Roobarb and Custard

Story

Roobarb and Custard is a British animated series about Roobarb, a green dog and Custard, a pink cat. Roobarb has lots of silly ideas and always ends up in an adventure while Custard watches from his fence and ruins the fun.

Why we chose it

Surreal storylines, wobbly animation and manic music made Roobarb and Custard distinct from other cartoons and ensured that they would be memorable.

Where it came from

Roobard and Custard was designed to be different to other (particularly American) animated series at the time. It aimed for a messy look achieved with the use of ‘wobbly animation’ and manic music which the creators felt added energy to the show. Roobarb was based on Calveley’s Welsh Border Collie also named Roobarb. It was the first fully animated series to be made in the UK.

Where it went next

Each episode was only 5 minutes long and the series aired just 30 episodes on BBC2 in 1974-5, written by Calverley and voiced by Richard Briers. The series aired in the UK, USA and Australia.

In 2005 Roobarb and Custard Too aired for another 39 episodes on Channel 5. It was written again by Calverley and voiced by Richard Briers but this time they had more animal friends. Roobarb and Custard Too was computer animated but they kept the wobbly style and the colour scheme from the original series.

Associated stories

In 2009 a series of children’s books were released by Mozilla Publishing based on the Roobarb and Custard characters. Roobarb and Custard also have their own Facebook and Twitter pages and range of toys.

The characters were mascots for the PDSA charity in the UK in 2012, and appeared on the Official BBC Children in Need Medley in 2009.

The UK band Shaft released a Top 10 single in the UK in December 1991 with Roobarb and Custard which featured clips from the television series.