My Parents Are Aliens

Overview

Characters

Parents

• Brian Johnson : Brian is a Valuxian alien and the cause of the Johnsons' crash-landing on Earth. Often childlike, he follows crazes and fads and gets bored easily and is easily suckered into Josh's scams. He has little or no concept of morality, often creating difficult situations for the characters and only rectifying them because he is told to. He does care for and like his family but will often be very selfish or when well meaning cause chaos through his ignorance of earth culture. Though he can morph at will, his allergy to ice cream makes him grow moose's antlers involuntarily whenever he eats it. He is, despite his personality, an excellent scientist, a trait that Lucy appreciates.
• Sophie Johnson and : Sophie is a Valuxian alien and Brian's wife. She has slightly more common sense than Brian but is still quite clueless and easily led after enough persuasion. Unlike Brian, she is not good at morphing and can only do so when eating ice cream; after morphing into a new shape at the beginning of the third series, Sophie finds she is unable to return to her previous form and decides to remain as she is. Barbara Durkin returns as Aunt Sophie in the episode "Thanks for All the Earthworm Custard".

  Series 1-7: The Barkers

• Melanie Mel Barker : Mel is a teenager who has a sarcastic personality; the oldest of the Barker children, she has a protective and motherly nature towards her younger siblings since the death of their parents. Mel's difficult attitude comes from the pain of losing her parents, as well as being moved to and from different foster homes. Despite her reputation as a tough person, she displays weaknesses in episodes such as "The Box", episode towards her sister Lucy. Mel's best friend is Trent Clements, the two have an obvious romantic interest in each other, though they do not start going out until much later in the series. Mel has a radical and unusual sense of fashion and shows an interest in photography; this led to her moving to Canada on an exchange programme at the end of Series 6, she returned for the Series 7 finale, "Thanks for All the Earthworm Custard".
• Joshua Josh Barker : Josh is the middle Barker sibling and was around twelve years old when he was fostered by Valuxians, Brian and Sophie Johnson. Josh is devious and scheming, constantly inventing new and interesting scams to make money, and roping Brian into his latest schemes. His two best friends are Pete and Frankie. Although cunning, Josh is often outsmarted by his more quick-witted sisters, Mel and Lucy; he does not show much interest in school studies, hence his poor grades, although he has shown average signs of intelligence. His interests include rollerblading, skateboarding, making money and "the gorgeous Tania Thomas". He also plays the guitar very well.
• Lucia Lucy Barker : Lucy is the youngest and most intelligent Barker. At the start of the show she was nine years old. She is very talented in her school subjects, particularly in Maths and Science, with her favourite subject being Chemistry. Her above-average intelligence means she often bonds with Brian, who has an excellent scientific knowledge, despite a lack of common sense, and they often play chess or conduct chemistry experiments. Her best friend is Wendy Richardson, who is equally intelligent and shares Lucy's goal to become an astronaut. Lucy and Wendy are not very popular, due to their scientific interests. She is very honest and moral and is often the one to set her foster parents straight in Earth matters and issues; she easily sees through Mel and Josh's tough acts and voices their true feelings accurately. She lacks a sense of adventure and can be somewhat uptight and controlling. Despite these traits, she is the most kind and caring character.
• C.J. : C.J. is a small, quiet boy who was rescued from being run over by 'SuperBrian', a.k.a. Brian Johnson wearing a cape. He turns out to be an orphan from the children's home and is adopted into the family because he finds out about Brian and Sophie being aliens and threatens to report them. C.J. generally takes on the role of Brian's 'sidekick', and is involved in many of Brian's ridiculous schemes and mad ideas.
• Harriet Harry : Harry first appeared in Series 7 Episode 1 'The Trouble with Harry'; Brian and Sophie adopted her, looking for a replacement for Mel, who left for Canada on an exchange trip. She is similar to Mel in personality, she is usually moody and is a bit of a tomboy. She is also very protective of C.J. because he is the youngest, although he finds her behaviour patronising. Like Josh, she plays the guitar, and her practising sometimes irritates the others. Originally, Josh planned to go out with her, but his plans went awry when Brian and Sophie fostered her making her his foster sister.

