Erasmus Microman

March 3rd 1988 is when Erasmus Microman first aired. It was produced by Mirageland which was one of the first independent TV production companies in the UK following the deregulation of the market earlier that decade.

It did indeed star Ken Campbell as the eponymous MicroMan, as well as Nick Pickard who is probably best known as Tony Hutchinson in Hollyoaks, He payed Ben in Erasmus Microman . Thea Redmond played the role of Jane in the show but I can't find anything else that she has ever been in. Steve Seen is also credited here, he played Archimedes and Socrates in the show. Steve was the voices of John Major, Bill Clinton, Prince Harry among many others, in spitting image

According to an article from The Stage in February that year - the role of Erasmus attracted quite a few actors to audition, including one Nabil Shaban who, according to this article, claimed that Granada had dropped him from the series because he was told by Mirageland boss John Slater that he was too frightening. Shaban has osteogenesis imperfecta - or brittle bone disease as we'd probably call it. This disease causes bones to break and fracture very easily and can cause curvature of the spine, joint deformities and severe mobility issues. This of course alters a person's appearance and is likely what Shaban was referring to here. Slater denied this in a follow up letter that month.

Shaban was Sil in Dr Who among other things.

This led to a two week long demonstration by less abled actors outside the Granada studio's offices in Manchester.

The show was commissioned by David Liddiment, the then head of Granada's light entertainment production. John Slater described the show as being designed to excite children about knowledge. I don't know if it ever achieved that for me personally - although I do know about Archimedes's screw only because of Erasmus Microman.

The first episode was titled Archimedes and is the main one that I remember.

Erasmus is supposedly 1005 years old and he has taken residence inside Ben and Jane's television. He thinks the two need some education so he interrupts all the TV channels that they try to watch. He drags them off into the TV set to meet Archimedes.

According to IMDB there were 7 episodes in series one.

The second of these was about Gallileo. Geoffrey Leesley played that role , Albion Market's Geoff Travis.

Isaac Netwton was the topic of episode three, with the remaining four being Faraday, Darwin, Marie Curie and Einstein.

Not exactly riveting stuff for kids at the time -in my view anyway. I appreciate the sentiment of bringing these figures to life for kids but I think unless you cared about them in the first place than this was just one step away from being a boring history lesson.

Series two spiced things up a bit with the introduction of Dr Dark, an enemy of Erasmus who wanted to drive the world back into the dark ages - negating the advances made by these historical scientists, researches and entrepreneurs.

Dr Dark was played by Lee B McPlank - a hilarious name since it was Ken who played the part - just in a different costume.

There were seven episodes in series two - being

Socrates Writings Maps Famous Authors Railroad Television and - Computers.

I am reassured by the inclusion of this show on IMDb, as it pleases me to know that it does in fact exist and I have not made it up. For years I have been mentioning it in nostalgic pub conversations to be greeted by blank expressions. Virtually my only recollection of this show is that it starred someone who I was convinced was Holly from Red Dwarf (thought the cast list informs me that this is in fact not the case). There was also the theme tune, which went "Erasmus MEECRO Man" over and over again and must have taken about 30 seconds to write (by someone with a bizarre idea of pronunciation).

I also remember thinking it was absolute rubbish, even at the tender age of 10. Though with hindsight it was probably better than Galloping Galaxies.