Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (1996 TV series)

Dennis and Gnasher is an animated British TV series based on characters from The Beano comic, which ran from 2 April 1996 until 7 May 1998. The series was produced by Collingwood O'Hare and Beano Productions in association with Flextech, Polygram and BBC Television, distributed by HiT Entertainment worldwide, and was directed and largely written by Tony Collingwood. A new series has been announced by the BBC and was debuted in 2009.

Main and major characters
Dennis; voiced by Richard Pearce. The main character, Dennis is a 10 year old troublemaker and mischievous young child. While most of his mischief is for fun, sometimes it can cause serious problems, or even help others. Dennis' antics have caused him to gain multiple enemies including his next door neighbour Walter, the Colonel, and Sergeant Slipper. Dennis has saved the world on one occasion ("Mauled") and appeared on Blue Peter after winning an art competition.

Gnasher the Abyssinian wire-haired tripehound; voiced by Kerry Shale. Gnasher is Dennis's pet dog. He is Dennis's "partner in crime" twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week&mdash;together they are the proverbial "two peas in a pod". When Gnasher is not by Dennis's side, like during school hours (though he does follow Dennis to school in the mornings), he'll have taken up his vigil, hiding in the front garden, ready and waiting to ambush the postman as he attempts to deliver the mail on Gnasher's watch. Gnasher's family still lives on the isle of Abyssinia, as revealed in "The Trial", when a company of rat catchers had accused Gnasher of being a large rat instead of being a dog. Gnasher possesses a set of teeth that are capable of chewing through almost anything, hence his name. His favourite food is bones, and his favourite dog toy is his squeaky bone. In "Summer Holiday", Gnasher went by the alias of "Baby Norman", Dennis's baby brother, to be allowed to stay at a beachside guesthouse whose owner disliked pets. In "Special Agent Dennis", it's revealed that Dennis feeds Gnasher his homework rather than actually do the homework.

Dennis' Dad; voiced by John Baddeley. Dennis' unnamed father is under a lot of stress due to Dennis' mischief and often tries to discipline his son, with little results, and is forced to take extreme measures at times. He works in an office.

Dennis' Mum; voiced by Eve Karpf. She seems to be able to cope more with Dennis' behaviour and on equal terms, Dennis listens to her when she tells him off. At times, she can be rather oblivious to events around her and silly at times, using household objects to help her when she takes driving lessons("Menace Power").

Dennis's Granny, Gertrude; voiced by Sally Grace. Although she is eighty years old, Dennis's Granny is still very young at heart. Dennis loves his Granny, he defends her when another speaks ill of her ("Dennis and the Beanstalk"), and will come to her for advice in times of need ("The Day TV was Banned"). In her youth, Dennis's Granny was every bit the Menace towards anything like a peaceful society in Beanotown that her grandson is today, as revealed in "The Secret Diary", and in her day there was a police officer, Sgt. Boot, who was the "Sgt. Slipper" to her "Dennis". According to information from the Beano comic, she is the mother of Dennis's Dad; in "The Secret Diary", when Dennis's Dad mentions more than once how well-behaved he was to his parents, he may have been referring particularly to his father because Dennis's Granny favours her grandson, Dennis, who takes after her. In "The Secret Diary", she was depicted as having black hair, like her son and grandson, but in "Gorilla Warfare", she was seen in a flashback with blond hair (so possibly she dyed it). She rides a motorcycle and eats pizza with "everything on them". She is perhaps the only adult, as mentioned by Dennis's Dad, "insane enough" to provide Dennis with any adult supervision and survive intact; she will even willingly come back for more of the fun and mayhem.

Curly; voiced by Jill Lidstone, Dennis's best friend and fellow Menace. He is the loyal friend that will stand up for Dennis no matter what.

Pie-Face; voiced by Gary Martin. Dennis' other best friend and fellow Menace. Portrayed as being dim-witted and at times cowardly, as well as being a fan of pies (hence his nickname).

The Colonel, Godfrey; voiced by John Baddeley. A neighbour of Dennis' family who lives across the road. He is a stereotypical military veteran who is forever seen in military uniform, his house resembles a military bunker and he even has a tank parked in his front yard. The Colonel often recalls memorable battles in his life, and is considered an enemy of sorts by Dennis.

