Horace and Tina (2000 - 2001)

Children's series
26 episodes x 30 minutes

Series synopsis:

Lauren (Jasmine Ellis), a 13-year-old Canadian, is miserable. Her mother has dragged her halfway around the world to live with a new stepfather and an annoying little stepbrother in Melbourne. Then, on Christmas Eve, two nelfs (Santa’s helpers) jump off his sleigh, and fall through Lauren’s roof and into her life. Less than a metre tall, grumpy and 243 years old, Horace (voiced by Frank Gallacher) is the world’s greatest mischief-maker. He’s selfish, unsociable and hungry – his favourite meal is dog food. His incurably romantic elder sister, 271-year-old Tina (voiced by Jackie Kelleher), loves to meddle, give advice and argue with her brother. Lauren finds herself stuck with these aged and bickering siblings who interfere in every aspect of her life. To make matters even worse, wherever Horace goes, something always goes terribly wrong. And, as Lauren is the only one who can see them, her family thinks she’s going crazy!

Curator’s Notes:

Horace and Tina is a rather quirky 26-part-series produced by Jonathan M Shiff Productions. An unusual combination of live action and animatronic puppets, Horace and Tina won an ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media) Award for Best Children’s Television Series in 2001. Series composer Brett Rosenberg won an APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) screen music award for the series in 2001, and an APRA–AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers) award in 2002.

The Canadian actor Jasmine Ellis playing Lauren, was the model for the animated title character in the Canadian comedy Angela Anaconda.

Annemaree O'Brien

Titles in this series