Roland Rat
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Roland Rat (also Roland Rat Superstar) is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge who had previously been behind the Mooncat puppet in the ITV children's television programme Get Up and Go!.
Roland Rat was introduced to ailing breakfast television network TV-am by Greg Dyke and was generally regarded as its saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". In 1985 he transferred to the BBC where he had a number of shows through the late 1980s. In the late-1990s he reappeared on Channel 5.
Roland claimed to live beneath Kings Cross railway station. He had an infant brother called Reggie, and a girlfriend: Glenis the Guinea Pig. His colleagues included dour Welsh technical whizz Errol the Hamster and over-enthusiastic self-appointed "number one ratfan" Kevin the Gerbil.
He had three UK chart hit singles and an LP The Cassette Of The Album between 1983 and 1985. A follow-up LP, Living Legend subsequently appeared but flopped, despite having three tracks produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. Kevin the Gerbil also had a top 50 single.
In 1992 David Claridge also operated "Brian the Dinosaur" on the Saturday morning children's show Parallel 9.
Roland made a brief return in early 2003 as a guest presenter of CiTV.