Series / Llan-ar-goll-en

Charge your batteries. Let's solve a mystery!

"There's a mystery to solve, and that's no lie
Call the detectives, before things go awry!"

The description for Llan-ar-goll-en has gone missing?! Sound the siren!!!

Llan-ar-goll-en is a Welsh detective Preschool Show created by Siwan Jobbins that originally ran on S4C's Cyw block from 23 December 2013 to 14 March 2016. Produced by Twt Productions and Cwmni Da, the show follows the escapades of two detectives that are complete opposites from each other; clumsy Prys ar Frys and his talking dog companion Ceri, who solve many mysteries in the titular small, wacky village where things tend to get lost. Prys wants to get things done immediately and often jumps to silly conclusions, while more sensible Ceri always has the right idea and thinks things through. It lasted for 51 episodes (that typically ran for 12-14 minutes) across two series, including a half-hour Christmas Special.

The village of Llan-ar-goll-en was filmed in Portmeirion, Wales . The show is mostly live action, but all of the animals are animated, such as Ceri the Dog-tective. It was broadcast in Welsh with English subtitles, as an English dub was never produced.

Llan-ar-goll-en is often compared to Blue's Clues, another preschool show about a live action man and his animated female dog solving mysteries, but the man can't quite find the answer without some help. Where this show mostly differs is that it's more of a traditional detective show, it avoids Fake Interactivity with the audience, and the world of Llan-ar-goll-en is predominantly live action instead of animated, almost like it's an inversion of the popular Nick Jr. show.

You can view all of series 1 here, and series 2 here. See the showreel for series 1 here, and series 2 here. Some character bios (in Welsh only) were uploaded to Cwmni Da's YouTube channel, with the remaining three being uploaded to a Vimeo account. Interactive apps and e-books were made for the show and released on the iTunes appstore and Google Play.

Oh, and the show also has an incredibly catchy Theme Tune that won't leave your head, even if you don't speak Welsh. You can listen to it here.

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My nose is twitching. It's time to go a-troping!

• 6 Is 9: The plot of the first episode revolves around this, as Radli accidentally delivers a package for Tara (No. 9) to Mrs. Tomos (No. 6).
• Abhorrent Admirer: Mrs. Tomos is this sometimes to the men in the village. In the first episode it gets so bad that one of the men, Arwel Achub hides away from her in a sack.
• Accent Slip-Up: Inverted in "Bysedd y Cwn". Prys can't remember how to solve mysteries without Ceri, so Mrs. Tomos tells him to ask her if she has seen anything strange today. Prys then repeats her question, pronouncing heddiw ("today") in Mrs. Tomos' Southwalian, before correcting himself and reverting to his own Northwalian.
• Actor Allusion: In one episode, Beti is rehearsing for the talent show by singing. Later, while everyone is in Prys and Ceri's office being interrogated on who could be the beast of Bont, Ianto points out that Beti hurt everyone's ears with her singing, and that she might be the beast. Insulted, she insists that it's opera singing. Her actress, Siw Hughes stars in the Soap Opera series Pobol y Cwm.
  Beti: That was opera singing. Only people who understand opera know how melodic it is. La-la-
  Prys: We don't understand opera, Beti, so thank you.
• Alliterative Name: A few names:
  • Mrs. Tomos Ty Twt
  • Tara Tan Toc
  • Arwel Achub
  • Beti Becws
• Always Someone Better: Ceri, Prys' Detective Animal sidekick, almost always manages to solve the mystery at the end of each episode, while Prys himself has gained a reputation by even the narrator to always get it wrong. Let's just say their dynamic is basically the living embodiment of this trope, and yet, they're still always the best of friends.
• Amateur Sleuth: Prys and Ceri don't get paid for solving mysteries; they do it simply for justice.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Ceri has pink spots, Ianto is a yellow cat, and Sugar Lump is a red cat.
• Backing into Danger: Happens Shaggy and Scooby-style in one scene where both Dr. Jim and Beti do this while looking for Siôn Corn's reindeer and end up colliding with each other. They both laugh once this happens.
