El Nombre is an animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 masked Mexican gerbil

Gerbil

A gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and jirds, all of which are adapted to arid habitats...

 originally from a series of educational television shows called Numbertime

Numbertime

Numbertime is a BBC educational television series for primary schools that was first aired on BBC2 in 1993. It was originally presented by Lolita Chakrabarti...

- a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 schools programme about mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

. His first appearance was in 1993 and he became such a success that his interstitial part was soon extended to a five minute short (also named El Nombre), produced by Ealing Animations. In 2000, an entertainment series was commissioned for CBBC

CBBC

CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...

 and a second series went out in 2003.

Setting

El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo ("deep in the heart of Mexico"), home of Little Juan, Maria Consuela Tequilla Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequilla Chiquita, Tanto the friendly tarantula spider, El Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Senior Calculo the Bank Manager and the local bully Don Fandango. Whenever he is needed, El Nombre swings into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character is a parody of the fictional hero Zorro

Zorro

Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....

, wearing a similar black cowl mask and wide sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the town folk from injustice and generally swinging around on his bullwhip. However, unlike Zorro, he is often quite inept.

Initially, El Nombre's function was merely to write numbers in the sand to demonstrate the correct way to form a number. This was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series. Since the basic beginning El Nombre has completed 7 educational series (his segment on Number Time) and grown into a 4-5 minute slot, acquiring dramatic storylines, a full cast of characters, and continued to demonstrate mathematical concepts albeit in a dramatic & entertaining way. Episodes have moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was conceived.

As well as being popular with school children, El Nombre has developed a cult following amongst students and parents because of the many references to classic spaghetti Westerns. Indeed, his popularity has grown so much that in March 2004, the El Nombre theme song was released as a single.

El Nombre actually means "The Name" in Spanish, not "The Number" which would be "El Número".

Episode guide

Series One:

• Where's That Spider?
• Free As A Bird
• Sports Day
• All The Fun Of The Fair
• The Great Train Robbery
• The Phantom Tanto
• The Missing Birthday Cake
• The Giant Cactus
• The Great Custard Pie Fight
• When The Balloon Goes Up
• The Great Escape
• The Ghost Of Santa Flamingo
• Match Of The Day

Series Two

• Going For A Song
• Runaway Train
• The Tent
• Stuck At The Top
• The Great Bank Robbery
• The Great Sand Race
• The Lemon Tree
• Beside The Sea
• The Last Dance
• Saved By The Whale
• Up, Up And Away
• A Very Important Visit
• Winter Wonderland