Mike and Angelo S1E1 (1989) - FULL EPISODE

Mike Meets Angelo. Mike King is a 12-year-old boy caught up in his parents' divorce, which is made all the worse by his mother Rita taking him from America to live in England - away from everything he ever knew. But when they move into their new house with a mysterious wardrobe left in one of the bedrooms... Well, there's a surprise waiting. Who - or what - is he? This is the very very first edition of what, at 123 episodes, would go on to become ITV's second-longest-running sitcom of all time (you read that correctly - CITV's #1, and ITV's #2), originally broadcast on Thursday, 16th March, 1989. The main theme of this starting point is relatively grim for a children's programme, especially considering it's a comedy: it centres on parents not having time for their children, the resulting neglect, and feelings of isolation. Not that Rita is in any way not trying her best - she absolutely is - but I suppose what passes for the modern family (in this case single-parent divorcee) was becoming ever more common in the 80s and therefore ripe for exploration. As for what Angelo is, that was left deliberately ambiguous early on. He was always definitely other-worldly, and eventually it was firmly established that he's an alien (hope that's not too much of a spoiler), but when the original story arc was mapped out, the suggestion was that perhaps he was some sort of guardian angel of children who need him most - hence his name. In fact, the show's title is obviously a play on Michelangelo, who painted The Creation of Adam, which depicts contact between the physical world and something beyond. (And also inspired the finger-touch scene of E.T. - see how it all ties in?) Sharp-eyed viewers will have noticed that this recording actually comes from the repeat shown on Wednesday, 5th September, 1990. With that in mind, unfortunately this version has been fiddled with by the powers that be: most notably, the opening titles are different and the laugh track has been added. These are serious mistakes in my humble opinion, as it causes a massive mismatch in the tone (which was originally extremely moody and filled with pathos). Not to mention the fact that Matt Zimmerman's voiceover removes all ambiguity of who or what Angelo is supposed to be! I suppose they (whoever "they" are - I'm certain it wasn't the writers) were on the third series by the time the alterations were made, and were either thinking about bringing everything into line with what was to come, or they were trying to make the show more "commercial" for selling overseas. It really seemed to lose more than it gained, though. On a personal note, I actually remember watching this episode when it was brand new, and had no idea what to expect. As the show wore on, I settled on the thought that it was just going to be some sort of light-comedy family drama - and was completely wrong-footed when suddenly there was some weird chap prancing around on the ceiling. I distinctly recall not knowing what in the world to make of it! It's difficult to get across just how outlandish such a move was back then. On a secondary personal (and slightly meandering) note, I remember watching this brand new as a child back in the 1980s. I also remember watching brand new episodes of My Parents Are Aliens as an adult in the 2000s (it was one of my little cousin's favourites), and thinking that they'd taken their cue from Mike and Angelo. That, coupled with the fact that they're still showing My Parents Are Aliens, means that in my mind the two shows are a generation or more apart. But, actually, they overlapped by a few months. Funny, that. Some unconnected minor technical observations: I was surprised that the outside bits were shot on film rather than video. Most studio sets for television don't have ceilings, but due to Angelo's shenanigans, these ones did, which probably put an extra couple of noughts on the budget. And the shot at 12:15 with both Mike and Angelo in the same frame, the latter on the ceiling, *and* a moving camera - see if you can figure out how that's done. It's quite a funny solution, really. I should mention that Matt Wright's IMDB lists only the 1988 film High Spirits besides Mike and Angelo, so your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what he's done since. Anyone? Meanwhile, his screen mother Shelley Thompson is back living in Canada and concentrating on writing, I believe. Here is her website: http://www.shelleyat.com/Shelley_personal_DAWG/Welcome.html Tyler Butterworth - son of Carry On star Peter and Thatcher-impersonator Janet Brown - was the original Angelo, and, well, I'll just leave this link here: http://londonsightsapp.com/#app-introduction Anyway, look out for some opening continuity presented by Jeanne Downs and Scally - and apologies for the end being cut off rather abruptly. Many thanks to Grant for providing this recording.