Alfonso Bonzo

1 9 9 0 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes

Billy Webb (Scott Riley) is a young boy who likes to swap things and is able to negotiate amazing swaps on all types of crazy items with the residents of Splott Street and his schoolmates at Splott Junior and Infant School.

Billy’s swapping skills make him popular with his peers but drive his Mum (Susan Porrett) and Dad (Brian Hall) nuts.

He meets Alfonso Bonzo (Alex Jennings), a flamboyant Italian ‘exchange student’ who also has a talent for swapping things (thus his self-description: he is an Italian student who “exchanges” things).

Billy may be the best swapper in the Splott district, but Alfonso is the market leader of swapping . . .

Alfonso offers Billy a variety of temporary swaps to demonstrate his abilities – Billy’s boring old dog for a greyhound that does ballet; the wonky Webb family television for a new model with a button that lets the viewer become part of the action; Billy’s battered schoolbag full of unfinished homework for a brand new school bag containing a file folder that magically produces finished homework – but each swap has disadvantages as well as advantages, and Alfonso cuts an increasingly sinister figure as he leads up to one last swap, this one for keeps.

The whole story is told in flashback by Billy who is now laid up in the hospital with a broken leg. He’s in a bed next to journalist Trevor Trotman (Mike Walling), who also has a broken leg and is enthusiastically convinced that Alfonso Bonzo is proof of extra-terrestrial life.

The BBC1 series later produced a spinoff called Billy Webb’s Amazing Story, featuring Billy’s further (non-Alfonso-related) adventures.

Billy Webb
Scott Riley
Alfonso Bonzo
Alex Jennings
Trevor Trotman
Mike Walling
Mrs Webb
Susan Porrett
Linda Webb
Fleur Taylor
Mr Webb
Brian Hall
June Barnacle
Lisa O’Connell
Priti Shah
Bina Masad
Nigel Creamer
Raymond Butcher
Mrs Peasgood
Gil Brailey
Scott Barnacle
Rory McNicholl
Annette Osoba
Phyllis Osie
Darnell Masuda
Dwaine Foster
Mr Hardwood
Bryan Pringle