Anytime Tales is a Stop Motion Puppet Shows-esque cartoon for children by King Rollo Films (who made Spot the Dog and, obviously, King Rollo), which was broadcast on British television in 1992.
The show was really a series of stories by David McKee and Tony Ross that had been adapted for TV, such as Not Now, Bernard and The Little Princess.
Unlike most cartoons, the episodes run long or short individually. The series was narrated by the likes of Johnny Morris (David McKee ATs only), Victoria Wood, and Steve Steen.
Relevant tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: In "Not Now, Bernard", Bernard's parents don't even notice that their son has been eaten by a monster.
- Amazing Technicolour Wildlife: Elmer is a multicoloured, checkered elephant.
- Animal Lover: Jessie, from "I Want a Cat", wants a cat and later a dog, and she's jealous of her friends who all have pets.
- Animated Adaptation: It's all cartoon versions of kids' books.
- Anthropomorphic Food: One story involves a monster eating some "banana people".
- Brown Note: Veronica plays her violin to a song so sad, that it makes even the whole world cry!
- Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: The Princess spends a lot of "I Want My Potty" calling out for said potty.
- Cat Concerto: In "I Want a Cat", Jessie howls at night as part of pretending she's a cat.
- Deaf Composer: Ms. Leonie, from "The Sad Story of Veronica who Played the Violin", is a deaf music teacher.
- Death of a Child: Bernard, Veronica, and Jezebel all seem to be about elementary school age, but they still get Eaten Alive by a monster, lion, and crocodile respectively.
- Downer Ending: "I Want My Potty" ends with the Princess wetting her pants on the floor.
- Dreadful Musician: Veronica was initially such a bad violinist that her music teacher moved overseas and the new one was deaf.
- Eaten Alive:
- Bernard gets eaten by a monster.
- Veronica gets eaten by a lion.
- Jezebel gets eaten by a crocodile.
- Some banana people get eaten by a monster.
- Here We Go Again!: "I Want a Cat" ends with Jessie's dad finally buying her a cat, only for her to say that she now wants a dog.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The show had been on one children's compilation for charity... twice! In NSPCC Children's TV Favourites Volume 2 in 1993, "Elmer" came first, then "I Want a Cat" came after "Nellie The Elephant".
- Neat Freak: Jezebel, from "Super Dooper Jezebel", has an immaculate bedroom and eats neatly.
- Never My Fault: Subverted in "Oscar Got the Blame", where it seems as though Oscar is blaming all his misdeeds on his imaginary friend Oscar, but then it turns out that Billy does exist.
- No Full Name: We don't know the last names of Bernard, Veronica, Jessie, or Oscar, nor the first names of Ms. Leonie or Mr. and Mrs. Quest.
- Nose Nuggets: Jezebel prides herself on being perfect in every way and delights in telling other kids how to behave. She tells another girl off for picking her nose, saying her nose will grow long and fat, like a carrot.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Billy from "Oscar Got the Blame" seems to be imaginary, since he's never seen, but at the end of the story, he turns out to exist after all.
- Potty Emergency: In "I Want My Potty", it says that the Princess was sometimes a long way away from her potty when she needed it most, then later, she urgently needs her potty while playing on the roof.
- Spit Out a Shoe: When the Prime Minister hears about Jezebel, he sends her a special medal for being good. One day, Jezebel's so busy telling the other kids not to run, she walks right into the jaws of a crocodile that's escaped from the zoo.Zookeeper: You naughty boy! You've eaten the best girl in the world.
Crocodile: I've tasted better. [Spits out the medal.] - Still Sucks Thumb: In "Super Dooper Jezebel", Jezebel tells off two kids for sucking their thumbs, believing it'll give them bad teeth.
- Sudden Downer Ending:
- As the name would suggest, "The Sad Story of Veronica who Played the Violin" is sad — just as Veronica has learned to play happy music instead of sad music, a lion eats her alive.
- "Super Dooper Jezebel" ends on Jezebel winning an award for being so well-behaved... only to be eaten by a crocodile.
- Talking Animal: The lion at the end of "The Sad Story of Veronica who Played the Violin" can speak.
- Toilet Training Plot: "I Want My Potty" is all about a princess learning how to use her potty.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Veronica was dumb enough to play her sad song to lions right next to them, which ends on her being eaten by a deaf one who was immune to her Brown Note.
- Jezebel literally walked right into the mouth of a crocodile because she wasn't watching where she was going, which unsurprisingly eats her.
- Bernard got eaten by the monster because he walked up to it and said hi.
- Unnamed Parent: None of the parent characters have names.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- In "Not Now, Bernard", the main character tells his parents that there's a monster that's about to come and gobble him up, but they both keep dismissing him, even at the end when the monster tells Bernard's mother that he ate Bernard.
- The zookeeper chasing the crocodile that ultimately eats Jezebel scolds the animal as if it just peed on the carpet, as opposed to it eating the "best girl in the world".
