Nellie the Elephant (TV series)

Based on the famous children's song, "Nellie the Elephant", the series revolves around a pink elephant named Nellie who is returning to her home in Mandalay after escaping from the circus. Throughout the series, she meets new characters and sometimes returns to the same places in her quest to return home, though curiously, all of her travels are within the United Kingdom.

Another recurring character is a Dick Dastardly-like Ringmaster keen to recapture Nellie at all costs and return her to the circus, but is continuously foiled by Nellie and her friends.

• Nellie – A pink elephant and the main character with a fondness for currant buns (which sometimes proves to be her undoing), Nellie escaped from the circus in an effort to return to Mandalay at all costs, travelling by train, taxi, bus, coach, plane and ship. Keen to help, Nellie is proud of her home and will stand up for her rights if need be.
• The Head of the Herd – An old dark grey elephant with one cut off tusk who, as his title suggests, is the leader of the herd. Every episode ends with him making his special sound from far, far away, which can usually be heard floating on the breeze and drifting in the wind, calling for Nellie to come back home. Unlike Nellie, he doesn't speak, he just trumpets like real elephants would.
• Captain Jack – A sea-captain from the fictitious Oyster Bay, Captain Jack is the captain of a small tug-boat called The Jungle Queen, and is accompanied by his one-eyed parrot, Nelson.
• Mr. Mack and Mr. Tosh – A play on Mackintosh and perhaps a reference to the Goofy Gophers, Mr. Mack and Mr. Tosh are two tailors who share a shop in Oyster Bay that Nellie constantly returns to.
• The Ringmaster – A Dick Dastardly sort of villain, the Ringmaster is the owner of the Circus Nellie escaped from, but his villainous traits and reasons for recapturing Nellie are never expanded on in any great detail. He tracks Nellie down in a town in "Nellie at the Big Store", the penultimate episode of the series and is dangerously close to catching her but she is able to flee in a balloon with the help of two Balloon Sellers.
• Farmer Styles – A farmer who Nellie encounters on her journey in the episode "Nellie Visits a Farm", She helps him find a stray sheep and he and his wife reward her with a large feast. Farmer Styles reappears in "Nellie on A Snowy Day" when Nellie assists him after a snowstorm, "Nellie and the Burning Farm" when his barn catches alight and Nellie helps extinguish the blaze.
• Sergeant Boot - The police sergeant of the village near the Styles farm who appears in "Nellie on a Snowy Day" who Nellies tries to help get his car out of a snowbank and is unsuccessful at first but is able to later clear the snow.
• Captain Match – The chief of the Fire Brigade in the Neighbouring village to the Styles farm. By the time he arrives to tackle the blaze, Nellie has already extinguished it. He appears again in "Nellie Rescues Mrs Maple's Moggy" when Mrs Maple's cat, Tiger needs rescuing from a high telephone wire and Nellie is on hand to help him.
• The Bluebell Patrol – A group of girl scouts who Nellie encounters in the first episode, "Nellie and the Ghost". They are initially afraid of Nellie at first but warm to her and convince their Scoutmistress, Miss Nettle to let Nellie stay with their troop.

Nellie the Elephant first aired on ITV on 8 January 1990 starting off with the first 14 episodes of the first series and then with a second series on 5 September of the same year beginning with the next thirteen episodes and the last three from 8 January to 19 December 1990 both as part of Children's ITV.

• Junglies – another short-lived series by Ward also created for ITV.

• Nellie the Elephant at IMDb
• Toonhound
• Nellie The Elephant at The Big Cartoon DataBase