Mike & Angelo

Review by Daniel Tessier

Mike & Angelo was a children's sitcom that seemed to run forever. In fact, it ran from 1989 to 2000, an eleven year period which corresponds pretty much exactly with my TV-watching childhood. Before '89, I am unable to remember much of what I may have watched. After 2000, I had, ostensibly, grown out of that stuff (I grew back into it pretty soon after though). A run of 123 episodes over twelve seasons is not to be sniffed at, and the series is remembered fondly by those who grew up in Britain during the nineties. The episodes were twenty to twenty-five minutes long, designed to slip between ITV ad breaks, and with, on average, ten episodes a year, there was reasonable time for them to make an impression.

The series was written and created by Lee Pressman and Grant Cathro, the writing team previously responsible for T-Bag and later Spatz, another fondly remembered CITV sitcom. A lot of actors crossed over from Mike & Angelo to Spatz and vice versa. These shows were mainstays of my childhood. Only Mike & Angelo, though, featured a boy who became best friends with a troublesome alien.

I don't think it's any coincidence that Mike & Angelo sits right in Doctor Who's Wilderness Years. It's pretty blatantly clear that, if not full-fledged fans, Pressman and Cathro were at least influenced by Doctor Who. Angelo is an extraterrestrial from Ptarg, a distant planet, possibly in another universe (if continuity announcers are to be believed), who arrives on Earth (Cricklewood, to be precise) in a pyramidal spaceship that disguises itself as a wardrobe. The spaceship acts a portal of sorts, letting the occasional Ptargian creature or doodad through to cause trouble, but more often than not, it was Angelo's schemes and inventions that caused the problems.

Angelo himself was played, for the first two series, by Tyler Butterworth. The accomplished comedy actor is the son of Peter Butterworth, most famous for his Carry On roles, but well known to Doctor Who fans as the Meddling Monk (thus, in my addled mind, Angelo is the offspring of renegade time traveller the Monk, perennial thorn in the Doctor's side). At the beginning of the third series, Angelo became sick and regenerated, with near-death Angelo One transforming into the manic Angelo Two, played by equally manic, multi-talented Tim Whitnall. Whitnall remained in the role for the full ten years until the show was cancelled and is thus much better remembered than Butterworth. They both had the ability to walk on the ceiling, though.

As for Mike... there were four Mikes over the course of the series, one of whom was a girl. The first Mike was a Bostonian who moved to London with his mum Rita, discovering the extraterrestrial wardrobe in their new house and becoming firm friends with Angelo. He was played by Matt Wright, while Rita was played by Canadian actress Shelley Thompson (as always on screen, Canadians and Americans are simply interchangeable). Mike and Rita continued as the main characters through Angelo's regeneration, until series four, where Mike returned to America. He was replaced, temporarily, with neighbour Ellie, played by Jade Magri, a brief stopover between Mikes where the programme's name made no sense.

Series five brought in the new Mike, played by the exceptionally blond Michael Benz. This phase of the show is the best remembered, with Mike Mason (Rita's nephew) becoming the longest serving of the Mikes. Benz grew up with the show, being well into his teens by the time he left in 1998. During this period, Rita left and was replaced by stroppy Scots housekeeper Katy, played by Katy Murphy. When Mike 2 left, Mike 3, aka Michaela aka Mickey, arrived, played by Gemma Gregory, giving the show a shot in the arm. She lasted only a year, though, replaced for the twelfth and final series by Katy's nephew Mike Andrews, played by Steven Geller (previously of another fondly remembered Cathro-Pressman series, Microsoap).

Of all the Mikes, Michael Benz has been the most successful acting-wise, continuing as a jobbing actor and recently starring in For All Mankind. Gemma Gregory went on to star in Gypsy Girl in 2001 and has since added a few television credits. Both Matt Wright and Jade Magri quit acting in the early nineties. Steven Geller continues acting until around 2008, but sadly died in 2015, aged thirty.

As for the Angelos: Butterworth was a frequent face on television until 2008, when he went into producing and voice work, while Whitnall has remained busy with stage work and children's television, especially voice work. His Thomas & Friends credits fill a page themselves. Katy Murphy has continued to rack up television credits, while Shelley Thompson has never been out of work, also gaining experience as a writer and director.

Through its long run, the series boasted a number of recognisable guest stars, including Corrie's John Savident, The Young Ones' Christopher Ryan, Heartbeat's Bill Maynard and the prolific Annette Badland. The great Ron Moody, forever known as Fagin in Oliver! had a memorable guest appearance as Angelo's dad (therefore clearly a regenerated Monk, between the Peter Butterworth and Graeme Garden incarnations). Elizabeth Estensen, the original eponymous villain of T-Bag, played Daphne Fawkes-Bentley, Mickey's aunt. Indeed, it was heavily suggested that she may have been T-Bag. The plot thickens (or at least has a few lumps in).

Mike & Angelo is one of those shows that you had to be exactly the right age for at the right time. Not objectively good, it still brought me and thousands of others a lot of pleasure as children. The iconic theme tune from the fifth season onwards still brings me a feeling of tremendous contentment. Just lovely stuff.