Roy is an Irish animated children's television series which was broadcast by TRTÉ in Ireland, CBBC in the United Kingdom and ABC3 in Australia. It aired from 1 July 2009 to 1 April 2015.[1]

Roy
Title card
GenreAnimation
Comedy
Live-action
Mockumentary
Sitcom
StarringSean Harris
Ariana
Martha Byrne
Mark Lambert
Voices ofScott Graham (Series 1–2)
Robert Donnely (Series 3–4)
Richard Albrecht
ComposerDarren Hendley
Country of originIreland
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes52
Production
Production locationsBallyfermot, County Dublin (Series 1-2)
Sandyford, County Dublin
(Series 3-4)
Running time22 minutes
Production companyJAM Media
Original release
NetworkTRTÉ (Ireland)
CBBC (United Kingdom)
ABC3 (Australia)
Release1 July 2009 (2009-07-01) –
7 April 2015 (2015-04-07)
Related

The show centres on the titular character Roy O'Brien. He is portrayed as the 11-year-old animated son of a live-action family. Episodes mostly revolve around the adventures and challenges he faces as he settles into his new school in a suburb of Dublin.

The series is filmed as a mockumentary and based on the short film Badly Drawn Roy, which was commissioned by the Irish Film Board, RTÉ and the Arts Council of Ireland through their frameworks scheme for new animation.

Production

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The series was commissioned by CBBC and produced with funding from RTÉ and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Both the series and the short film were produced by JAM Media. Roy's character animation is hand drawn in Flash with the compositing and effects produced in Adobe's After Effects.

A second season was broadcast in early 2012.[2] In November 2012, the second season of Roy won the 2012 Children's BAFTA Drama Award.[3]

Filming began on a third and fourth season in January 2013. The third season began airing on 23 January 2014, and the fourth began airing 20 January 2015.[4]

Main cast

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Series Actor Role Notes
Series 1-4 Richard Albrecht Narrator
Series 1-2 Scott Graham Roy O'Brien Lead role
Series 3-4 Robert Donnely Roy O'Brien Lead role
Series 1-4 Simon Delaney Bill O'Brien Main role, Roy's biological father
Series 1-4 Cathy Belton Maura O'Brien Main role, Roy's biological mother
Series 1-4 Martha Byrne Becky O'Brien Main role, Roy's biological sister
Series 1-4 Mark Lambert Mr Derek Hammond Headteacher (Series 1 - 2), Vice Principal (Series 3 - 4)
Series 1-4 Paul Tylak Dr Rashid Doctor
Series 1-2 David Green Tommy Byrne Nerd and Roy’s mate
Series 1-2 Fionn O'Shea Jack Koprowski Cool Dude and Roy’s mate
Series 1-2 Rebecca Barry Sinéad Roy's crush
Series 1-2 Chloe McCormack Kathy Cunningham Main Bully
Series 1 Lewis Harris Connor Cool Dude
Series 1 Charlene Gleeson Tara Loveworth
Series 1 Patrick Murray Jacks Dad
Series 1 Holly Walsh Karisma
Series 1 Nigel Davey Sound Man
Series 1 Ticket Girl
Series 1-2 Ronan Leahy Mr Hogan P.E. teacher
Series 1-2 Pat McGrath Dennis Gwint Site manager
Series 1-2 Maud Fahy Miss Dymphna Sherringham Teacher
Series 2 Panashe McGuckin Alex O'Shea Cool Dude
Series 2 Norma Sheahan Miss Hegarty
Series 3-4 Cameron Hogan Niall Cool Dude
Series 3-4 Lauren Kinsella Tara Keating Roy's crush
Series 3-4 Romey Farrelly Abby Cool Girl and Roy’s mate
Series 3-4 Jowon Olatunji Sean Cool Dude
Series 3-4 Kian Murphy Declan Main Bully
Series 3-4 Brandon Maher Hendley Bully's mate
Series 3-4 Harry Behan Fagan Bully's mate
Series 3-4 Valerie O'Connor Miss Jane Jervis Headteacher
Series 3-4 Sam O’Mahony Mr Lucey Science teacher
Series 3 Hiro Ino Mr Tanaka

