A animated series chronicling the not-so-ordinary life of an ordinary British family. Perennial underdog Dave Spud lives above a tower block in the shabby little Northern town of Grimsby, along with his feisty sister Anna, infant twin siblings, truck-driving mother Betty, skinflint father George, and cranky old Gran. Rounding out the Spud household are Dave's loyal (yet foul-smelling) mutt Fuzzypeg, and his best friend Gareth, a talking (female) starfish who acts as the show's answer to Jiminy Cricket.
Once an Episode, the Spuds find themselves embroiled in some wild adventure, usually spurred on by Dave's uncanny ability to attract weirdness, where even the slightest predicament spirals out of control. Often this rag-tag bunch have to put their differences aside to ensure sanity is restored. Needless to say, in Dave's "rubbish" little world, things have a habit of rarely going according to plan...
Created and directed by Edward Foster, who previously helmed Little Princess, the first series premiered on the CITV channel in September 2, 2019 and consisted of 26 11-minute episodes. In 2020, it was a commissioned for a further 52 episodes, which started airing from December that year onwards. A third and final season comprised of 26 episodes is set to air on ITVX later in 2023.
Rubbish tropes:
- Crapsack World: Grimsby (which is an actual town in the North East of England) is portrayed as a very mundane, run down place, consisting of little more than a council estate and a dock, where it just so happens that Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here.
- Eccentric Townsfolk: Several of Dave's friends and neighbors are rather... odd, to say the least, most notably Robert Robot, a boy who wears a cardboard box with antennas sticking out on his head made to look like a robot, and Zombie Kate, who literally acts like a zombie.
- Gender-Blender Name: In the first episode, Dave christens his new starfish friend Gareth, in spite of her complaints that she's female.
- Fiery Redhead: Anne, and to a lesser extent Betty.
- Handicapped Badass: Anne is confined to a wheelchair, but she has a feisty attitude and tends to excel at sports.
- Larynx Dissonance: Betty Spud speaks in a very masculine voice courtesy of Philip Glenister. She also spouts chest hair and drives a truck.
- Meta Guy: Gareth, who frequently comments on the plot and explains the weird phonomena that occurs throughout each episode.
- Negative Continuity: Several episodes end with the conflict not being completely resolved, but by the next episode everything is back to how it was. Examples include "Bored Silly", which ends with Dave and his family being transformed into cowpats by a sentient board game.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Dave's schoolmate Little Sue works at nearly every place the Spuds go to.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The whole show runs on this trope.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: In "Crush", Dave brushing his teeth without needing to be told to is so unlikely that it creates a rift in the fabric of the universe and brings a UFO to Earth.
- Really 700 Years Old: This show really loves cracking jokes regarding Gran's age, suggesting that she's been alive since Egyptian times and, even further still, the Primordial era.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: Dave is a pretty mopey kid who isn't particularly skilled at anything aside from attracting the odd case of bad luck.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Gran is this in spades.
- Screw Yourself: In "Crush", Dave falls in love with a girl who looks just like him with pigtails. At least until she reveals her true form; an alien toilet brush.
- Weirdness Magnet: Dave, whose bad luck often fuels the plot of each episode.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: After the events of "Crush", the Spuds keep Chuffy as their toilet brush despite her being a sentient being.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: If things seem to be going well for Dave, don't expect it to last long.
