Animal Puppets Return To Television

Tonight sees the return of Mongrels to Television. Mongrels is a Comedy Puppet Show about a group of animals living in London. The show is the best puppet show on television since Roger and the Rottentrolls (over 10 years ago) and tonight it is the start of the 2^nd series.

The show is made by puppeteer Andy Heath and Director Adam Miller. The two guys worked together on Ripley and Scuff (the Rubbish spin-off of Roger and the Rotten Trolls) and it was here where the Idea for Mongrels started. The 2 wanted to make an American styled comedy but with puppets. They wanted to achieve something similar to the Simpsons but with Puppets.

“We wanted to make something that had the pace of an American animation but with British sensibilities, that was adult, but not crude, that was based in the realities of the animal world, and that didn’t rely on the puppets to do the comedy.” – Adam Miller

Mongrels arrived on Television last year and was really funny. The show starred a Fox named Nelson, a Cat called Marion (my favourite character), Vince the Fox, Destiny the Hound and Kali the Pigeon. Nelson is a fox trying to be more than a fox and is always trying to be upper class. Vince is a fox but is also quite rude but all of his bad language is bleeped out (“adult, but not crude”). Destiny is a dog (possibly an Afghan hound) who acts a bit like a teenager/pop singer. Kali the pigeon is a villain type character. Marion the Cat is an extremely daft animal who is Nelson’s sidekick and is always doing something funny.

The show includes little sketches in between the main dialogue and scenes. Kind of like the clip scenes from Family guy. The show also contains celebrity appearances and a song during the show performed by the puppets, one of which appeared at this year’s BBC Proms.

Some of the adult humor can be really close to a step too far (and sometimes a bit offensive) but because the puppets are animals they can kind of get away with it. While the show does contain adult themes some of these elements are still pretty funny (with only a few pieces which are almost a step too far). The show is enjoyable to watch and has some really funny scenes but just be warned that it does have some Adult Themes. While it does contain adult themes the show as a whole is really good, with some really funny scenes and funny characters.

Watch Mongrels tonight at 22:30 on BBC Three (WARNING: Show Contains Adult Themes and Strong Language)

GENEPOOL