• Banana Peel: In "Mae Ianto ar Goll!", Ianto takes the cream bun that Barti was storing in his hat, so Barti runs after him, but slips on an orange peel.
• "Be Quiet!" Nudge: In one episode, when Ceri asks if anyone has seen Sugar Lump, Tara is about to give an answer. Radli and Mia Pia (all three of whom took him and tried to hide him) stomp on the ground without actually touching her, though she reacts as if she got hurt, and quickly denies that she knows who took him.
• Big Eater: Both Dr. Jim and Prys, to the point where if food's involved in a mystery, the latter will get distracted. This is perhaps demonstrated perfectly in the second episode, where in the middle of a mystery the two of them take their sweet time to admire a bun.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: One doesn't appear, but Mrs. Tomos once mentions that she visited Iceland in order to hunt a large and hairy yeti.
• Birthday Episode: Three in series 1:
  • In "Parti Sypreis", a birthday present for Tara Tan Toc goes missing before her surprise party.
  • In "Parti Barti", Ianto wants to give Barti Felyn his birthday present, but it disappears.
  • Forgotten Birthday: This happens in "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll", where not even Prys' best friend Ceri remembers his birthday. Except she did, and she just wanted to keep it a surprise.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: In "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll", to emphasize how important it is that Prys correctly solved the mystery of the day for once, Prys gets to borrow Ceri's "Interrrrresting!", and her "Eureka!" Moment phrase.
• A Boy and His X: A man and his talking mystery-solving dog.
• Butt-Monkey: Prys sometimes, mostly when it comes to jokes from the other citizens (and even the narrator) about how he almost never manages to correctly solve the mystery of the day.
• Captain Crash: Radli tends to crash into things all the time while riding his magic, flying bike, Elsi.
• Canon Foreigner: Mia Pia, an animal vet who joins the main cast of characters in series 2.
• Character Catchphrase: A few of them, in a traditional sense. For more common phrases, please see Strictly Formula below.
  • "Oops boops!", usually said whenever anyone makes a mistake.
  • "Lovely-schmovely!" as often said by Ceri.
    • Sometimes, she'll use an alternative to this phrasing; like "delicious schmelicious".
  • "Interrrrrrrrrresting!", said by Ceri whenever she's found a lead.^note She puts the emphasis on the R's because well, she's a dog.
  • "Hold on, Defi/Devina John!"
• Christmas Episode: "Trwyn Coch", which focuses on one of Santa's reindeer's nose missing.
• Christmas Special: "Ceirw Coll Siôn Corn", which doubles as the series two premiere, and is the only half-hour episode in the show.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Everyone in the village (besides Ceri) can qualify for this, but perhaps the craziest citizen has to be Barti Felyn: a mischievous pirate that speaks in unintelligable grunts and noises that have to be translated by his talking cat... just 'cuz.
• Clueless Detective: Prys. It's clear he tries his best to solve the mystery and is very dedicated to his role, however his partner Ceri always beats him to it. Even the narrator makes fun of him for this at least once.
• Comically Missing the Point: Happens a lot.
  • In one episode, Ceri points out how Mrs. Tomos' joke doesn't make any sense.
    Mrs. Tomos: How does a cow go to the hospital? In a ham-bulance!
    Ceri: Shouldn't that be a pig?
    Mrs. Tomos: Why would a cow go to the hospital in a pig?
  • And this exchange from the last episode:
    Prys: It's obvious to everyone from Anglesey to Monmouth who took the crystal bowl. Tara Tan Toc.
    Tara: Prys! How can you say such a thing?
    Prys: Well, I just opened my mouth...
    Ceri: Prys..?
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Dirgelwch Y Llyfr Coll", Prys refuses to question if he himself stole the mystery of the day, as he did in "Y Darlun Coll", a series one episode. He even looks directly at the audience as he lampshades it.
    Prys: I can't question myself, can I? Not after last time.
  • In another episode, Dr. Jim accidently used invisible oil all over himself and turned himself invisible. In the series one finale, Prys recalls to when that last happened to accuse Dr. Jim of stealing his own hair.^note He believes that the invisible oil might have made his hair vanish. He was wrong.
