Child Of The 1980's

Count Duckula first hit our screens as a villain in fellow Cosgrove Hall cartoon DangerMouse but in 1988 he was graced with his own TV show where he was the hero. Duckula is the latest in a long line of vampire ducks, who in keeping with traditional vampire law can only be killed by exposure to sunlight or a stake through the heart. However, he can be resurrected once every century by the means of an ancient rite when the moon is alligned in a particular position.

Unfortunately, the resurrection didn’t go according to plan this time round. The Duckula clan had always been blood thirsty vampires, but a mistake with the ingredients for the magic resurrection spell (tomato ketchup being used in place of blood) resulted in the reincarnated Count Duckula becoming a vegetarian. He also lost all his other evil desires which instead were replace by a desire to become an entertainer!

Duckula has two servants who cater for his every whim. Butler Igor is an aged old vulture who yearns for a return to “the good old days” of previous Counts, with all the maiming and torture that would entail. He has served the Duckula family for many generations, which given that the resurrection spell can only be done once a century makes him very old indeed. Nanny is a giant, dim witted chicken who is both Duckula’s housekeeper and nanny. Her arm is always in a sling for some reason, and she has a habit of walking straight through walls rather than using doorways. She isn’t at all evil-minded though, unlike Igor, and insists on calling Duckula her “Ducky-poos”.

They all live in the imposing Castle Duckula, which isn’t without powers of its own. The entire castle can teleport pretty much anywhere, although it must always return to its proper location at dawn, just like any good vampire castle should, in order to protect its master from the sun! Indeed, it was this teleporting ability that allowed for many of the whacky adventures the Duckula and company embarked upon.

Whilst Duckula was really pretty harmless, he was forever being hunted down by Doctor Von Goosewing, a vampire hunter who had taken it upon himself to rid the world of the Count once and for all. Unsurprisingly given his name, Von Goosewing was an old white goose, normally armed with a massive blunderbuss of a gun that could fire wooden stakes. He is so absorbed by his task that he completely fails to notice that Duckula is no longer a bloodsucker, and instead devotes himself to coming up with all manner of crazy contraptions designed to rid the world of this harmless vampire menace!

Count Duckula was voiced by TV legend David Jason, who was also the voice of DangerMouse.  Must have been interesting to watch a voice recording for the DangerMouse episodes that featured Duckula, with David having to presumably switch quickly between voices!

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This entry is filed under TV - Cartoons and was posted on August 20th, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.