El Nombre

El Nombre is a children's educational programme about an anthropomorphic Mexican gerbil character, originally from a series of educational sketches on Numbertime, the BBC schools programme about mathematics. He was also the only character to appear in all Numbertime episodes. His voice was provided by Steve Steen, while the other characters' voices were provided by Sophie Aldred, Kate Robbins, and former Blue Peter host Janet Ellis. For the ninth series of Numbertime in 2001, Michael Fenton-Stevens also provided voices of certain other characters in the El Nombre sketches.
The character's name means "The Name" in Spanish, not "The Number", which would be "El Número", but El Nombre does mean "The Number" in Catalan.

Setting

El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo, home of Little Juan, his Mama, Pedro Gonzales, Juanita Conchita, Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequila Chiquita, Tanto the tarantula, Señor Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Señor Calculo the bank manager, Señor Manuel the greengrocer, Miss Constanza Bonanza the school teacher, Señora Fedora the balloon seller and mayor, Señor Loco the steam engine driver, Señor Chipito the carpenter and the local bandit Don Fandango ; whenever he was needed, El Nombre swung into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character was a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and huge sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the townsfolk from injustice, and generally swinging around on his bullwhip – however, unlike Zorro, he was often quite inept.
When El Nombre first appeared on Numbertime in 1993, his purpose was merely to write numbers in the desert sand and demonstrate the correct ways to form them as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance ; this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series – and since his basic beginning, El Nombre went on to appear in a total of 79 sketches on Numbertime before gaining a series of his own, acquiring dramatic storylines and a full cast of characters, while continuing to demonstrate mathematical concepts, albeit in a dramatic and entertaining way. The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created.
As well as being popular with schoolchildren, El Nombre also developed a cult following amongst students and parents, because of the many references to classic spaghetti Westerns; indeed, his popularity grew so much that in March 2004, the BBC released a 3-minute El Nombre theme song as a single.

Characters

El Nombre: The eponymous main character of the Numbertime sketches, and the spin-off series they began, El Nombre started his life as an adaptation of Words and Pictures' Magic Pencil ; after showing Juan how to draw from one to ten, he went on to show him how to identify shapes, as well as teach him about instances of space and position, addition and subtraction, time and money in his everyday life.
Little Juan: A young gerbil whose name was a pun on "little one", Juan started his life being upset about not being able to write numbers and cried until El Nombre arrived to show him how to do it; after learning to draw from one to ten, he could not identify shapes and was despondent about it until El Nombre arrived. He and his friends then got themselves into various dilemmas in their everyday lives, which El Nombre was called on to help them out of.
Mama: Little Juan's mother, who usually could not assist Juan with his various mathematical dilemmas until El Nombre had arrived.
Pedro Gonzales & Juanita Conchita: Two of Juan's friends, who first appeared in the second series of Numbertime, but were not named until the third; on one occasion in the third series, Pedro professed to be "the greatest goalkeeper in the world" when Juan could not score past him, and on one occasion in the fourth series, Juan accidentally blew up Juanita's balloon ten times causing it to burst.
Señor Chipito: The town carpenter who first appeared in the second series of Numbertime as the owner of The Maggot and Cactus Saloon, but was not named and given his present occupation until the sixth; on one occasion in that series, Juan and Pedro had to take a wheel from Señor Gelato's ice-cream tricycle to him for repairs, as it struck a three-legged table that they were already taking to him.
Señor Manuel: The town greengrocer, who first appeared in the second series of Numbertime but was not named until the fourth; the store he ran was called "Hurrell's".
Tanto: Little Juan's pet tarantula spider, who was introduced in the third series of Numbertime; he communicated by mumbling, and on one occasion in the fifth series, Pedro bet Juan he could find a spider who was faster than him and challenged him to a race around the then-newly named town against it, which Tanto won.
Maria Consuela Tequila Chiquita: Another of Juan's friends, who was introduced in the third series of Numbertime, and did not appear in as many sketches as Pedro or Juanita; in the seventh series, her younger sister started at San Flamingo School.
Señora Fedora: The town balloon seller, who was introduced at the end of the fourth series of Numbertime, but was later shown to be its mayor as well in the seventh one after she opened its fifteenth annual Egg Festival and chose Mama to make its giant omelette.
Miss Constanza Bonanza: The teacher for San Flamingo School, who was introduced in the fifth series of Numbertime ; in the eighth series she got married and Juan was responsible for the school collection with which to buy her a present.
Delietta Smith: A television cook who was introduced in the fifth series of Numbertime; known as The Great Delietta and a spoof of Delia Smith, Mama once tried to make her omelette with red and green peppers.
Señor Gelato: The town ice-cream seller, who was introduced in the sixth series of Numbertime; on one occasion in that series he swerved on his tricycle to avoid striking Juan and Pedro, and crashed into Señor Manuel's tomato display.
Señor Calculo & Don Fandango: The town bank manager and bandit, who were introduced in the sixth series of Numbertime; on one occasion in that series, Don Fandango stole twenty gold coins from the bank.
Pepita Consuela Tequila Chiquita: Maria's younger sister who started San Flamingo School in the seventh series of Numbertime.
Leonardo de Sombrero: The town pizza delivery boy, who was introduced in the eighth series of Numbertime; his name is a spoof on that of Leonardo da Vinci, and once, he delivered a pizza to Juan and his friends when they were having a horror movie sleepover.
Señor Loco: The town's steam engine driver, who was introduced in the eighth series of Numbertime; his name is a reference to the fact "loco" is short for locomotive, and once, he took Juan's class to the Santo Flamingo National Park to see the Giant Cactus.
Señor Singalotti: A famous opera singer.
El Presidente: The president.

