Edd the Duck

Edd the Duck
Portrayed by	Christina Mackay-Robinson
Information
Species	Duck
Gender	Male

Edd the Duck (originally Ed the Duck) is a popular puppet mallard. He has green hair and appeared on the CBBC interstitial or in-vision continuity programme The Broom Cupboard alongside (human) presenters Andy Crane and Andi Peters. His movements were performed by Christina Mackay-Robinson (now Christina Brown) an Assistant Producer employed by the BBC.

History

He made his debut in late 1988, originally with a bald head until he 'went to the hairdressers' and returned sporting a green woollen mohawk (salvaged by Christina from an old Blue Peter make 'Punk Teddy'), which became his trademark. His co-star and enemy was Wilson the Butler, a character who was off screen apart from his arm visible to the viewers.

Subsequent appearances

Edd the Duck starred in a number of pantomimes and short films alongside actors including Bill Oddie and Gorden Kaye. One of his best-loved films shows how be became a zookeeper at Twycross Zoo and fed the chimps at their tea party. Another of his films shows how he trained to be a top chef and made afternoon tea for the Queen and in another he learns to fly a plane and serves crusty bread, pond weed and pizza to his duck passengers.

Edd made a guest appearance on the CBBC Channel on Easter Monday 2009 alongside Ed Petrie. He reappeared later that year as a guest when Dan and Jeff went to the BBC Broom Cupboard to solve a problem with hosting.

Edd the Duck is also a great fan of Kylie Minogue who popped in to visit him in the Broom Cupboard. On another occasion Edd was able to meet his other great idol, Adele Humphrey, who made an appearance in the Broom Cupboard during her 1991 world tour. Edd is an avid Blackburn Rovers fan and was once given a signed shirt by then captain Colin Hendry.

Edd the Duck had his own cartoon strip in a BBC magazine. He was also parodied in a cartoon strip called "The Garbage man", which appeared in short lived British comic Toxic!.^{[citation needed]}

Edd the Duck released his own single, "Awesome Dood!" in 1990 - after receiving singing lessons from Sonia, who advised him to rap. It had the chorus: "I'm hip, hop, happening and I'm totally cool, I'm Edd the Duck and I'm an awesome dood!"^{[citation needed]}

Edd also had a brand of milkshakes named after him in 1991, publicised in comics such as The Dandy. This came in three flavours.^{[citation needed]}

Edd was the official UK Olympic team mascot at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

Edd the duck is commonly known to be allergic to ham.^{[citation needed]}

Computer game

A game of Edd the Duck was released as a budget title in 1990 by Zeppelin Games, for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 and in 1991 for the Amiga. It's graphics and gameplay were inspired by the arcade game Rainbow Islands^{[citation needed]}. The game was received very poor reviews, with Amiga Power calling it "one of the most primitive attempts at a platform game [they've] seen".

The sequel "Edd the Duck 2: Back with a Quack!" was released in 1992 on the Amiga. It was even more poorly received than the first game, with one reviewer saying "I haven't seen a game this awful in a very long time" and that it "somehow manages to be even worse than the first Edd The Duck game".