Underground Ernie

Underground Ernie was first mentioned in 2003 when Martin Gilks revealed that the group had recorded the theme tune, The Importance of Being Ernie,  for the animated cartoon series during an interview prior to the group's appearance at Sherwood Pines in Nottingham.  It was originally thought that the series was going to be aired on Channel 4 but then the BBC bought the rights to the series in October 2005 and announced that it would be shown on their Cbeebies channel from June 2006.

The Underground Ernie stores are based on the adventures of Ernie, an underground railway line supervisor who is dedicated to his work, always making sure that his passengers get to their destinations safely and on time.  The action is set in Ernie's World, a combination of underground and overground stations, interconnected via an International Station.

Sound familiar?  Well it should do as the network is loosely based upon London's own underground system and Transport For London had some involvement in the original promotion and sponsorship of the series.

Twenty-six episodes of 12 minutes each have been filmed so far.  The series first launched on Monday 5th June 2006 and was an episode entitled Pop Decoy, featuring a busking musician who bore a very uncanny resemblance for a certain Mr Hunt...  The series began a second broadcasting run in September 2006.  A third run of showings during the weekend followed at the back end of the year.

A range of Underground Ernie merchandise is now available, with more to follow during 2007.  A compilation album of song from the series is being rumoured, along with a possible single release of the theme tune for Christmas 2007.  Plans for a second series are also underway.

The original score for the series was written and performed under the pseudonym HRB Music (Hunt, Rainey, Bell) - theme song by Hunt, Treece, Gilks, Bell and Quinnell.  Miles has since done some additional recording with Ian Prowse (of Amsterdam) during Summer 2006 with further new tracks being written at the end of the year.

There are high hopes for the success of the series with industry insiders predicting it could be as big as Bob The Builder or Thomas The Tank Engine.  How long before we get the busker toy on sale...?

Additional Resources

Official Underground Ernie website

BBC press release (2005)

BBC Programme copy (2006)