Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's Bananaman.

This week a look at a fruit-based superhero.

Banana Man

This week, I am looking at this British cartoon comedy classic- Bananaman

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History in the Making

Bananaman first appeared in the British comic Nutty in February 1980, making its first appearance on screen in October 1983. The original comic strip is based on a parody of the traditional superheroes - Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel (Marvelman in the UK).

From 1983-1986 the cartoon series aired on BBC television and featured the voices of The Goodies  (see below for more details). Parts of the character were changed from the original comic strip and gave our hero the name Eric Twinge who had a banana-styled haircut for his television debut.

Over the three years that the show aired, forty episodes were produced in Britain. The show also aired on Nickelodeon in the US as a companion piece to Danger Mouse but did not reach the popularity of Danger Mouse in the US. The show also aired in Australia and is now considered one of the classic ABC shows.

As of 2021, Fox owned the rights to Bananaman and was looking at producing the cartoon for the Disney Channel, which was looking for animated shows from around the world. However, it might be some time before we see this.

Eric

Our schoolboy hero lived at 29 Acacia Road. When he eats a banana, he transforms into Bananaman, wearing his distinctive yellow and blue cowled outfit with a two-tailed cape to represent banana skin.

His powers included both super strength and the ability to fly. These are all offset by his foolish, naïve attitude.

“Muscles of twenty men and the brains of twenty mussels.”

When he needed extra power, these were provided by eating more bananas and, in one episode, he drank a banana milkshake and took on a more ‘liquid’ guise as Bananaman.

Bananaman gained his powers as he came to Earth from the moon. The moon was shaped like a crescent, like a banana; hence, this is where his powers originated.

Our hero also had a sidekick, his pet crow, innovatively named Crow, who would, when needed, give help and provide extra bananas at key times.

Other Characters

In the animation, Bananaman faced his nemesis General Blight most weeks, a parody of Adolf Hitler, who had a running theme throughout the series. However, Bananaman did have several other villains that he battled against, including Doctor Gloom, Captain Cream and Appleman, the evil fruit opposite of Bananaman.

Chief O’Reilly works in a police station shaped like a police helmet, which is often destroyed by Bananaman’s actions. O’Reilly will typically call Eric, who he thinks is Bananaman’s assistant. To continue with the theme Chief O’Reilly is based on Commissioner Gordon from Batman.

Bananaman had a love interest when he was transformed- Fiona, the newsreader based on Selina Scott.

Voice Actors

The comedy trio, The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, and Graeme Garden) voiced the male characters. They successfully brought each character to life by using their familiar voices, drawing from their long-running television comedy show in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This marked the first time such an approach had been attempted on British TV and proved to be a great success.

The voice actor Jill Shilling also voiced the female characters in the show. 

Fun Facts

• Eric changed his name from Eric Wimp (comic strip) to Eric Twinge (animation).

• Eric lived in Nuttytown, Beanowtown or Dandytown, depending on which comic he appeared in.

• He had a pet crow called Crow.

• Eric almost had a sister, Margaret, who would be Bananagirl, but this was scrapped before production.

• Bananaman the Musical ran from December 2017- March 2018 at Southwark Playhouse, London.