  • In the Christmas Special, Prys thought that Ceri (who playfully scared him) was the beast of Bont, which was the focus of a previous episode. She reassures him that the beast doesn't exist, and he agrees that it was a silly story.
• Convenient Replacement Character: Ceri's cousin Caradog appears in the same episode that Ceri herself is missing. He takes her role as a dog-tective and helps Prys solve the mystery of where she's gone off to; right down to replacing her in the Once an Episode sequence where Prys and Ceri get ready to solve the mystery of the day (that mind you, usually never changes). In one scene Prys confuses Caradog for Ceri before correcting himself shortly afterwards. She shows up near the end of the episode to explain that she was gone for so long because she was waiting for Caradog to show up at the train station... when he was already long gone from there looking for her.
• Cool Board: Caradog loves to use his skateboard.
• Deer in the Headlights: When Barti's chest is stolen, both Barti and Ianto freeze in utter shock while pointing to where the chest should have been.
• Detective Animal: Ceri the Dog-tective.
• The Ditz: Prys. He can't do many things right, including guessing the mystery of the day correctly.
• Dreadful Musician: Both Prys and Beti cannot sing, and the episode "Canu La La" makes it clear. When Prys first sings to Ceri, she describes it as if he's jammed his finger in the drawer. And Beti herself claims that she's won Wales' Worst Voice three times in a row.
  • Ianto also can't sing, as demonstrated in "Y Pysgodyn Aur".
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Prys and Beti's singing voices both sound extremely exaggerated – and sure enough, both Rhys ap Trefor and Siw Hughes (who play both characters, respectively) are talented actors, the latter of which plays Kath Jones in the long-running Soap Opera Pobol y Cwm, and won an award for being the best actress in it.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A picture of the Mayor of Llan-ar-goll-en is always seen at town hall as early as the first episode, though she didn't make her first actual appearance in the show until many episodes later.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Prys is scared of mice in one episode; to the point where he is literally terrified when Ceri gives them a new home in the lighthouse.
• Eldritch Location: Llan-ar-goll-en. An average close-knit village with malicious pirates and magic wizards, Everything Talks including animated animals and hand bags, singing letter stamps, and everything always goes missing on a daily basis. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first thing Prys is seen doing in the first episode, "Y Parsel Coll", is to not realize that letting go of his new painting would help him to get the nail he needs to hold it on the wall quicker, establishing him as slow-witted compared to Ceri.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When things start making sense, Ceri will usually have this, mixed with one of her catchphrases.
  Wag my tail and wiggle my nose
  I've an explanation, so here goes!
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: This has happened a few times.
• Everything Talks: Outside of animals (sometimes), this happens often. One notable example being Radli's red hand bag.
• Expository Theme Tune: The theme explains to you in just under 40 seconds that Llan-ar-goll-en is a village where things often go missing, but luckily two detectives are there to save the day and solve many mysteries.
• Expy: They aren't the same personality wise, though Tara Tan Toc looks a lot like Stephanie from LazyTown, mostly due to the pink hair.
• Extra-Long Episode: The Christmas Special, "Ceirw Coll Siôn Corn" is a mere 26 minutes long; at least 12-14 more minutes than the length of an average episode.
• Faint in Shock: Happens a lot.
  • Tara does this in "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll" when it's revealed that Ceri stole her own letter.
  • Prys does this when he actually sees the real Siôn Corn for the first time. When he gets up, he thinks he was hallucinating; he wasn't, and he faints again.
  • In "O Na, Mrs Tomos!", Tara and Mia both faint once they smell Prys' smelly tuna egg sandwich, and it happens at the end of the episode when Prys himself sniffs the tuna that Sugar Lump ate.
• Flashback Cut: Happens Once an Episode, usually whenever Prys and Ceri ask someone if they've seen anything weird going on in the village, so they can gather clues in order to solve the mystery. Also occurs whenever the three suspects are being interrogated at the town hall.
• Flying Car: Or rather, Flying Magic Bike, in which case Radli has one (which he's named Elsi).
• Happy Birthday to You!: On Prys' birthday, Tara, Mrs. Tomos, and the letter (through Sugar Lump's belly) all sing him a quick-sounding birthday song that sounds different than usual.
