In the tiny, tiny land of Do As You're Told, there live two creatures: Stoppit, a red, hyperactive furball who lives in a human-sized dump yard, and his friend Tidyup, a more mature blue creature that wears a tie and is a neat-freak and passionate gardener, growing giant multi-coloured gherkins to eat. Other inhabitants of Do As You're Told serve as Stoppit and Tidyup's friends; each episode revolved around one of these friends of theirs and was named after whichever friend it focused on. Other characters include the Naughties, which are dark blue and yellow spherical creatures, and the Sit Downs, which are white creatures that do nothing but sit down.
Stoppit and Tidyup was created by CMTB Animation and Queensgate Productions, the same companies that made The Trap Door and Bump, and aired in 1988. The show was also worked on by Keep Britain Tidy
, which was known as the Tidy Britain Group back then. The show was narrated by Terry Wogan.
Stoppit and Tidyup provides examples of:
- The Ace: Clean Your Teeth. His episode focuses on the many things he can do by just snapping his fingers. This includes diving somersaults and making objects appear out of thin air.
- Angry Guard Dog: I Said No's pet, Not Now, was a small, yappy one.
- Big Bad: I Said No, at least in his episode where he steals all the gherkins and takes them back to his tree stump.
- Big Eater: Eat Your Greens, who, as his name suggests, eats a lot of greens.
- Birthday Episode: Take Care's episode. The episode indicates that literally everybody in Do As You're Told celebrates their birthday on the same day, like a holiday.
- Cast of Personifications: Specifically a cast of various commands often given to children by their parents, but as Anthropomorphic Personifications.
- Cephalothorax: Stoppit is a red ball of fluff with arms and legs.
- A Day in the Limelight: Every one of Stoppit and Tidyup's friends are given a major focus in each episode. The one character that averted this and never got an episode dedicated to them is Not Now, who is I Said No's pet.
- Deadpan Snarker: The narrator on occasion."Tidyup was very upset. You can see that, can't you?"
- Disproportionate Retribution: There was an episode where Stoppit sent Eat Your Greens into Tidyup's garden to eat it all up... all because Eat Your Greens ate a plant that Stoppit liked.
- Forced Transformation: Touching a Naughty causes the victim to get Naughty Pox, which basically transforms them into a Naughty.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Stoppit, very much in the manner of Donald Duck.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is named after whichever character it focuses on.
- Manchild: Go And Play is the most humanoid of the characters, and his defining trait is how he's seen playing with a variety of toys no matter what the situation.
- Meaningful Name: Every character has a name taken from a command that parents give to children, and each name represents their personality; for example, Go And Play likes to play with his toys while Hurry Up is very fast.
- Muggles: The characters share their world with humans who seem unaware of their existence.
- Name and Name: Stoppit and Tidyup.
- Nervous Wreck: Calm Down, a small yellow creature who was constantly shaking and running from things.
- No Fourth Wall: The characters would frequently look at the audience or react to the narrator.
- The Pig-Pen: Wash Your Face, who is covered in mud due to his love of splashing in puddles. When Tidyup gives him a bath, he's revealed to be a pale orange, rather than dark brown.
- Punny Name: There are characters named Beehave and Beequiet. Beehave and Beequiet. Guess what animal they are.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Stoppit is the red oni and Tidyup is the blue oni, complete with the characters actually being coloured red and blue.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Comb Your Hair's episode. Stoppit and Tidyup ride Comb Your Hair to a special picnic spot for gherkin sandwiches. After Comb Your Hair has spent the entire episode bumping into things and carrying the duo off cliffs, they arrive at the spot. Only to discover it has been paved over for a road. And then Comb Your Hair eats all the sandwiches. To say Stoppit and Tidyup were not happy is a bit of an understatement.
- Short-Runner: Ran for 13 episodes.
- Sick Episode: Hurry Up's episode, where Tidyup touches a Naughty and winds up with Naughty Pox.
- Simpleton Voice: Wash Your Face, he spoke in sounds rather than words like all the other characters, but his tone was clearly meant to be this.
- The Speechless: Every character makes noises such as grunts, babbling, etc. instead of actually saying anything.
- Super-Speed: Hurry Up's defining trait is being able to move significantly faster than any of the other characters.
- Theme Tune Roll Call: Quite a long one, considering how short the episodes were.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Tidyup loves to eat gherkins.
- Two-Faced: Say Please And Say Thankyou. One face would say 'please', the other would say 'thankyou'.
- Your Size May Vary: Exactly how tiny the characters are seems to change in relation to different human objects. As large as a television and tyre whilst walking through the dump but able to hide in a tin can, for example.
