Today is brought to you by the letter…U

Hello!

Well it’s day…erm…21. Yes, day 21, though it’s the 26th April so it wouldn’t take a math’s genius or even any child in my maths sets to work out I’m going to run out of days to complete the challenge. But no matter as I have nothing for the letters V, X or Z, so we’re bang on target! Haha! 😀

Luckily I do have something for U…and this one is a real blast from the past.

Today U is for…

Ulysses 31

In the same vein as Battle of The Planets, I have strong recollections of the theme tune to Ulysses 31 and the cute little red robot character – Nono – but I don’t really have any strong memories of story-lines or what was going on much, but I do know I really liked it! I remember the blue faced characters vaguely too, but have no idea what or who they were!

I’m pretty sure, along with the film Jason and The Argonauts, that all my knowledge of Greek Mythology came from watching Ulysses 31, which is probably not the best place to start, or maybe it is, even if it was set in the 31st Century! I don’t know. However, as Ulysses encounters lots of other figures from Greek mythology who have been given a futuristic twist, it did at least give me an idea of some of the stories of the myths. Given I’ve never studied Greek myths in any other setting or shown much interest in them, I must know Hades and Neptune and Zeus from somewhere, so I can only assume it was from this! Why I never wondered why a robot was mixed up with Greek mythological characters travelling through space,  is one of those wonders of childhood imagination. Kids just accept things! Greek myths in space with little red robots? Yeah, why the hell not?! 😀

Although the series originally aired in 1981, it didn’t reach British shores until 1985 and only ran until 1986 (so when I was 10/11), but despite my age I think the only reason I don’t have massive memories of it was that it had a short run.

I have to say though, if you’re reading this, you HAVE to listen to the theme tune from the opening titles. It is, possibly (with even the exception of Round The Twist), the best kid’s TV theme tune ever. It’s funky, it’s VERY 80s and electronic, and I always really liked the middle bridge part when Nono comes in and says: ”

“It’s me Nono small robot you know, friend of Ulysses.
It’s me Nono small robot you know, friend of Ulysses.”

So a short post, today as I have such limited memories, though it was a great animated series which I liked a lot and perhaps it’s brought back memories for some of you too. 🙂