Breakfast Serials

Breakfast Serials was a 25-minute children's anthology series that ran for a single series on BBC1 in 1990. It featured a collection of short pieces spanning several genres, including dialogue comedy (Cheapo TV), drama (Runners and NiceChap), stand-up comedy (Zounds), and narrative (Single Tales).

Each segment began with a chat among three puppet characters—a Teapot, a Tin can, and a Tomato, collectively called The Kitchen Crew—who sometimes interacted with the characters in the serials. The episode concluded with a discussion that led to a song performed by the trio, which played over the closing credits. All voices and acting roles in the series were handled by Caroline Berry, John Biggins, Lucy Jenkins, and William Petrie.

Nice Chap

One recurring segment, Nice Chap, was an adventure-drama about a cartoon strip character brought to life. It consisted of three connected "series," each viewable as a standalone storyline. In the first, Nice Chap—a perpetually upbeat, curious man-child who speaks in rhyme—is the creation of a depressed female illustrator named Suzie, who runs Cozicomix and whose only friends are plants, including a yucca called Peter. Nice Chap comes to life when lightning strikes Suzie’s drawing board.

The pair are endangered by a rival comics company, Megacomix, run by Joyce (nicknamed "Clench") and Norris, and aided by a megalomaniacal supercomputer (It) and another computer (Chuck). Clench and Norris eventually befriend Suzie. In the second installment, set six months later, the supercomputer takes control of Norris and lays siege to a TV station called Norris Vision; Nice Chap and Suzie thwart its plans. In the third, another six months later on the anniversary of his creation, Nice Chap turns evil after Suzie, in anger, draws dark eyebrows on him.

The rogue Nice Chap is killed by a doppelganger, and Suzie, in despair, uses a Crash Machine to send herself into Nice Chap’s dimension to be with a positive version of him forever.

Critical reaction

Critical reaction was negative. TV Cream described Cheapo TV as "unfunny TV parodies," Zounds as "terrible drama school style surrealism," and criticized other strands for being boring or unoriginal.