Bob the Builder: Can he fix it? Yes he can

Bob the Builder, a happy-go-lucky handyman, and his friends Scoop the digger, Pilchard the cat, Lofty the crane and Roley the cement-mixer (not to mention his devoted secretary Wendy) are the stars of a BBC series aimed at children between 3 and 8 years old.

Since making his debut in Britain in April last year, he has captured almost half the country's pre-school audience and become the centre of a multi-million-dollar merchandising operation. The programme has been sold to more than 100 countries — including New Zealand — and made a fortune for its creator, Keith Chapman, an advertising agency artist.

A recent deal to screen Bob on America's Nickelodeon children's channel has cemented the show's success.

At Christmas Bob's catchy theme song — "Can we fix it? Yes, we can," chanted by his screen voice, Neil Morrissey of Men Behaving Badly — sold an

estimated 600,000 copies to take the No 1 spot ahead of rapper Eminem and boyband Westlife.

A whole town has paid tribute to the animated handyman. At New Year, the locals of a Dorset seaside town called Weymouth celebrated the dawn in topical fancy dress. For the arrival of 2001 the town paid homage to Bob.

On every street corner and in most of the of town's pubs men and women donned check shirts, yellow hard hats, dungarees and tool belts. At every opportunity they shouted: "Can we fix it?" to which everyone else in the pub replied: "Yes we can."

"My 2-year-old son, Cameron, is absolutely hooked and so are most of his little friends," says Weymouth resident Vicky Thomson. "The title music sends him into a frenzy, he walks around clutching tools most of the day and shouts 'Can we fix it?' to people in the street. To which most people, of all ages know the answer. It is hilarious that a kid's programme has had such an impact."

Cameron's Christmas presents give some clues to Bob's success. He was bought two Bob toolkits, three puzzles, a Bob the Builder doll, a hard hat, plate and a cup. He can name all the characters and many of the phrases.

"He's been 'fixing things' ever since the toolbox arrived," laughs Vicky. "Even my 5-year-old daughter Ellena takes an interest when my husband does some DIY now, so I suppose it can't be all bad."

And of course there are the books, compact discs, computer games, stationery, bedding, confectionary, magazine, puzzles and watches ...

Bob's popularity isn't restricted to the small fry, either. For some inexplicable reason he's become a gay icon. The only illogical explanation anyone's been able to come up with is that he's dressed like one of the Village People.

Some think Britain's small building firms, who have been suffering from bad publicity of late (watched an episode of Robson Green's Grafters recently?) could do worse than adopt Bob as an icon, too.

Wrote one columnist: "Bob is like no other builder. When he gives you a quote, he actually means it, and he doesn't disappear to Ibiza for a fortnight after tearing up your dining-room floor and ripping out the wiring.

"His tax returns are immaculate, he knows what a load-bearing wall looks like and he can actually fit his bottom into his trousers. Aided by his friends, Lofty the crane, Scoop the digger and Muck the bulldozer, Bob just gets on with it.

"As the song goes: 'Bob the Builder. Can we fix it? Bob the Builder. Yes we can!"