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The Trap Door

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The Trap Door

The Trap Door is a British animated television series, originally shown in the United Kingdom in 1986. The plot revolves around the daily lives and the misadventures of a group of monsters living in a castle. These include a blue creature called Berk, a spider-like creature called Drutt, and Boni, who was a skull of unknown origin. Although the emphasis was on humour and the show was marketed as a children's programme, it drew much from horror and dark fantasy.

The show was created by British animators Terry Brain and Charlie Mills. It was produced through their own companies, CMTB Animation and Queensgate Productions Ltd. Brain and Mills were also responsible for another animated show, Stoppit and Tidyup, a few years later in the late 1980s, and Bump the Elephant in the 1990s. Together they were referred to as "Brainbox Mills". There was a stop motion movie that was in the works that was never made called The Pudding. Brain would later go on to be an animator at Aardman Animations, where he worked on the six Wallace and Gromit films, as well as Chicken Run and animated television shows, Gogs and Creature Comforts.

A total of 25 episodes of The Trap Door were broadcast in 1986, with each episode running for around four minutes. A second series followed later with a further 15 episodes of similar running time, making a total of 40 episodes. KPTV provided the editing services for the first series. Berk, Boni, the Thing Upstairs and Rogg were voiced by Willie Rushton, an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye. Nick Shipley, then proprietor of KPTV, provided the voice of Drutt, while Terry Brain voiced the other characters.

The recognisable theme song of the show was written by Scottish songwriter Bob Heatlie, who also wrote the Shakin' Stevens hit Merry Christmas Everyone, and also one of the popular hits of the 1980s, Japanese Boy, sung by Aneka. The vocals were performed by Zygott. A 7" record of the extended theme song (as heard in the episode "Don't Open That Trap Door") was released, with a B-side featuring an instrumental song called "Ghost Chase", performed by The Ghost Chasers.

The introduction scene of The Trap Door was a parody of many of Vincent Price's horror film introductions:

Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions, where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank and uninviting place, lives Berk ("Allo!"), overworked servant of "the thing upstairs" ("Berk! Feed me!") But that's nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the trap door, for there is always something down there, in the dark, waiting to come out....

The following lines of the theme song, thereupon commence:

Don't you open that trapdoor, you're a fool if you dare! Stay away from that trapdoor, 'cause there's something down there...

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