Come back and fight, demon! (Monkey)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Monkey
Date:	07/01/01 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny

Disadvantages: Second series dodgy

Monkey was a programme that used to be shown on BBC2 on a Friday night. It was a Japanese programme dubbed into English, and was horrendously funny, even to a youngster like me.

It was a story of a Buddhist priest (Tripitaka, who looked more like a girl than a boy) taking a journey to India to pick up some sacred scrolls. As it was a fairly perilous journey along the way he takes with him 3 travelling companions - Monkey (the King of Monkeys, who got above his station and was kicked out of Heaven by Buddha herself), Pigsy (some sort of Pig King or spirit, all he wants to do is eat, and he's forever chasing girls too), and Sandy (a water spririt who is the most sensible out of the 3 spririts, but a bit cowardly and stupid).

If I remember correctly, it was split into 2 seasons with the first season that everyone remembers, and all the classic icons that go along with it - who remembers the magic staff? The pink cloud? The magic headband?

I don't remember the second season very well, although it did involve a talking horse, and the two principal characters (Tripitaka and Monkey) did return.

Most of the episodes that I remember involved the continuation of the quest, but the group running into some demon or other, and Monkey having to save the day... usually by a lot of fighting and bashing of heads.

Each episode then finishes with the narrator spewing some guff which I assume is some sort of Buddhist teaching.

That's it! It was a great telly series (the music was fab!) and it was shown on BBC2 about 20 years ago. More recently, Sky 1 had it (about 4 years ago?) and within the last two years, Bravo have shown it as well. It's now out on video (I don't think it's on DVD) so there's no reason why you shouldn't own a copy - I recommend you get the first 2 episodes that sets the scene for the first series and prepare to laugh yourself silly!

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