Today is:
"You'll believe a baby can fly!"
A light-hearted romantic comedy in which an alien superhero often takes everything rather literally...
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No, it's health-food shop-owner George Sunday (Ardal O' Hanlon), alias the world's
most famous superhero, Thermoman. Trouble is, Thermoman is not too familiar
with Earth customs, so he is often embarrassingly honest and tends to take everything
too literally.
When he falls in love with nurse Janet Dawkins (Emily Joyce), his behaviour
appears most peculiar to her family and colleagues. Thermoman met Janet when
he rescued her from the Grand Canyon, but since then his mission to save the
world from destruction often comes in the way of his earthly romance.
Day-to-day, the couple have to overcome the conflicts that arise from Thermoman's
double life. Did Janet really have to put his suit in the wash on the day when
an abandoned space station was on course to destroy Grimsby? Should George stay
for lunch with Janet's parents or fly off to stop an erupting volcano? Will
George's life be worth living if he flies off?
Even Thermoman can't be in two places at once, and his continually disappearing
in and out of the toilet in Janet's tiny suburban flat or at the surgery is
not easy to explain.
Regular Cast:
George Sunday/ Thermoman - Ardal O’Hanlon
Janet Dawkin -Emily Joyce
Dr Piers Crispin - Hugh Dennis
Mrs Rave - Geraldine McNulty
Tyler - Philip Whitchurch
Stanley Dawkins - Tim Wylton
Ella Dawkins - Lill Roughley
Arnie - Lou Hirsch
Avril - Moya Brady
| 2000
Christmas Special: My Hero Christmas First
UK tx: 22 December 2000 Ratings: 4.2 million (19% audience share) |
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Thermoman becomes
completely confused about the meaning of Christmas. Well, who wouldn't
these days? |
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| Blink and You'll Miss it: • George steals Piers' present of perfume to Janet and gives it to her himself. • Did George really set fire to the warehouse of ThermoMan figures?
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Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Office party in Melbourne: two people trapped naked in a cupboard • Manchester: three mums fighting over the last Pokemon |
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Season 2
Screened May - July 2001 on BBC1 (Monday, 8.30, repeated
Sunday afternoons) and BBC Choice.
Episode titles kindly supplied by Paul Mendelson
| Parents First UK tx: 14 May 2001 Directed by: John Stroud |
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| Guest Stars: Jill Benedict (Audrey), John Halstead (Tom) and Philip Cumbus (Teenager) | ||
| Janet reveals George's secrets to
her parents, with near-disatrous consequences. A great start to the new
season. George ruins Janet's parents amateur dramatic performance by shouting out as if it's a panto, so Janet tries to deflect their anger by telling them the truth that he is really superhero ThermoMan. Although Janet's mum and dad now love him, life gets more complicated when everyone knows, particularly when Mrs Raven tries to offer him her body (dressed like Marilyn Monroe!). "The New second series of the underrated superhero comedy. It's still focused on his non-superhero half of his life and that's generally why those who liked it liked it quite a lot." (The Radio Times) |
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| Blink and You'll Miss it: • The play put on by NADS (Northolt Amateur Dramatic Society) starring Stanley and Ella Dead Men Tell No Tales. • George says Mrs. Raven "looks lovely today" then explains that Janet has told him it OK to lie to be polite, but the whole of Zero Tolerance is based on him not lying and not understanding why people tell white lies. •Mrs. Raven breaks Piers jaw in six places, but in subsequent episodes, he's OK. •Why does the CD of The Mikado jump straight to "Three Little Maids"? |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Botswana - flooding • Down under - pit evacuation • Flooing in Bolivia (false alarm) |
• Ella asks Janet if
George is "as
other men". |
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| Memory
Wipes: • Ella's friend, Audrey • Belinda Lloyd and 1407 others members of the Northolt Womens' Circle • Mrs Raven • Ella and Stanley |
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Memorable Quotes Ella: They're saying it's the NADS' best production yet!
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| Girlfriend First UK tx: 21 May 2001 Written by: Paul Alexander & Simon Braithwaite Directed by: John Stroud |
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| Guest Stars: Amy Robbins (Xil) and Alex Andrea (Man at Arnie's). Note: Amy Robbins now appears in ITV's The Royal | ||
 George has failed to tell Janet that he is already engaged - to a six-foot
warrior princess back on Ultron, Xil. When she arrives to claim him as her rightful
husband,
Janet, who had just been complaining things were getting predictable, is horrified.
