Aaagh! It’s the Mr Hell Show! – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 2 (UK/Canada)
13 x 25 minute episodes

This bad taste, adult cartoon sketch show – a co-production between the BBC and Canadian company Sextant – featured regular visits with Mr Hell, a nasty, womanising, mischief-making, larger-than-life devil voiced by 73-year-old comedian and entertainer Bob Monkhouse.

Other characters included Serge the Seal of Death (a psychotic French-Canadian baby harp seal set to avenge the entire fashion industry for the murder of his parents), Josh (the reincarnation guy), Champion the Wonder Snail, a foul-mouthed granny, a Victorian Lady Detective, and Damien (Mr Hell’s long-lost illegitimate son, whose mother Angela was an angel). An average of 19 characters died in each episode!

The animation was fairly primitive, but the material was sharp, witty and irreverent, thanks to writers David Freedman and Alan Gilbey, who developed the idea for the show from a range of bitter and twisted greeting cards created by Scottish cartoonist and misanthrope, Hugh MacLeod.

Bob Monkhouse was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 2001 and died from the illness at his home on 29 December 2003, aged 75.

Mr Hell
Bob Monkhouse (voice)
Jules Winnfield
Paul Dobson (voice)
Kokey the Cat
Philip Maurice Hayes (voice)
Serge the Seal of Death
Tabitha St. Germain (voice)
Josh 
Jeff ‘Swampy’ Marsh (voice)
Mina
Nicole Oliver (voice)
Additional Voices
Scott McNeil
Gerard Plunkett
Michael Dobson
Grahame Andrews
Ellie King
Pauline Newstone

Episodes

Mr Hell Moves In | Edukashun | Triple Indemnity Squared | From Here to Paternity | Big Buzznizz | Right Royal Rain Rin Re Rass | Hellathon | The Animation Special | Run Like Hell | Prince Not So Charming | Deep Thought (Death & Taxes) | Blinded by Science and Rosy Palmer | The Seven Ages

Video