Monkey magic

The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!"In the worlds before Monkey, Primal Chaos reigned. Heaven sought order. But the Phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four world's formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of heaven, the moisture of the Earth, the powers of the sun and the moon worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. That first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said "With our thoughts we make the world". Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey.The nature of Monkey was irrepressible........Thus begins Monkey, a television programme that defies description but we'll give it a go: a bizarre combination of spectacular acrobatics and martial arts; tacky special effects; magic tricks; 70's disco music; hilarious dubbing; crazy storylines; the odd bit of Buddhist philosophy thrown in for good measure and an unforgettable theme song. Monkey followed the incredible adventures of three fallen angels: Monkey (Masaaki Sakai); Pigsy (Toshiyuki Nishida) and Sandy (Shiro Kishibe). Thrown out of heaven for various acts of sacrilege and general misbehaviour they hook up with a young Buddhist monk, Tripitaka (Masako Natsume) and embark on an epic, adventure-packed pilgrimage to spread the teachings of Buddha throughout the world and to hopefully gain some true enlightenment themselves.Made by Japanese television and broadcast in the UK by the BBC, Monkey became a staple of the early evening schedules where it attracted a dedicated following of (mainly) children who would rush home after school to catch the latest installment of the surreal adventures of Monkey and his gang.Monkey's success in the UK was due as much to the hilarious dubbing and narration as the spectacular visuals. David Weir, a Londoner with not a drop of Oriental blood (he didn't even speak Japanese or Chinese) was given a translation of the original dialogue and re-worked it for a British audience. Incorporating idiomatic English humour and numerous double entendres, often with no equivalent in the original, this 'kids' programme was actually full of subversive and really quite adult elements and was destined to become a cult classic in every sense of the word.In total, two series' were made totalling 52 episodes. 39 of them were dubbed for the BBC and broadcast in the early 80's. Twenty five later Fabulous Films completed the task by dubbing the 13 lost episodes with the original dubbing cast. An incredible, fantastical and completely hilarious programme and truly one of a kind, it's one of those programmes which is actually more enjoyable to watch as an adult than as a child. It's still completely incomprehensible but nonetheless completely brilliant entertainment.