Coming Soon – Hounded

Rufus Hound is a strange beast. He pops up on panel shows and the like quite regularly, but its hard to pin down exactly what he is. He is a comedian of sorts, not exactly stand up in the traditional sense but he “hangs around” comedy programming. Therefore I was quite surprised when I read that he is to star in a new CBBC show called Hounded.

Billed as “Hanna-Barbera meets The Mighty Boosh”, the show actually sounds fairly entertaining for us big kids as well as the target audience. Brought to us by the creative team behind sketch show, The Wrong Door, the premise is that Rufus Hound has landed the job presenting a new (fictional) CBBC show called Funlab. On his first day, however, his future self turns up and transports him to a “fantastic” parallel universe.

In this alternative dimension, Rufus is pursued by an evil genius called Dr Muhahahaha and subsequently leads to a series of handy 30-minute adventures across the multiverse (apparently). Even though Rufus usually thwarts the Doctor’s evil plans, he has a convenient reset button which sends Rufus back in time, Groundhog Day-style, only to repeat and rinse.

With reference to the Boosh comes high expectations, and the combination of “amazing visual effects and stunning sets” might lend itself very well to the same style of humour, although pitched a little lower for family friendly viewing. Personally I haven’t warmed to Rufus Hound in the little I’ve seen him in, but this might just be his calling.

Hounded starts Friday 11th June on CBBC.