Her mother, informed this newcomer is from Ireland, is ecstatic - at last her
daughter will be free of George. |
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Blink and You'll Miss it: |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Xil demands Zanalar from George: the pre-wedding mating ritual. To which Janet retorts "you are never to have sex with that she-demon, ever". | ||
Memorable Quotes George (about Xil): Actually, I feel a bit sorry for her. It's not hard
to see why she's come. Poor girl. |
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| Car |
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| Guest Stars: Deborah Winckles, Eva Marie Bryer, Randal Herley and Andy Greenhalgh | ||
| George is working hard in the health shop to save money to buy Janet a much-needed car. And Arnie is given back his powers to help George with his superhero work. But can he be trusted? Well, he steals the crown jewels on his first day. What do you think? | ||
| Blink and You'll Miss it: • George asks Arnie what the time difference is between Earth and Ultron and Arnie says 95 light years, but a light year is a measurement of distance, not time. • Arnie wants to know "who is that mean momma", but he's already met Mrs. Raven in The Party's Over when George took her with Janet's family to Arnie's café in New York : and Janet hints that they slept together "she's going to wake up with Arnie, which is worse". •George says Arnie is his oldest friend, but in Zero Tolerance he says he's not and he's only known him for a couple of centuries. Also in Girlfriend Arnie refers to them being betrothed when they were six. •The lady in the shop with a gallstone is holding her left side, but gallstones cause pain on the right side and the lady with water retention doesn't pay for her remedy! |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Tidal Wave (unspecified) (PolarMan) • Shipwreck (Unspecified) (PolarMan) • Typhoon in Nicargua • St Petersburg (Unspecified) (PolarMan) • Guatemala (Unspecified) • Arctic (unspecified) |
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Memorable Quotes Mrs. Raven's jibes at Arnie (who she adores) |
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| Nemesis First UK tx: 4 June 2001 Written by: Gary Lawson & John Phelps Directed by: John Stroud |
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| Guest Stars: James Holmes (Rovi Grubelddim) | ||
| George has to contend with an old school friend who takes over Piers' body to create an Earth-born superhero who will put him out of business. Highlights of this episode are the final battle, which only goes to show you it is possible to have a superhero battle on a BBC budget and make it convincing! | ||
| Blink and You'll Miss it: • In Nemesis and in Pregnant why didn't George go green when he saw Janet kissing Piers in Nemesis ("Now I'm really jealous") and in Pregnant (when Janet was doing all the superhero work) like he did in season three's Little Green Man? Both times he said he was jealous; in Nemesis he had to look it up. •Why does Piers end up naked when George defeats Rovi at Chang Ching? •How did the paper get the picture of "ThermoMoon", when George had only just found out that Janet was pregnant and he only went to Tajikistan to deal with an earthquake then straight to Arnie's? •Piers offers to do the filing in this episode, but he wouldn't know how to as Mrs. Raven informs him in Girlfriend that she doesn't file alphabetically, but by how irritating people are cross-referenced with how many times she has been rude to them on the phone. • The car Piers "flicks" at Janet is M768DLD |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Saving yaks from an avalanche • Mudslide in Paraguay (MiracaleMan) • Forest Fire (MiracleMan) • Cardiff (unspecified) |
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Memorable Quotes George has just been scared by Mrs Raven, who has turned up in his health food shop Mrs. Raven: Did I scare ya? |
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| 2.6 Pregnant First
UK tx: 11 June 2001 Written by: Paul Mendelson & Paul Mayhew-Archer Directed by: John Stroud |
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| Guest Stars: John Rapley (Mr Jenks), John Oliver (Man from the BBC), Betsy Pennington (Arnie's Customer), Jodie Scott (Arnie's Customer), Sharlene Whyte (Arnie's Customer) and Lynette Clarke (Patient) | ||
| When Janet discovers she is pregnant,Thermoman
is over the moon and gives her special powers to protect herself and
the unborn baby. |
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| Blink and You'll Miss it: |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Earthquake in Kazakhstan • Sewage works explosion in Bolivia • Florida - Hurricane Hilary (Janet) • Azerbaijan (unspecified) (Janet) • Volcano in Bali (Janet) |
• George says "you know how you smile at me when you turn
off the TV, even though I haven't said anything funny" to which
Janet replies "yes, I know the process" |
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| Wedding First
UK tx: 18 June 2001 Written by: Paul Mendelson & Paul Mayhew-Archer Directed by: John Stroud |
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| Guest Stars: Paul Gregory (Vicar), Gareth Anderson, Sydney Golder, Gabrielle Hamilton, Petina Hapgood and George Keeler | ||
 Janet's dad is insisting that her
baby be born in wedlock, and Thermoman's bosses on Ultron are of the
same mind. |
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Blink and You'll Miss it: |
Disasters: | Romantic references: |
| • Alabama - tornado blows a church clean away | ||
Jump to Season One • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six
Web Links
• BBC -- Official Episode Descriptions
