Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
TV’S zanıest 70s show IS BACK!
Withit s OTT fight scenes and special effects, Monkey was a cult classic. Now it’s been rebooted...
Even by the crazy standards of 70s TV, Monkey was special. A Chinese myth re-told by a Japanese production company and dubbed into English with comical voices (including Miriam Margolyes and Andrew Sachs), its heroes were a monkey god who could fly on clouds, a lusty pig god, a female dressed as a monk and a cheeky water god who used to be a cannibal.
They were making their way from China to India to find some holy scriptures, fighting baddies along the way with some gloriously unrealistic kung-fu fighting with panto special effects. But the show became a huge global hit.
Growing up in New Zealand, TV producer Rachel Gardner was entranced. ‘I was obsessed,’ she recalls. ‘Me and my brother would do the fights by poking mops at each other. There was something about this badly dubbed show that has stayed with me.’
So much so that she was inspired to re-create the series for a new generation. The New Legends Of Monkey was made for New Zealand and Australian TV, but it too became a global hit thanks to Netflix. Now a second series is out.
While it keeps the zany energy, it’s been updated. Australian actor Chai Hansen, who has Chinese and Thai heritage, plays the monkey god Monkey. ‘The show is very silly and quirky,’ he says. ‘There’s nothing else like it.’
This Monkey has diminished powers after being imprisoned in a mountain for 500 years. He was released by a young girl (Luciane Buchanan) who’s pretending to be a monk called Tripitaka. The real Tripitaka was tasked with finding Monkey, before demons killed him in front of the girl, who is now the only one who knows how to defeat them by finding more sacred scrolls.
Theyfindonein series one, and in series two the search continues. Fighting alongside them are Pigsy the pig god, played by Kiwi comic Josh Thomson, and Sandy, the inept water god, played by Emilie Cocquerel.
Most of the cast do their own stunts, but things can go wrong. ‘I managed to give myself a black eye,’ admits Chai. ‘I got cocky in a fight scene and I fell and bashed myself in the face with a staff. If you look closely in episode four you might notice a huge lump on my face covered by make-up.
Nicole Lampert The New Legends Of Monkey is out on Netflix now.