Oscar's Orchestra

Oscar's Orchestra is a British children's animated TV series that ran from 1994 to 1996 comprising a total of three seasons and 39 episodes as a BBC Competitor to ITV's Budgie the Little Helicopter. The series was produced by the popular British animation studio Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment (which is also famous for producing other such animated TV series and films as Dennis the Menace, Captain Zed and the Zee Zone, The Secret Show and Rarg) in association with Warner Music Vision and Europe Images and was originally shown on the BBC as part of their children's block CBBC. It also aired on the British children's cable networks The Children's Channel (TCC) and Nickleodeon and has broadcast in over more than 100 different countries worldwide such as ARD in Germany, France 2 in France and ABC in Australia. It is set in the distant future, in the year 2743 (735,022,381,604 Tuesdays from the show (The 2743 was calculated with year 735, month 22, week 381 and day 604, as well as from the year the show was released, 1994)) in a city called New Vienna, and was about a talking piano called Oscar, who rebels against the evil dictator of the world, Thaddius Vent, who has banned music. Oscar and his fellow musical instruments plot against Vent and his henchmen, Lucius and Tank, and his soothsayer, Goodtooth, spouting his catchphrase 'You screamed, master!'. The voice of Oscar was provided by Dudley Moore. Other members of the orchestra included Monty the violin, Trevor the tuba, Sylvia the flute and Eric the triangle. Based on an idea by Jan Younghusband, Oscar's Orchestra was designed to inspire children with the delights of classical music and incorporates famous orchestrated works from the great composers in each episode such as George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Frédéric Chopin. The programme's opening music is Mikhail Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila. The episode titles continue the theme, for example 'Bach To The Future'.