Born in the boozy brain of Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, The Litter Rats was a much-loved children's television show first broadcast on ITV in 1972. Voiced by Bernard Manning, The Litter Rats followed the adventures of a group of monsters who fished about in the bins of the All England Cricket Club in Clapham Common. After many years of innocent adventures, they were exterminated by a council vermin controller in the final episode.
"I remember doing the voices for them little bastards," recalled Bernard Manning. He was in his underpants at the time. "What annoyed me was the producers of the show never let me do any of my racism. I had this great gag about p**** where they stink of curry and burn their wives alive, but the director said I had to keep it clean. Shame, because I also had this cracking gag about how the j*** have these really big noses and steal all the money in the world."
The Litter Rats wasn't just a TV phenomenon. The characters from the show also became unlikely pop heartthrobs when their song, Do You Remember That You're a Litter Rat?, went to number one in the Hit Parade in 1975.
"That were a surprise," remembered Bernard Manning, shortly before he died in 2005 from exploding on the toilet. "There used to be huge crowds of teenage girls waiting outside the recording studio. Thankfully, none of 'em was n**-n***. I remember Jimmy Savile used to turn up to the recording studio at the same time as all the girls. I suppose he must have been there looking for guests for that show he used to do where he fixed stuff for the kiddies. My God, that man didn't half dribble. Probably from all them cigars he smoked. And I reckon he never had a bath because he was always scratching around in his tracksuit bottoms. Very unhygienic. Just like the b*****."
Despite being gassed on the orders of Lambeth Council in 1984, The Litter Rats continue to be popular to this day thanks to nostalgia-hungry Britain's refusal to let anything go, not even rubbish like Steps.
"The Litter Rats was always one of my favourites growing up," remembers Lisa from Steps. "My favourite episode was that one where their heads were on back to front and they lived in a bin."
Actually, Lisa, that was Button Moon.
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