  "Happy birthday to you, a very happy birthday to you
  Happy birthday to you, a very happy birthday to you!"
• Home Base: Prys and Ceri often hang out in their lighthouse that essentially doubles as their home. No one else is seen in the lighthouse most of the time, but they're capable of visiting. When Prys and Ceri are called to action, they do their Once an Episode sequence and leave the lighthouse. Sometimes at the end of an episode, they'll be seen there again.
• Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: With Ceri and Ianto. Ceri the dog-tective is one of two heroes of the show, being the detective who solves all the town's mysteries. Meanwhile, Ianto is Barti Felyn's cat, who does have his mischevious moments, like his owner.
• Hotline: Sort of. Whenever something is missing, whoever it was stolen from will sound a siren by pressing a red button, accompanied with that person usually saying the quote at the top of this page. Then cue the Once an Episode recycled sequence of Prys and Ceri getting ready to solve the case. Of course, they only get to specify what was stolen once the detectives arrive at the scene.
• Idea Bulb: Prys gets one Once an Episode whenever he thinks he's solved the mystery of the day.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: The show transitions to the next scene either by having a big Ceri walking across the screen, or a magnifying glass that zooms into the next scene.
• Inconsistent Sub: Sometimes the official subtitles, as provided by the BBC, will use another translation for the Once an Episode phrases listed below. Sometimes they rhyme (or at least closely rhyme), but other times they don't, which can get really distracting. An interesting thing to note is that the theme song (which itself does not rhyme) is always consistently translated.
• Inexplicable Language Fluency: In "Dirgelwch y Llyfr Coll", Prys and Barti speak to each other in Swahili. It seems incredibly unlikely that Prys would be fluent in that language, and Barti only speaks in unintelligible grunts with individual words thrown in. The other characters barely react to this.
• Innocently Insensitive: An unusual example happened once with Ceri. In "Y Pysgodyn Aur", Ceri reacts in disbelief when she hears that Beti's goldfish was stolen, and says something much to her slight discomfort. Prys clears his throat and bobs his head towards Beti, and Ceri quickly gets the point.
  Ceri: Who on earth would want to steal a goldfish? ...(clears throat)
• Intellectual Animal: Ceri the Dog-tective usually solves the mystery before her clumsier partner, Prys.
• Interspecies Friendship: Prys ar Frys, a human man, is best friends with Ceri, a talking dog.
• Invisibility Ink: In one episode, Dr. Jim accidently spilled invisible oil all over himself, making him invisible.
• Lame Pun Reaction: This happens in "Cist Barti" where Tara makes a joke about Arwel Achub's name, but nobody in the room is amused.
  Arwel: How would I drag a chest around the village? I'd be late for my jobs.
  Tara: Yes. Then they wouldn't call you Arwel Achub. Heh. They'd call you Arwel Aros! Hahahaahaha!..... oh.
• Lemony Narrator: Downplayed, but the narrator does ocassionally make silly jokes while interacting with the characters. In one episode she insults Prys' detective skills, much to his dismay. In another, she jokingly wonders if Prys will be correct about the mystery of the week.
  Prys: I'm always right! About some things.
• Look Behind You: Prys does this to Tara, when she almost coerces him into accepting her request for the two of them to go to the ghost train at the fair (of which Prys is horribly terrified by).
• Loyal Animal Companion: Ceri to Prys. She is best friends with him and always by his side.
• Magic Misfire: Things don't always go exactly as planned for resident magician, AbracaDebra.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Prys ar Frys' name translates to "always in a rush", which is true as he's always rushing to solve the mystery of the day.
  • Beti Becws' surname is "bakery" in Welsh, and Beti is a baker.
  • Arwel Achub's surname means "deliver", and Arwel is a man of many jobs.
• Medium Blending: The show is mostly live action, but all of the animals (and apparently beasts) in Llan-ar-goll-en are animated, including Ceri.