  Other Characters

• Pete Walker One of Josh's long-suffering friends. Pete has a pessimistic outlook on life and easily spots Josh's scams, but usually ends up getting drawn in anyway. His voice broke in Season 2. Pete is often seen feeling sorry for himself. He is also the first to realize all the signs that Brian and Sophie were aliens after Wendy reveals it in "Thanks For All The Earthworm Custard".
• Frankie Perkins Along with Pete he's often the target of Josh's scams. He has a long-held crush on Mel , Lucy's only friend. In her scientifically minded and studious nature she is very similar to Lucy, but as has been seen throughout the episodes, is perhaps not as smart and is even less in touch with popular culture than Lucy. Pompous, and somewhat arrogant, she will always lose exams/tests to Lucy by 1%. Despite originally having strong feelings for Josh, she gets together with Frankie at the end of series seven due to Brian messing with both of their brains..
• Terence "Trent" Clements , Mel's long-time friend. He endures Mel's mood swings with resignation and good humour; it is hinted that he is romantically interested in her. They finally get together in series 6. In series 7, it is revealed that his Scottish accent is fake. He is also known as a lothario of the series, much to Josh's resentment; a fan of music and cultural activities. Trent befriends Harry in her first appearance in the show, after finding her using Mel's old locker. He and Harry have a similar friendship to he and Mel's. Trent also shows that he looks out for her by trying his best to convince her not to enter a boxing competition. Despite Trent being a teenager, Keith Warwick was actually in his 30s at the time.
• Mr Graham Whiteside , a very grumpy teacher with a particular dislike for Josh Barker. Sophie has a bit of an obsession with him, whilst he has an obsession with Kate Winslet. He can be quite judgmental and is the most feared of all the teachers. Graham often includes himself in after school activities such as first aid, chess-club and advanced mathematics classes.
• Mrs Alison Hardman , another of Josh's and Lucy's teachers who, unsurprisingly, has a dislike for Josh, and a liking for Lucy. In "The Box", she went to the house to tell Josh that he might have Dyslexia. He did not believe her and, thinking that she was Brian in disguise, threw several scoops of ice cream over her head resulting in her leaving the house and vowing to tell his Doctor and The School Counselor to give him extra work about being Dyslexia. In "Thanks for all the earthworm custard" at the leaving party for Canada she said sorry about giving him extra work. She cannot take criticism shown in the episode "Brians eleven ". It's revealed in the episode "dirty dancing" that Mrs Hardman had an unquestionable talent for ballroom dancing; she also enjoys her usual job as a brownie leader.
• Poppy Manning , a girl who frequently appears as a rival to Josh, due to her similarly scheming, sneaky personality. She is also a rival to Lucy because of their moral differences and competitive attitude. She appears mostly in series 4 & 5. She also has the catchphrase of 'It's too easy' what she uses against Josh on many occasions while scamming him.
• Tania Thomas ; Emily Fleeshman, the object of Josh's affections. In the "Valentine's Day" episode she is shown to harbour a secret affection for Josh, though he mistakenly believes she has sent him hate mail and is determined to get back at her. Brian's well-meaning attempts to ask her out while morphed as Josh apparently ruin any potential relationship. She gets together with Pete Walker in series 7.
• Mikey appears in the first series, as good friends with Josh Barker, Pete Walker and Frankie Perkins. He is perfectly happy being Josh's third-in-command, and is most commonly used as a look-out. He makes a cameo at the end of series 7.
• Dave Locket , a cool, good-looking and popular - but very unintelligent - boy in school. Although originally Josh's idol, the two later sink into rivalry, most notably in the episode, "The Home Team". He is particularly fond of his hair.
• Andy 'the Freak' appears throughout the Barker era as a repulsively geeky boy who is in love with Mel and is deluded in thinking that she returns his ardour. In an episode in Series 6, he gets a makeover. His cousin's name is Jamie, a football player who Mel was briefly infatuated with in the episode, "Magic Johnson". He almost discovered that the Johnsons were aliens after seeing Sophie as a mermaid while fishing. However, the family successfully convince him otherwise as he went in pursuit of her after falling in love.
• Scott Taylor a popular boy who Mel had a date with in the episode "First Christmas". He is the head of the school football team and will not, to Josh's dismay, let him have a place on the team.

  Series 8: The Bennetts

• Jacqueline "Jaq" Bennett ; a fiery teenage girl, Jaq is the oldest of the new foster children. Jaq has difficulty making friends because of her attitude. She rarely shouts, usually letting her sharp wit do the talking.
• Dan Bennett , Becky's twin. Although he is arguably the 'geekier' of the two, collecting comics and speaking Klingon, he is neither academic nor interested in science. Dan is a television addict, but also enjoys computer games and the Internet.
• Becky Bennett , Dan's twin. Becky is very studious. She is fond of dissecting animals, and her ambition is to study veterinary science at University. She is a little pompous.
• Eddie Bennett , the youngest member of the family. He manipulates and even emotionally blackmails the other characters to get what he wants. He does this easily because of his innocent appearance, as well as the naïveté of his foster parents. He often plays with Sophie and, like CJ, likes to play with Brian.

  Production

Episodes

Awards and nominations

Media releases

• My Parents Are Aliens - The Complete Series One
• My Parents Are Aliens - The Best Of