Mike & Angelo was a long-running British sci-fi sitcom, produced for CITV from 1989—2000. It told the story of Mike King (Matt Wright), a young American boy who along with his mother Rita (Shelley Thompson) came to stay in London, only to find that the wardrobe in his new bedroom was home to Angelo (Tyler Butterworth), a mysterious and eccentric dimension-hopping alien visitor with the ability to walk on walls and ceilings, along with creating all manner of gadgets and inventions, and generally causing surreal things to happen.
There were many changes to the show's cast over its eleven-year run. Firstly, Tyler Butterworth left the show at the start of Series 3, and was replaced by Tim Whitnall, which was depicted in-universe as Angelo "regenerating" due to an illness. Then, Mike King left to return to America during Series 4, and was replaced temporarily by Ellie (Jade Magri), before being replaced by Rita's nephew Mike Mason (Michael Benz) for Series 5. Rita herself left at the end of Series 6, and was replaced for the rest of the show's run by Katy Andrews (Katy Murphy), a Scottish housekeeper. Towards the end of the show's run, Mike Mason left, and was replaced by Mickey Fawkes-Bentley (Gemma Gregory) for the penultimate season, and Mike Andrews (Steven Geller) for its final season.
Tropes include:
- Artefact Title: Most obviously in Series 4, where Ellie took up the role of Angelo's sidekick. Technically also in Series 11, which had Mickey instead of a Mike.
- Brave Scot: Whereas Rita for the most part is pretty mild-mannered — though capable of being a Mama Bear when needed — Katy is much more vocal and ready to call out both Angelo and Mike whenever they do something wrong.
- Captain Ersatz: Angelo is a stranger from another world, who travelled here via a large box-like object, has a quirky dress sense, and even quirkier mannerisms. Remind you of anyone?
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first series tended to focus more on Mike and his everyday troubles, with Angelo being more of a peripheral character. Starting with the second series, the show's tone became more outright comedic and more fantastical in nature.
- In for Series 3 and 4, Tim Whitnall has his hair dyed the same red colour as Tyler Butterworth, presumably so that they could re-use stock effects shots that featured Butterworth. Starting in Series 5, Whitnall has his own hair colour.
- Fish out of Water: Mike King, and later Mike Mason experience this due to moving to a different country, while Angelo has this due to being in a different dimension.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Angelo could be this when his inventions actually worked. Unfortunately for the show's other characters, that tended not to happen terribly often.
- Gender-Blender Name: Mickey's full name is actually Michaela, but she prefers the shortened version — which helpfully keeps the show from having a complete Artefact Title.
- Historical Domain Character: In an attempt to give the later years a little bit more of an educational bent, Angelo's experiments would sometimes bring historical figures such as William Shakespeare, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony to the present.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Even considering that late 80s and early 90s fashions already tended to fall under this trope, Angelo's clothing choices stand out in this regard. It becomes even more pronounced towards the end of the show's run, when most fashions became more conservative while Angelo's clothes... definitely didn't.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Many episodes have Angelo take on a job of some kind, either because he urgently needs money for some scheme, or in an attempt to better understand humans.
- The Nth Doctor: In the first episode of Series 3, Angelo falls ill, causing him to physically change his appearance (and thereby allowing Tim Whitnall to replace Tyler Butterworth) as part of the recovery process.
- Parental Substitute: To one extent or the other, both Rita and Katy act as this for Mike Mason during their time on the show.
- Punny Name: The show's name is itself a pun on the name of the painter Michaelangelo — who, weirdly enough, actually isn't one of the historical figures who shows up in its later years.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: While a lot of the new characters who came in over the years were quite distinct from the ones they had replaced, Mike Mason was a very obvious substitute for Mike King.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Many classic sci-fi and horror films are parodied; for instance, a homage to The Fly (1958) (and by extension The Fly (1986)) has Angelo accidentally turn Mike into a human-sized garden gnome due to a botched teleportation experiment.
