Harry's Mad is a children's television programme that was shown in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on CITV

CITV

CITV is a British television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive, as well as commissions and acquisitions. CITV itself is the programming block on the main ITV Network .The CITV channel broadcasts from 06:00 to 18:00...

 from 1993 to 1996. It is based upon a book written by Dick King-Smith

Dick King-Smith

Ronald Gordon King-Smith OBE, Hon.M.Ed. , better known by his pen name Dick King-Smith, was a prolific English children's author, best known for writing The Sheep-Pig, retitled in the United States as Babe the Gallant Pig, on which the movie Babe was based...

.

Premise

The show begins when Harry Holdsworth (Gareth Parrington

Gareth Parrington

Gareth Parrington is a former child actor who appeared in Boon, Soldier, Soldier and Harry's Mad.Parrington played the part of a young boy in Boon, then James Anderson in Soldier, Soldier and the lead character Harry Holdsworth in the CITV comedy-drama Harry's Mad...

) inherits his American great-uncle George's macaw

Macaw

Macaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...

 named Madison. At first, the Holdsworth family are not very pleased with their new pet, but, they soon start to notice that Madison is no ordinary parrot, and that he is highly intelligent and very articulate. He becomes an instant family member. As well as getting the Holdsworths out of many problems, Madison is also the cause of many too. Terry Crumm (Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham

Mark Philip David Billingham is an English novelist whose series of "Tom Thorne" crime novels are best-sellers in that particular genre. He is also a television screenwriter and has become a familiar face as an actor and comic....

) hears about Madison's intelligence and sets out to steal him on many occasions, but most of the time Madison foils his plans and saves the day.

In the third series, the family sell their house and move to a rather run down hotel which they took over when Aunt Agatha moved to America. Harry is studying for his GCSEs back at his old school and so is not featured much in this series. Instead, Hattie, played by Amy Butterworth, and Jools, played by Richard Castillo, Aunt Agatha's adopted children, take his place.

In the fourth and final series, Jools leaves the family and Harry returns from his GCSEs

Many guest stars appeared in Harry's Mad including Dave Lee Travis

Dave Lee Travis

Dave Lee Travis , also known professionally as DLT and the Hairy Cornflake, is a British radio presenter, best known for his career on BBC Radio 1.-Early life:...

, Michaela Strachan

Michaela Strachan

Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan is an English television presenter.-Personal life:Strachan attended Claremont Fan Court School, Esher, a Christian Science school. Later, while at college, she briefly held jobs as an Avon lady and as a kissogram...

 and Steve Davis

Steve Davis

Steve Davis, OBE is an English professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years and became the sport's first millionaire...

.

The parrot

Madison was played by a living parrot in only certain scenes that required the view of his full body, such as when he was flying or perched on Harry's arm. In most other scenes, however, an animatronic parrot was used to allow Madison to talk and interact with other characters properly.

Trivia

• Although the animatronic parrot was mostly accurate, there is one revealing mistake, the animatronic parrot has a totally grey beak while the real parrot has a black and white beak.

• Whilst Madison is a Macaw in this series in the original book, he is an African Grey Parrot.