Roy

The award winning Irish young people's programme ROY returns for a brand new series combining hand-drawn animation with real-world drama. Starring Irish actors Simon Delaney and Cathy Belton, ROY is the world's first cartoon boy living in the real world. Nominated for two BAFTA awards, the critically acclaimed show returns for a second series with the first of 13 new episodes to be shown on TRTÉ beginning Friday 23rd March at 5.00pm.

This original comedy, filmed as a fly-on-the-wall documentary series, combines hand-drawn animation with real-world drama as it follows how one boy struggles to fit in. ROY thinks he's just like any normal 11-year-old. Born into a real world, he is an every-day kid living in an every-day house in an every-day street in the suburb of Ballyfermot in Dublin and inside he feels just like an ordinary kid. He shares the same hopes, aspirations, friendships and fallings out. The trouble is he's animated!

Based on the short film Badly Drawn Roy which was filmed under the Irish Film Board Frameworks scheme. ROY is produced by JAM Media in association with RTÉ Young Peoples Programming and commissioned by CBBC.

Series 2

Episode 1 of 13

Roy dreams of playing for the school football team, but fails to make the squad because he's unfit. He embarks on a crazy diet and exercise routine which has some even crazier side-effects. Will Roy succeed and join the team?

Ballyfermot School is due to play its oldest rival, Crossdale, in an upcoming inter-schools football final and Roy is desperate to make the team. However, when Mr Hogan tells Roy that he is not fit enough to be picked, class bully Kathy persuades Roy that Hogan really meant Roy is too fat to make the team. Roy embarks on a fierce and dangerous regime of exercise and dodgy diets. Roy is delighted with his dangerously thin new body and doesn't understand why his parents are so anxious. However, his bubble is burst when Hogan tells him he's now too skinny and weak to be on the team. It seems he just can't win.

Roy's mum, Maura, decides to rectify Roy's malnourished state by giving him the feed of his life. However Roy's yo-yo diets have affected his metabolism to such an extent that it's unable to cope and Roy turns into a big blobby blob of a thing. Dr Raschid advises Roy to wait for his food to digest and he will return to normal size. Roy heads to the match to support Ballyfermot but when a player is injured, Roy gets his longed-for chance to play and because of all the exercise, discovers that he's actually rather fit. Not only does Roy save a penalty but his scores the winning goal and becomes the hero of the hour!

Episode 2 of 13 (BIG HEAD)

An act of kindness is exaggerated to heroic status and Roy's head gets bigger as he starts to believe the hype. As team captain, does he win the quiz and take the glory, even if it means alienating his friends?

Roy is usually a down-to-earth, modest young man, but a seemingly innocuous act, such as retrieving a young boy's frisbee from a tree, gets exaggerated to heroic status. Everyone in the school is talking about how brilliant Roy is, and Roy starts to believe the hype.

His day gets even better when he fixes the printer for Sinead, AND gets the best score ever on a popular computer game. Roy feels unstoppable and brags to his dad, Bill, about the brilliant day he's had and how brilliant he is. Bill warns Roy against being big-headed: it's not a nice trait. However Roy does not pay any heed to this warning.

The next day, Roy slowly comes to realise that as his arrogance grows, so does his head. And apparently a big head comes with big brains and an enormous ego to boot! Roy, under Hammond's insistence, usurps Tommy as captain of the quiz team which is due to play St Cedric's school that evening.

Kathy is employed to keep Roy's head large. Roy's boastful nature alienates all his friends. It is only when Roy realises how much the other team need to win the prize (a suite of computers) that Roy understands how horrible he has been and concedes victory to St Cedric's. His friends are relieved to have the old Roy back.