Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime facts for kids

Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime (also known as Victor & Hugo) is a British cartoon show. It was made by Cosgrove Hall Productions for Thames Television. The show was shown on Children's ITV from September 6, 1991, to December 29, 1992. The main characters, Victor and Hugo, were based on two bad guys named Gaston and Pierre from another show called Count Duckula (1987–1989).

Victor & Hugo was the second cartoon from Cosgrove Hall that used a special drawing style called cel-animation, with help from a Spanish studio called Alfonso Productions. It was also their last cel-animated project before Thames Television stopped broadcasting. Because of changes in TV channels, many of the thirty episodes were only shown once in the United Kingdom. However, the show was later repeated in other countries like Germany, Cyprus, and the Falkland Islands on a military TV network called BFBS.

Unlike many other Cosgrove Hall shows from that time, Victor & Hugo was not released on DVD. Only the first episode, "Panda-Monium," was released on a special collection DVD in 2003, but it is now hard to find. This show was also the last Cosgrove Hall production to feature the voices of Brian Trueman and David Jason. You might also spot other famous characters from earlier Cosgrove Hall shows, like Danger Mouse and Count Duckula, making guest appearances!

Meet the Main Characters

Victor

Victor is the taller of the two brothers and the clear leader of their "Naughtiness International" group. He always wears a cool fedora hat and has a neat moustache, which makes him look quite fancy. He also wears white gloves, which he got as a birthday gift from Interpol (the parrot!). Victor speaks much better English than Hugo, but he often mixes up words, making funny "spoonerisms." Even though he often gets mad at Hugo, Victor secretly cares a lot about his younger brother. Jimmy Hibbert is the voice of Victor.

Hugo

Hugo is Victor's younger brother. He always wears a beret and an eye-mask, making him look just like a burglar. He always follows Victor's lead and often finds himself in funny, clumsy situations (called slapstick comedy). Hugo has a tiny pet earwig named Penelope, who lives in a matchbox. Hugo isn't as smart as Victor and his English isn't as good, but he can often understand Victor's mixed-up words. He likes to call their job "criminiminals." Even though he's not very good at it, Hugo is always the one who drives their van. Hugo's voice, done by David Jason, sounds a lot like a character named Bluebottle from an old radio show called The Goon Show.

Interpol the Parrot

Interpol is a very smart and quick-witted parrot who lives in Victor and Hugo's van. He's a rare kind of parrot called an East End Multicolour. He speaks very fast Cockney English (a type of accent from London) and is definitely the smartest one in the group. Besides living in the van, Interpol can also act like a telephone! He rings when he's on his perch, and you put his beak to your ear to talk. Victor even uses his talons to dial numbers. Sometimes, Hugo even uses Interpol as makeshift scissors! David Jason also voices Interpol, but he didn't have any lines in the episode "Treasure Haunt."

The Wretched Dog

A small dog plays a very important and funny role in most episodes. Often, when things get a bit slow, the dog will run up one of Victor's trouser legs, grab his boxer shorts, and run off with them down the other leg! This funny trick usually happens at the end of most episodes, right after Victor says, "At least in here, nothing else can possibly go wrong!" Hugo really enjoys seeing the dog, often saying "good doggie!" In the show's production notes, the dog's name is Baskerville, like in the famous Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles, but he's never called that in the show. He doesn't appear in a couple of episodes, like "The Case of the Vose Vase" and "Escort Red-Handed."

Monsieur Meccaneaux

Even though his name sounds French, M. Meccaneaux is an English rat with a working-class accent. The brothers often call him to fix their van, especially after Hugo's bad driving causes an accident. Sometimes, he also helps them with other technical things, like building a "Concrete Destruction Ray" (which Victor calls the "Discreet Correction Ray"). David Jason also provides the voice for M. Meccaneaux.

Funny Catchphrases

A lot of the humor in the show comes from the characters' repeated phrases. Some of these were even used by Gaston and Pierre in Count Duckula:

• "That is what I said." - Victor says this when someone corrects him. This phrase was made just for this show.
• "Nothing else can possibly go wrong." - Victor usually says this, and it's the signal for the Wretched Dog to appear and steal his boxer shorts at the end of an episode.
• "Gordon Bennett, Where's me tablets?" - Interpol says this when he's surprised or worried. This phrase was also created just for the show.
• "That's what I think, anyway." - Hugo's way of summing up a situation. You can hear this at the end of the show's opening and closing songs.
• "Yes, and no, but mainly, no." - Hugo's answer to Victor's questions. Pierre from Count Duckula used this phrase first.
• "Help, the police! No, help!!!" - Hugo's panicked reaction whenever he hears the word "police." It's the only thing that truly scares him.
• "We are famous international criminals." - Hugo accidentally says this, giving away their secret. Victor often tries to cover it up by saying Hugo is just kidding.
• "It is your fault, it is all your fault, it is always your fault!" - Victor gets angry at Hugo and blames him for their mistakes, usually when they get caught.

Episode List

The show has two series with a total of 30 episodes.

Series 1 (1991)

All thirteen episodes of the first series were shown on ITV as part of the Children's ITV block on Fridays at 4:05 PM. However, on two dates in October 1991, the show started later because of rugby coverage.

Series 2 (1992)

The second series also aired on Fridays on Children's ITV. The last two episodes were shown close to Christmas 1992.

Books About the Show

Besides a rare VHS tape with a few episodes, there was also a series of six books based on Victor & Hugo. These books were written by Jimmy Hibbert, Robin Kingsland, and Rod Green. They had a special triangular logo on the front, which was a nod to Thames Television's last logo. The books included titles like "Fu Man's Choo Choo" and "The Great Train Robbery." Two of the books by Jimmy Hibbert were even released as audio cassettes, read by Hibbert himself as Victor and the narrator. On these tapes, Peter Sallis took over the voices of Hugo and Interpol instead of David Jason.

See also

In Spanish: Victor y Hugo para niños