El Nombre


El Nombre is a children's educational programme about an anthropomorphic Mexican gerbil character, originally from a series of educational sketches on Numbertime, the BBC schools programme about mathematics. He was also the only character to appear in all Numbertime episodes. His voice was provided by Steve Steen, while the other characters' voices were provided by Sophie Aldred, Kate Robbins, and former Blue Peter host Janet Ellis. For the ninth series of Numbertime in 2001, Michael Fenton-Stevens also provided voices of certain other characters in the El Nombre sketches.
The character's name means "The Name" in Spanish, not "The Number", which would be "El Número".

Setting

El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo, home of Little Juan, his Mama, Pedro Gonzales, Juanita Conchita, Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Tanto the tarantula, Señor Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Señor Calculo the bank manager, Señor Manuel the greengrocer, Miss Constanza Bonanza the school teacher, Señora Fedora the balloon seller and mayor, Señor Loco the steam engine driver, Señor Chipito the carpenter and the local bandit Don Fandango ; whenever he was needed, El Nombre swung into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character was a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and huge sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the townsfolk from injustice, and generally swinging around on his bullwhip - however, unlike Zorro, he was often quite inept.
When El Nombre first appeared on Numbertime in 1993, his purpose was merely to write numbers in the desert sand and demonstrate the correct ways to form them as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance ; this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series - and since his basic beginning, El Nombre went on to appear in a total of 79 sketches on Numbertime before gaining a series of his own, acquiring dramatic storylines and a full cast of characters, while continuing to demonstrate mathematical concepts, albeit in a dramatic and entertaining way. The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created.
As well as being popular with schoolchildren, El Nombre also developed a cult following amongst students and parents, because of the many references to classic spaghetti Westerns; indeed, his popularity grew so much that in March 2004, the BBC released a 3-minute El Nombre theme song as a single.

Characters

A gerbil named Pablo also appeared in the ninth series of Numbertime after Juan entered a competition on Radio Flamingo to win a holiday to the seaside resort of Costa Fortuna and won; Juan, Mama, Pedro, Juanita and Maria met him when they arrived at the resort's hotel, and he went on to front a ring-toss stall when they visited its fairground the following week.

Episode list

Although none of the El Nombre sketches on Numbertime ever had a specific title, those of the first series were introduced by an announcer as "Episodes 1-10". All twenty-six episodes of the spin-off El Nombre series, however, were titled - and their names are listed here.

Series 1 (2001)

The first six episodes of the first series were aired on BBC One as double bills in the CBBC strand on Fridays at 3:45 pm, while the next seven were aired individually on Wednesdays in the same timeslot; three episodes were later repeated on BBC Two as part of the CBBC Breakfast Show on 1 June, 19 July and 20 July 2001, but neither they, or the other ten episodes of the series, were repeated after that.
Episode numberEpisode nameAir date
1Where's That Spider?5 January 2001
2Free as a Bird5 January 2001
3Sports Day12 January 2001
4All the Fun of the Fair12 January 2001
5The Phantom Tanto19 January 2001
6The Missing Birthday Cake19 January 2001
7The Great Train Robbery24 January 2001
8The Giant Cactus31 January 2001
9The Great Custard Pie Fight14 February 2001
10When the Balloon Goes Up7 March 2001
11The Great Escape14 March 2001
12The Ghost of Santo Flamingo21 March 2001
13Match of the Day28 March 2001

Series 2 (2003)

The second series was aired as double bills on the CBeebies Channel on Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30 pm; after the last episode aired on 29 November, the first one was immediately repeated again, and the series concluded its second consecutive run in the same timeslot on 4 January 2004. All thirteen episodes were later repeated on BBC Two in the CBeebies strand on Wednesdays from 7 January to 31 March 2004.
Episode numberEpisode nameAir date
14Going for a Song8 November 2003
15Runaway Train8 November 2003
16The Tent9 November 2003
17Stuck at the Top9 November 2003
18The Great Bank Robbery15 November 2003
19The Great Sand Race15 November 2003
20The Lemon Tree16 November 2003
21Beside the Sea16 November 2003
22The Last Dance22 November 2003
23Saved by the Whale22 November 2003
24Up, Up and Away23 November 2003
25A Very Important Visit23 November 2003
26Winter Wonderland29 November 2003

DVD release

In October 2005, all twenty-six episodes were released on DVD by Maverick Entertainment; the first ten were previously released on a VHS entitled El Nombre to the Rescue by BBC Worldwide in 2001, which also featured an exclusive short. Some of the El Nombre sketches of the "revised" first, second and fifth, and fourth series of Numbertime were also released by BBC Active in 2009 on three DVDs entitled Fun with Numbers - which all came with accompanying books featuring the characters, and were subtitled Counting 1 to 10, Shapes and Time, and Adding and Taking Away respectively.

Credits