A gerbil named Pablo also appeared in the ninth series of Numbertime after Juan entered a competition on Radio Flamingo to win a holiday to the seaside resort of Costa Fortuna and won; Juan, Mama, Pedro, Juanita and Maria met him when they arrived at the resort's hotel, and he went on to front a ring-toss stall when they visited its fairground the following week.

Episode list

Although none of the El Nombre sketches on Numbertime ever had a specific title, those of the first series were introduced by an announcer as "Episodes 1-10". All twenty-six episodes of the spin-off El Nombre series, however, were titled – and their names are listed here.

Series 1 (2001)

The first six episodes of the first series were aired on BBC One as double bills in the CBBC strand on Fridays at 3:45 pm, while the next seven were aired individually on Wednesdays in the same timeslot; three episodes were later repeated on BBC Two as part of the CBBC Breakfast Show on 1 June, 19 July and 20 July 2001, but neither they, or the other ten episodes of the series, were repeated after that.

Episode number	Episode name	Air date
1	Where's That Spider?	5 January 2001
2	Free as a Bird	5 January 2001
3	Sports Day	12 January 2001
4	All the Fun of the Fair	12 January 2001
5	The Phantom Tanto	19 January 2001
6	The Missing Birthday Cake	19 January 2001
7	The Great Train Robbery	24 January 2001
8	The Giant Cactus	31 January 2001
9	The Great Custard Pie Fight	14 February 2001
10	When the Balloon Goes Up	7 March 2001
11	The Great Escape	14 March 2001
12	The Ghost of Santa Flamingo	21 March 2001
13	Match of the Day	28 March 2001

Series 2 (2003)

The second series was aired as double bills with in vision sign language on the CBeebies Channel on Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30 pm; after the last episode aired on 29 November, the first one was immediately repeated again, and the series concluded its second consecutive run in the same timeslot on 4 January 2004. All thirteen episodes were later repeated without signing on BBC Two in the CBeebies strand on Wednesdays from 7 January to 31 March 2004.

Episode number	Episode name	Air date
14	Going for a Song	8 November 2003
15	Runaway Train	8 November 2003
16	The Tent	9 November 2003
17	Stuck at the Top	9 November 2003
18	The Great Bank Robbery	15 November 2003
19	The Great Sand Race	15 November 2003
20	The Lemon Tree	16 November 2003
21	Beside the Sea	16 November 2003
22	The Last Dance	22 November 2003
23	Saved by the Whale	22 November 2003
24	Up, Up and Away	23 November 2003
25	A Very Important Visit	23 November 2003
26	Winter Wonderland	29 November 2003