• The Moving Experience: Mia Pia overhears Mrs. Tomos say "Enough is enough. I'm off," and interprets it as if she's moving away from Llan-ar-goll-en. Mia then sets off to tell Radli and Tara that Mrs. Tomos is leaving. To make matters worse, Mrs. Tomos then calls Tara and tells her that she's cancelled her hair appointment, and later she also tells Radli that she's getting her post. At the end of the episode, Mrs. Tomos clears up that she was just leaving the village to buy more polish in the supermarket, and that she wasn't leaving forever.
• Mystery Magnet: This is basically the case for Amateur Sleuths Prys and Ceri, as there is always a mystery the two detectives have to solve each day in Llan-ar-goll-en. Even on his own birthday Prys still has a mystery to solve, for example. Then again, the village that they live in is a pun on the Welsh word for "lost".
• Narrator: This show has a female one that appears mostly at the beginning of each episode, and in the middle when the three suspects have been revealed.
• No Antagonist: Typical for preschool shows such as this, there isn't any villain that Prys and Ceri have to face. The most "evil" anyone in Llan-ar-goll-en can be is Barti Felyn, but even then he's mostly just mischievous, and doesn't purposefully intend to actually hurt anyone.
• Not Me This Time: The mischievous Barti is accused by Prys twice of stealing Beti's oranges on Smiley Friday, a day where everyone helps one another. Everyone else decides to defend him because he's been trying his hardest to be nice all day, and sure enough he didn't take them.
• Odd Couple: Prys and Ceri. One is an clumsy human, and the other is an intelligent animal, and yet they're the best of friends.
• Once an Episode: See Character Catchphrase above and Recycled Animation / Stock Footage and Strictly Formula below.
• Only Sane Man: Ceri is often the one to fill this role, considering almost everyone else in the village is a Cloudcuckoolander in their own way. She directly contrasts with her zanier partner, Prys, and is almost always the one to solve the mystery of the day.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll", it was actually Ceri who stole her own letter. This surprises everyone in the room, especially Tara who exaggeratedly Faints in Shock when she hears of this. Subverted however, as it is revealed Ceri only stole it so that Prys could solve a mystery on his own, for once.
• Pet the Dog: Mischievous prankster Barti Felyn tries his hardest to be nice on Smiley Friday. Prys still has his suspicions that he stole Beti's oranges, but everyone else defends him and gives him the benefit of the doubt. As it turns out, he really didn't steal the oranges.
• Pirate: Barti Felyn, who has gained a reputation for being quite the troublemaker. He also has a pirate cat, Ianto.
• The Place: Llan-ar-goll-en is both the title of the show and the name of the village.
• Portmantitle: "Llangollen" + "ar goll" (Welsh word for lost). It also uses dashes so that the Pun-Based Title could be understood better.
• Preschool Show: Avoids Fake Interactivity with the audience, and is more "mature" than most preschool shows (being produced in Wales might have something to do with it). The first episode alone has Mrs. Tomos hitting on three of the male characters, including Prys!
• Pun-Based Title: The title Llan-ar-goll-en is a pun on both the small town of Llangollen in Wales, and the Welsh term for "lost" (ar goll).
• Quarter Hour Short: Apart from a half-hour-long Christmas special, each episode is about 13 to 14 minutes long.
• Quirky Town: Llan-ar-goll-en is a small village with not that many residents residing, all of whom know each other and are extremely unique. That being said, it's not a normal town, things missing on a daily nonwithstanding. Radli literally owns a magic, flying bike and a talking hand bag, for example. It's a world where Everything Talks, and two of the main cast are a wizard and an unintelligible pirate.
  Prys: (laughing) Oh, Llan-ar-goll-en is such a strange place!
• Real Men Wear Pink: Barti Felyn has a pink teddy bear that he calls Tedi.
• Recycled Animation / Stock Footage: Gets the best of both worlds here.
  • A lot of Ceri's animation is reused in various episodes, including but not limited to the animation where she scratches her ears like a dog.
  • This is perhaps the most obvious in the Once an Episode sequence where someone sounds the siren and Prys and Ceri, conveniently at the lighthouse, go through the same footage of their hats being magically summoned to them, them both saying their respective phrases, and then exiting the lighthouse to solve the mystery of the day. And it's almost always the same exact footage. In one episode, Ceri is pretending to be sick, but during the sequence she doesn't appear to have a runny nose, and her voice sounds perfectly fine. In another episode, Mrs. Tomos is in the lighthouse to warn Prys and Ceri of all the animals disappearing, but then when the siren is rung and they do their typical sequence, suddenly she's not there.
