Kerwhizz is a British children's television game show commissioned by Michael Carrington and aired on CBeebies. The series uses a mix of CGI and live-action, and is targeted towards four to six-year-olds. Kerwhizz originally ran from 3 November 2008to 11 May 2009. A new series began on CBeebies on 7 March 2011, running on weekdays until 25 March. Re-runs of the new episodes continued except on bank holidays until 6 May.
Summary
The show is moderated by Kerwhizzitor, the only regular live-action character. Three teams of CGI characters, each comprising a human child and a part-living, part-mechanical animal, must answer four rounds of questions, each featuring a regular 2-D animated character, to win a choice of pod mod for their respective racing pods. In addition, one round offers the chance to win a mystery mod. Each mod is an unconventional accessory that may or may not give its user a better chance of winning the race. The teams are cheered on by three groups of live-action children dressed in the teams' colours and waving team flags. All of the questions are multiple-choice, with the answers colour-coded red, green, yellow or blue. Once the question rounds are complete, the teams' pods are assembled around them and the respective mods are installed. The pods are then raised through the roof of the studio into the CGI race world. Each race world is a themed environment containing three, or occasionally four, zones, and each race comprises two laps. All of the teams are likely to encounter unexpected setbacks and opportunities along the way, making the outcome of each race unpredictable.
Characters
Questionmaster
Kerwhizzitor moderates the quiz, asks the questions, makes bad puns and rhymes and tries to keep the teams in order. In the race world sequences Kerwhizzitor commentates.
Contestants
Team Ninki comprises Ninki, a dark-skinned girl with bunches, a mid-European accent and a terrible singing voice ; and Pip, a green-furred dog somewhat resembling a Scottish terrier with an extendable metal neck. Pip can't speak, but can often shape his barks and growls into an approximation of words. Despite this Ninki sometimes fails to hear him when he gets a question right and offers her own wrong answer instead, causing him to growl in frustration. Team colour: yellow. Team logo: yellow star.
Team Twist comprises Twist, a highly confident, if not overconfident, blond boy with a fixation for style; and Snout who resembles an orange-furred, two-legged woolly mammoth with a plastic trunk, and has a fixation of his own, with sprouts. In the episode "Planet Snout" the eponymous planet is revealed to be his homeworld and the origin of his vegetable obsession. It is also revealed that Snout has two nephews, Rocco and Ricco. Team colour: blue. Team logo: blue spiral.
Team Kit comprises Kit, a fair-skinned girl with blue hair who is very brainy and good at thinking around problems. Though her confidence in her abilities is as great as Twist's, occasionally causing some girl-boy rivalry between them; and Kaboodle, who is basically a furry ball with a face, two conical plastic ears/antennae, and a springy conical plastic leg. She appears to be less mature than the other racers, and often requires emotional support from Kit. Team colour: pink. Team logo: pink lightning bolt.
Question hosts
These characters appear in the flash-animated question sequences. None of them speak, since the questions are all read by Kerwhizzitor. In many episodes they, or characters based on their designs, also appear in CGI form in the race world sequences, where they are much bigger than the human contestants.
Natterjack the toad presents two questions per episode based on picture recognition. A typical question might involve the teams identifying one of four pictures that is identical to one that Natterjack has drawn.
Burping Herbert the burpasaur presents one question based on visual memory. This typically involves Herbert eating one of several objects and the teams having to choose which one it was from four alternatives.
King Pong the skunk presents "Hunt the Skunk", in which he hides in or behind four objects in rapid succession. Pip, Snout and Kaboodle have to decide which object was his last hiding place in order to win the Mystery Mod. King Pong's appearance is always heralded by a smelly green vapour. Occasionally he is replaced by his relatives, such as the pirate Long Pong Silver, or by Queen Pong or Princess Pong.
Kat Kool the cat presents "Kat Kool's Sound Round", one question based on auditory memory. Typically Kat Kool or his band will play a tune, and the teams must then choose which of four alternative tunes matches.
British psychologistAric Sigman refers to Kerwhizz as a perfect example of what television makers claim is educational, despite his insistence to the contrary. Sigman goes on to say that "the phrase 'educational television' was, of course, invented by people who make television", "to me it's an oxymoron.".
Lawsuit
In 2011 cartoonist Michael Mitchell sued the BBC, claiming that Kerwhizz's human CGI characters were based on his own designs for a proposed series called The Bounce Bunch. The BBC denied these claims. In the England and WalesPatents County Court in December 2011, His Honour Judge Birss, QC found that the Kerwhizz characters did not infringe Mr Mitchell's copyright.
