Mr. Plod

Mr. Plod is a fictional character in the Noddy children's series by Enid Blyton.

He is a forthright police officer who never lets Toyland's crooks (especially Sly and Gobbo, the two goblins) escape from the "long arm of the law". He always pretends to know the problem, but can never quite figure it out.

In later adaptations he is also known as P.C. Plod or Officer Plod.

The terms "Plod" and "PC Plod" have become slang terms - usually jocular or derogatory - for a policeman, or the police in general.^[1]

In Noddy's Toyland Adventures, he is voiced by Jimmy Hibbert in the UK and Benedict Campbell in the US, in Make Way for Noddy, he is voiced by Richard Newman, in Noddy in Toyland, he is voiced by Keith Wickham, and in Noddy, Toyland Detective, he is voiced by Robbie Coltrane.

It was proved in 2015 that his first name was in fact Bill. This is amusing because the UK Police are sometimes referred to as The Bill or the Old Bill, a somewhat less derogatory term than Mr. Plod.

References

1. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (6th ed.), Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-920687-2