  • What usually follows after the above is a glance of the map that shows where the siren was sounded, and a fast forward scene of Prys and Ceri running to that place. These are a few variations, but most of them have been repeated many times.
• Regular Caller: As elaborated on in Hotline and Mystery Magnet (and demonstrated in the page quote), Prys and Ceri indeed get called to solve mysteries around the town frequently.
• Rewind Gag: In "Cist Barti", Prys accidently trips and falls onto the portrait of Madam Mayor, and the footage of this is rewinded and fast-forwarded a few times, with a kissing sound effect to make it look like he was kissing her, while the children in the room are laughing in the background.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Prys and Ceri do this in spades, especially with each Once an Episode phrase.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Due to the show's Medium Blending, it is very much present here, with all of the animals being animated while the rest of the village is in live action.
• Rule of Three: Whenever there's a mystery, there are usually three suspects.
• Santa Claus: In "Ceirw Coll Siôn Corn", Santa Claus (Siôn Corn) drops by Llan-ar-goll-en to ask Prys and Ceri to help find his reindeer.
• Short-Runners: Llan-ar-goll-en originally ran for just two years with 51 episodes, typically 12-14 minutes in length (save for the half-hour Christmas Special). Thankfully, it still lives on in reruns.
• Sick Episode: In "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll", it's Prys' Forgotten Birthday, and Ceri has a cold. When they have to solve the mystery of the lost letter, Ceri can't help him, but she tags along with him anyway.
  • Playing Sick: It's revealed that Ceri was faking her cold and stole her own letter just so that Prys could solve a mystery on his own. The letter in question was a birthday card to Prys for being the best detective in Llan-ar-goll-en.
• Signing Off Catchphrase: Ceri ends every episode with "That's how we solved the mystery of the lost/missing X!"; although usually a tag shortly follows.
• Smart Animal, Average Human: Ceri and Prys to a T.
• The Smart Gal: Ceri. She often has the answer and is called the sensible one by the show's Theme Tune.
• Speak in Unison: Radli's hand bag simultaneously speaks in the perspective of two bickering people with a male and female voice.
• Special Edition Title: In the half-hour Christmas Special, the Theme Tune is completely normal. It's actually the Ending Theme that was changed; the music is changed to be a festive tune that was carried over from the previous scene and closely resembles the Theme Tune, and snow appears in the background. At the very end, Siôn Corn yells out "Merry Christmas!"
• Spit Take: Radli does a spit take in the first episode when he is accused of stealing Tara's watch.
• Stock Animal Diet:
  • Ceri, being a dog, loves bones. In one episode, when Prys gifts Ceri a huge bone, she goes crazy and devours it whole.
  • Ianto, being a cat, loves fish, as shown in "Y Pysgodyn Aur" when he ate Beti's goldfish, Orenda, because of his huge appetite.
• Strictly Formula: And how. Every episode follows the same formula with slight alterations.
  • A typical episode will often begin with either the antics of Prys and Ceri at their lighthouse, or the setup for the missing thing of the day. If it's the former, it'll quickly lead into the latter. Something is then lost and the owner(s) of the lost thing will then sound a siren by pressing a red button, while saying this:
    There's a mystery to solve, and that's no lie
    Call the detectives, before things go awry!
  • When the siren rings, Prys and Ceri are called to action at the lighthouse. Their detective hats magically fly on top of their heads, and they say their respective lines, and then they exit out of their lighthouse to investigate the mystery.
    Prys: Charge your batteries!
    Ceri: Let's solve a mystery!
  • A fast forward sequence will then show the duo running to the scene. When they get there, they ask what the mystery is about, if they saw anything strange, and write down as many notes as they can in the progress. Sometimes Ceri will say this if she and Prys are at the scene for too long:
    My nose is itching/twitching
    (It's) time to go a-sniffing/exploring!
