Edd the Duck

Edd the Duck
Portrayed by Christina Mackay-Robinson
Information
Species Duck
Gender Male

Edd the Duck (originally Ed the Duck) is a popular puppet duck. He has green hair and appeared on the CBBC interstitial or in-vision continuity programme The Broom Cupboard[1] alongside (human) presenters Andy Crane and Andi Peters. His movements were performed by Christina Mackay-Robinson (now Christina Brown) an Assistant Producer employed by the BBC.

History

He made his debut in late 1988, originally with a bald head until he 'went to the hairdressers' and returned sporting a green woollen mohawk (salvaged by Christina from an old Blue Peter make 'Punk Teddy'), which became his trademark. His co-star and enemy was Wilson the Butler, a character who was off screen apart from his arm visible to the viewers.

Subsequent appearances

Edd the Duck starred in a number of pantomimes and short films alongside actors including Bill Oddie and Gorden Kaye. One of his best-loved films shows how he became a zookeeper at Twycross Zoo and fed the chimps at their tea party. Another of his films shows how he trained to be a top chef and made afternoon tea for the Queen and in another he learns to fly a plane and serves crusty bread, pond weed and pizza to his duck passengers.

Edd made a guest appearance on the CBBC Channel on Easter Monday 2009 alongside Ed Petrie. He reappeared later that year as a guest when Dan and Jeff went to the BBC Broom Cupboard to solve a problem with hosting.

Edd the Duck is also a great fan of Kylie Minogue who popped in to visit him in the Broom Cupboard. It was during this appearance that she infamously became the first known Antipodean to swear live on British television, although many have followed since.[2] On another occasion Edd was able to meet his other great idol, Adele Humphrey, who made an appearance in the Broom Cupboard during her 1991 world tour. Edd is an avid Blackburn Rovers fan and was once given a signed shirt by then captain Colin Hendry.

Edd the Duck had his own cartoon strip in a BBC magazine. He was also parodied in a cartoon strip called "The Garbage Man", which appeared in short lived British comic Toxic!.

Edd the Duck released his own single, "Awesome Dood!" in 1990[3] - after receiving singing lessons from Sonia, who advised him to rap. It had the chorus: "I'm hip, hop, happening and I'm totally cool, I'm Edd the Duck and I'm an awesome dood!"

Edd also had a brand of milkshakes named after him in 1991, publicised in comics such as The Dandy. This came in three flavours.

Edd was the official UK Olympic team mascot at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.[4]

In 2014 Edd made an appearance on Celebrity Juice The Big Reunion special which also included Andi Peters in the Broom Cupboard.

Computer game

A game of Edd the Duck was released by Zeppelin Games on their full-price Impulze label and later re-released as a budget title by Zeppelin themselves. It was released in 1990 for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64[5] and in 1991 for the Amiga.[6] Its graphics and gameplay were inspired by the arcade game Rainbow Islands.[7][8] The game received mixed reviews, the ZX Spectrum version received good reviews including an 83% rating from Crash and Your Sinclair, while the Amiga version got very poor reviews, with Amiga Power calling it "one of the most primitive attempts at a platform game [they've] seen".[9] The ZX Spectrum version contained a bug which meant the game was impossible to complete, you had to collect 20 stars in each level to progress, but in level 7 there were only 19 stars. [10]

The sequel "Edd the Duck 2: Back with a Quack!" was released in 1992 on the Amiga.[11] It was even more poorly received than the first game, with one reviewer saying "I haven't seen a game this awful in a very long time" and that it "somehow manages to be even worse than the first Edd The Duck game".[12]

References

  1. ↑ "An Unofficial History Of Children's BBC Presentation". Broom Cupboard. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  2. ↑ Smith, Sean (2006). Kylie: The Biography. Pocket Books. p. 102. ISBN 1847390307.
  3. ↑ "EDD THE DUCK - AWESOME DOOD! - Terry's Picture Discs". Picture-disc.co.uk. 2009-01-18. Retrieved 2012-07-30.
  4. ↑ "BBC Archive - The CBBC Broom Cupboard - Edd the Duck". bbc.co.uk. 1991-05-02. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
  5. ↑ World of Spectrum listing for Edd the Duck: The Computer Game - http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001572
  6. ↑ "Edd the Duck!". Lemon Amiga. 2005-02-09. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  7. ↑ Crash Review: Issue 84, January 1991 - http://www.zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/Review.aspx?rid=9018&gid=1753
  8. ↑ Your Sinclair Review - "it's very very similar to Rainbow Islands" - http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=YourSinclair/Issue62/Pages/YourSinclair6200066.jpg
  9. ↑ "AMR - Amiga Power review of Edd the Duck". Amr.abime.net. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  10. ↑ Edd the Duck - Known Errors - http://www.worldofspectrum.org/knownerrors.cgi?id=0001572
  11. ↑ "Edd the Duck 2: Back with a Quack!". Lemon Amiga. 2005-12-23. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  12. ↑ "AMR - Amiga Power review of Edd the Duck 2: Back with a Quack"". Amr.abime.net. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
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