Episodes

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Series Episodes Start date End date
1 13 5 August 2009 28 October 2009
2 13 9 January 2012 27 March 2012
3 13 23 January 2014 17 April 2014
4 13 20 January 2015 7 April 2015

Series 1 (2009)

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Overall In series Title Original airdate
1 1 New Boy 5 August 2009
2 2 Growing Pains 12 August 2009
3 3 Sick 19 August 2009
4 4 Charity Case 26 August 2009
5 5 A Matter of Principal 2 September 2009
6 6 Roy Band 9 September 2009
7 7 On the Run 16 September 2009
8 8 Roy and Me 23 September 2009
9 9 Roy Goes to the Movies 30 September 2009
10 10 Roy Pulls a Face 7 October 2009
11 11 Testing, Testing 14 October 2009
12 12 Halo Goodbye 21 October 2009
13 13 School Inspection 28 October 2009

Series 2 (2012)

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Overall In series Title Original airdate
14 1 Foot Fat Fit 9 January 2012
15 2 Roy the Rover 16 January 2012
16 3 Big Head 23 January 2012
17 4 Spot On 30 January 2012
18 5 Death in the Family 6 February 2012
19 6 Pint-Sized Roy 13 February 2012
20 7 A Crushing Blow 20 February 2012
21 8 Magical Roy 27 February 2012
22 9 Invisible Roy 5 March 2012
23 10 DIY Roy 12 March 2012
24 11 The Good, the Bad and the Roy 19 March 2012
25 12 Uncle Troy 26 March 2012
26 13 Roy's Review 27 March 2012

Series 3 (2014)

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Overall In series Title Original airdate
27 1 Roy On Film 23 January 2014
28 2 Attack of the 50 ft Roy 30 January 2014
29 3 Roy's Bad Hair Day 6 February 2014
30 4 Roy's Quest 13 February 2014
31 5 Snookered 20 February 2014
32 6 Supersize Roy 27 February 2014
33 7 The Roy Trap 6 March 2014
34 8 Mocking is Catching 13 March 2014
35 9 Be Careful What You Wish For 20 March 2014
36 10 Konnichi Roy 27 March 2014
37 11 I'm a Big Roy Now 3 April 2014
38 12 Roy's First Kiss 10 April 2014
39 13 Freaky Froyday 17 April 2014

Series 4 (2015)

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Overall In series Title Original airdate
40 1 Roy 2.0 20 January 2015
41 2 Bubble Trouble 27 January 2015
42 3 Stupid Cupid 3 February 2015
43 4 Roy's Terrible Twos 10 February 2015
44 5 Too Cool For School 17 February 2015
45 6 Karma Chameleon 24 February 2015
46 7 Going Ape 3 March 2015
47 8 Blush Hour 10 March 2015
48 9 And the Winner Is... 17 March 2015
49 10 Fright of a Lifetime 24 March 2015
50 11 Roy Junior 31 March 2015
51 12 Buddy 7 April 2015
52 13 Roy, Roy, CGI Boy

Franchise

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Two spin-off series of Roy were announced and commissioned by BBC, forming the Roy franchise. Little Roy is about an animated five year old boy on a journey of self-discovery through imaginative play. It aired from 2016 to 2017 on both CBBC and CBeebies.[5][6]

The Roy Files is a spin-off that focuses on the life of Roy O’Brien, Ireland's only cartoon boy living in the real world. Roy turns his history homework into a scrapbook about himself that highlights all four seasons of Roy.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "New kids' comedy begins on RTÉ Two". RTÉ Arts. 22 February 2010.
  2. ^ "'Roy' Returns For Second Series". IFTN. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
  3. ^ "Video: Roy the cartoon boy on CBBC wins Bafta for digital animation studio". Independent.ie.
  4. ^ "'Roy' Trades Artane For Ardmore & Ballyfermot For Dublin 4 - The Irish Film & Television Network". iftn.ie.
  5. ^ a b Milligan, Mercedes (10 September 2015). "Jam's 'Little Roy' Set for CBeebies, CBBC". Animation Magazine.
  6. ^ Little Roy (Family), Susie Power, Robyn Dempsey, Niamh McCann, JAM Media, 10 October 2016, retrieved 26 December 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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