'''Sgt. Slipper'''; voiced by Colin McFarlane. A local policeman and another enemy of Dennis, usually being the first one to deal with Dennis' antics outside his house, and often is seen with the Colonel. He is a bit clumsy at times and often overreacts to things.

Walter The Softy; voiced by Judy Bennett. Dennis' Next Door Neighbour, rival and major enemy. Always exasperated with Dennis' mischief and often tries to come up with ideas to humiliate and outshine him.He seems to be the shows main antagonist.

Matilda; voiced by Eve Karpf. Walter's best friend and girlfriend, often seen with him and swooning over him.Since she's with Walter,Matilda is another one of the shows antagonists.

Foo Foo; Walter's pet poodle and Gnasher's rival. She has been seen in a few episodes with Walter holding her while he' s scolding Dennis. She doesn't really spend that much time with the rivalry with Walter or Dennis rather than trying beat Gnasher at his game.Despite that Foo-Foo is not seen often, she is a minor antagonist.

Minor and one-off characters
Mrs. Pie Face, Kevin Pie Face's Mum; voiced by Jill Lidstone.

Mr. Pie Face, Kevin Pie Face's Dad; voiced by Gary Martin.

The Postman; voiced by John Baddeley. Like in the comic, the Postman is mostly harassed by Gnasher whenever he tries to deliver the mail to Dennis' House.

Rasher: Dennis' pet pig that made a cameo in the episode Dennis and the Beanstalk.

Sidney: Dennis' spider that with his web saved the day. Seen in Secret Agent Dennis.

Walter's Dad (Feetskip); voiced by Gary Martin.

School Headmaster; voiced by Colin McFarlane.

Flossy Muggins; voiced by Sally Grace. A wacky inventor who helped Dennis build some ingenious inventions. Seen in Revenge of the Robot.

Dirk Cool, Secret Agent; voiced by Gary Martin. Seen in Special Agent Dennis.

Aunt Beryl, Gran's sister.

Mr Smiley; voiced by Derek Nimmo. A nutty psychiatrist, who tried Dennis like practical jokes on the parents during his course on "How to Understand Children", but couldn't get the better of Dennis even though the parents though he was worse than him. Seen in Dennis and the Grown-Ups

Reg Trademark; voiced by John Baddely. A evil inventor who made a mall that makes people go strange. Seen in Mauled as the antagonist.

Episode listing
People’s names in brackets are guest actors who voiced one of the guest characters in that particular episode. During the Credits, the guest stars were always at the top before the regular cast.

Later television shows
A new television series has now been produced. The new series features the return of Dennis, Gnasher, Mum, Dad, Curly and Pie-Face and will also feature the introduction of Dennis' little sister Bea. The production shots also showed Dennis' treehouse with a more menacing design. Screenshots and an episode can be found at the production company Red Kite Animation's website.

The show is shown at 4.00pm from Monday-Friday on CBBC.

Broadcast history

 * UK
 * CBBC (1996–2009) (also aired on BBC1 and BBC2)
 * BBC2 Scotland (1997–1998) (during De-a-nis?)
 * BBC1 Scotland (2000)
 * The Children's Channel (1996–1997)
 * Fox Kids/Jetix (1999–2002)
 * Ireland
 * RTE Two (1996–2003)
 * Australia
 * Network Ten
 * GO!

Commercial availability
Episodes 1-4 of series one are available on two, separate volumes each containing two episodes. The further nine episodes are yet to be released. All 13 episodes of series two are available on three, separate volumes each containing four-five episodes. These were later re-released in a box-set alongside "The Beano Videostars" and "The Beano Allstars". A DVD "Haunted House & 12 Other Stories" was released in September 2010. All 26 episodes the complete 2 series was released 22 August 2011 in a DVD boxset titled Dennis & Gnasher: Special Agent Dennis & 25 More Crazy Adventures (8 Discs), it also contains "The Beano Videostars" and "The Beano Allstars". So now all the episodes from this series has been released on DVD from 22 August 2011.

Ratings (CBBC Channel)

 * Saturday 22 June 2002- 40,000 (3rd most watched on CBBC that week)
 * Sunday 23 June 200- 30,000 (5th most watched on CBBC that week)