  • While gathering more clues, the conflict is later boiled down to three suspects, and once Prys thinks he's cracked the case, he'll sport an Idea Bulb and will then say this:
    Well, we've hunted and searched, and pondered and mithered
    And now the truth is perfectly clear!^note Rarely translated as "We've searched and sought, thought and seen / Now the truth is clear to see!"
  • ...Which leads to all three suspects being at the town hall to be (lightheartedly, of course) interrogated by Clueless Detective Prys. During this, sensible Ceri stands by and reacts disapprovingly to Prys, as her silly partner is usually never correct about who stole the thing. After Prys accuses all of the suspects of doing something (with each of them of course denying that they stole the thing), Ceri will then have a "Eureka!" Moment as she figures out who or what stole the thing, and recaps the episode's events that are full of foreshadowing, in the form of Flashback Cuts.
    Wag my tail and wiggle my nose
    I've an explanation, so here goes!
  • When the mystery is solved, sometimes there is a follow-up scene at the end of the episode with Prys and Ceri back at the lighthouse, with a quick Signing Off Catchphrase from Ceri. In a few occasions, it might be an "Everybody Laughs" Ending, since it's still a Preschool Show and nobody ever has any ill will towards whoever may have stole the thing.
    "That's how we solved the mystery of the lost/missing X!"
• Talent Contest: A talent show is constantly mentioned in the series one episode "Bwystfil y Bont". Then, in the series two episode "Y Brwsh Gwallt Coll", the villagers are rehearsing for a local talent show, before Prys and Ceri are called to solve the mystery of the missing hairbrush.
• Talk Show: As a Real Life example, Dyfrig Evans was interviewed on Cyw's "Helo Shwmae" talk show on 23 April 2021... completely in-character as Radli Miggins. This also counts as the latest Llan-ar-goll-en content after its cancellation.
• Talking Animal: Ceri the dog, her cousin Caradog, Barti's pirate-cat Ianto, and reindeer Cadi and Carwyn can talk. However, Sugar Lump and the other animals can't.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Ceri has a pink bow on her hat and eyelashes so you can easily tell she's a female dog.
• Thick-Line Animation: All of the animals are animated in this style, with heavy black outlines surrounding them. Any accessories they are wearing however will usually be of a darker colored outline (for example, Ceri's hat has a dark green outline, and her bow's outline is dark pink).
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In almost every episode, Prys constantly manages to get the answer to the mystery of the day wrong, while his brighter sidekick Ceri properly guesses it. It happens so much that even the narrator makes fun of him for this. However, in "Dirgelwch y Llythyr Coll" Prys FINALLY solves the mystery of the day on his own (with a little help from Ceri, of course). Everyone present in the room is PROUD, rightfully so.
• Title, Please!: The episode titles are not shown on screen nor spoken. For some reason, none of the episode titles were officially translated to English, only their descriptions.
• Title Theme Tune: "Sometimes things can go wrong in Llan-ar-goll-en... / Objects disappearing like I-don't-know-what in Llan-ar-goll-en..."
• Translator Buddy: Ianto the pirate-cat often translates what his owner, Barti Felyn, is trying to say to both the characters and the audience. This is lampshaded in the one episode where Ianto is missing, and he's not there to explain what Barti is saying.
  Tara: Pity Ianto isn't here to explain.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Caradog, Ceri's male cousin who looks nearly identical to her. The biggest differences are that he has a blue collar instead of a dark pink one, he has green spots on his body instead of pink, and he has ruffled hair on the top of his head while Ceri's is smooth.
• The Unintelligible: Barti Felyn, who speaks in mostly unintelligible grunts. His pirate-cat, Ianto tends to be his Translator Buddy.
• Watch Out for That Tree!: In one episode, Radli crashes into a tree.
• Women Are Wiser: Tara, Beti, and Debra have shown themselves to be quite the Deadpan Snarkers, as they are usually the voice of reason among their male peers. A lighter case is generally Ceri, who is smarter and wiser than her male partner, and nearly always manages to solve the mystery of the day - even showing signs of having knew what the answer could be early on.

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And that's how we solved the mystery of the ruined life!

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