, Prancelot's wife Sim and Sue, their children Master Girth, the castle majordomo who administers the accounts The Minstrel, a cockney lute-player who also serves as the show's narrator Bert and Harry, the serfs (there were several other serfs who were never named) Pig William, Lady Histeria's pet pig (who she frequently refers to as Pigwig) Count Otto, the show's main antagonist, sworn enemy of Sir Prancelot Duke Uglio, a greedy and bad-tempered Italian aristocrat