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no 1 rat fan | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com . Retrieved 30 October 2019. A defining figure of British TV in the 1980s, Roland Rat first appeared on TV-am in April 1983 and soon become a phenomenal success taking in several TV series, records and more merchandise than Errol the Hamster could shake a leek at. Naturally, being a puppet, Roland was an inanimate object brought to life by a human and, in this instance, it was David Claridge. You know, I still don't really know who David Claridge is. Sure, he's a true visionary and incredibly talented, but he's managed to keep his puppet creations at the forefront of people's attention rather than shine the light on himself. Perhaps he feels that revealing too much of the magic behind them somehow confirms the fact that they're not fully conscious beings. This hints at a true dedication to his art and can only be applauded for the lengths he has gone to achieve this, although, I suspect this is as simple as not granting interviews.

Despite Claridge having handed the club over to Leslie Herbert at this point, the papers had a field day digging up earlier quotes from Claridge - when hosting the club - such as: Decorated with Chinese symbols and portraits of Chairman Mao, The Great Wall was an arresting spectacle and provided a fascinating foothold into an unexplored subculture. Naturally, it attracted prime faces of the London club scene and helped to further cement Claridge's reputation for having a unique and creative vision swilling about in his brainbox. Roland Rat merchandising was extensive and the Hasbro range of soft toys was hugely popular. Roland has appeared on hundreds of items ranging from toothbrushes to wallpaper, bedding, stationery, mugs, canned pasta, and children's glasses by Dolland and Aitchison.Claridge's interest in music from Japan soon morphed from a club night into a fully fledged mobile entertainment experience in the form of The Mobile Suit. Featuring New Wave from almost every corner of the Far East (and, as a curveball, Poland), The Mobile Suit would travel around the country putting on club nights to spread the word about these curious new sounds. Colour in the tear drop ears for the mouse, add glue to the bottom and glue half way along the cone.

Roland's Rat Race (Easter 1985) – A quiz show, featuring James Saxon as Roland's incompetent friend and conman D'Arcy De Farcey. Roland Rat first appeared on 1 April 1983 [2] (Good Friday) on the ailing breakfast television network TV-am, and is generally regarded as its saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". After a couple of months on TV-am, Roland took the audience from 100,000 to 1.8 million. Roland was launched at TV-am by Children's editor Anne Wood to give kids entertainment during the Easter holidays. [3] [4]

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The OWRRAS Summer Spectacular (Summer 1985) – This stood for Official Worldwide Roland Rat Appreciation Society. Broadcast in the summer of 1985, a studio based programme like The Spectacular Shedvision Show and the half-term series Roland Live. The last TV-am Roland Rat series.

The series purported to be broadcast from Roland's personal channel BBC3, complete with "THREE" ident spoofing BBC2's " TWO" ident of the period. [7] Operation FOGI (October half term 1984) – introduced Glenis the Guinea Pig who was rescued from the pet department in Harrods as a result of Operation FOGI (Free Our Glenis Immediately). Anne Wood C.B.E. – The Children's Media Foundation". Thechildrensmediafoundation.org . Retrieved 14 May 2014. In the late 1990s, he made a series for Channel 5, called L.A. RAT, which featured Roland and friends living in Los Angeles. [9] In 2003, Roland was a guest presenter for ITV's children's strand CITV. [10] Other appearances [ edit ]On 3 October 1985, he transferred to the BBC, for a three-year contract, which ended up being extended to six years. Roland said, "I saved TV-am and now I'm here to save the BBC." [6] Most of his videos consist of Crisp Rat reacting to internet memes and popular media with his character. He'll sometimes react to YouTubers who get into drama or talk about StinkyBlueRat specifically. He also creates skits parodically summarizing YouTubers or media where he'll create his own puppets or use different action figures, such as Godzilla, OneyPlays, or Spider-Man. Roland Rat is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously designed and operated Mooncat, a puppet in the Children's ITV television programme Get Up and Go!. Claridge worked for Jim Henson, then the second series of The Young Ones. Claridge would later operate and voice Brian the Dinosaur for BBC's Parallel 9, create and direct Happy Monsters, a preschool series for Channel 5, and shoot a CGI series, Mozart's Dog, for Paramount Comedy. Just as Roland Rat was beginning to reach stratospheric levels of fame and popularity, though, The Sun and The Daily star published stories which revealed a little known association from Claridge's recent past. The tabloids had discovered that Claridge had established a rubber/latex fetish night called Skin Two at gay club Stallions in Falconberg Court, Soho.