Kerching!
Kerching! is a
sitcom on
CBBC that follows the lives of teenagers Taj, Danny and Seymour. The programme revolves around Taj's
Rudeboy money-making schemes and is often located in "The Chill" - a local
café . The
Rudeboy website sells ringtones, computer games, concert tickets and other merchandise and is central to the plot of the programme.
Series One
Danny loves Kareesha and is always trying to ask her out but she is not interested in him at all. Seymour's parents are divorced; he goes to football matches with his dad but is afraid to tell his dad that he hates football. Danny's dad runs a stall in the market.
Taj's rival is Ricardo Murray, Ricardo's girlfriend is Tamsin, Taj wants Tamsin to be his girlfriend but never quite manages to ask her out. Missy is Taj's sister and she works at the Chill out Grill with Kareesha ("Sha") Lopez, her friend. Their lives revolve around boyfriends and shopping and they come to work mainly to have a good chat. Their boss is Carlton. Carlton is very tight with money and often complains that Missy and Kareesha don't work hard enough at the Chill. Ricardo's Dad (Mr. Mike Murray) runs the Record Shop (Murray's Hip City). When it looks like the Chill will be sold, Rudeboy buys a half share in it so that Carlton can carry on running it.
Series Two
Instead of Tamsin it's Alex and she is very independent and prefers to do everything on her own. Alex always has different hairstyles with different colours in her hair. Both Ricardo and Taj want Alex to be their girlfriend. She says no to Ricardo straight away but she knows she likes Taj. Alex finds out about Taj being Rudeboy before he tells her and so she finishes their relationship. And the end of this series we see her talking to a dog about her situation, and in the end she decides to give it one more shot with Taj after the dog agrees she should.
Series Three
New Characters: Jazmin, Michael, Stacey Martin and Robbie. At the beginning of this series Alex and Taj fake a split because they are fed up with being left out all the time. Omar starts secondary school and, to start with at least, finds it very big and a bit scary. Michael starts talent scouting for his business, Dudeboy. He finds a young girl named Stacey Martin. He loves her voice and talents, but is much keen on her boyfriend, fishing-fanatic Robbie. Ricardo wins a 'search for a band contest' and becomes a member of '20-20' a new boy group. He is in a sticky situation when he is dropped from the band and his mum wants him to live with her in Italy but his dad wants him to live with him in Manchester. In the second to last episode in this series Taj, Danny and Seymour look back on all the fun, sadness and frustrating times the spent together after Taj reveals he is ending RudeBoy. But, Taj has an idea whilst at the Chill Out Grill thanks to Danny's hand-made junior partener cards he made. The last episode shows that his great idea was to make designer RudeBoy clothes and earn the 1 million pounds he has waited for! Missy flies back from L.A when she hears Taj is presenting their mum with the 1 million pound cheque but not all goes to plan. Danny and Seymour find out about Alex and Taj not really splitting up and Alex gets mad with Taj. Everything is looking down but bright spirits are held when Taj realises he hasn't done quite enough. He decides Rudeboy will be going global and the series ends with one last KERCHING!
Series Four
The BBC announced on Saturday
11 January 2006 that a new series was coming soon. On Monday
13 February 2006, the first episode of the new series was shown. The series concluded on Friday
24 February with the final episode in which Taj finally makes his million. Presumebly, this will be the last episode though the events that Omar goes through during the fourth series gives the impression that a spin-off series will take place with Omar and his friends as the main characters. This is unconfirmed but rumoured on the internet.
Taj
The
protagonist of the show. His alias is Rudeboy, an internet businessman who is well known among kids everywhere. Taj wants to keep his identity secret until he has made £1,000,000 for his Mum. Taj has made Danny and Seymour junior associates of Rudeboy, at 1% of the profits. Taj was also secretly dating Alex until they split near the beginning of the 4th series.
Seymour
One of Taj's best friends, Seymour enjoys insulting other friend Danny using everyday objects such as "you pushchair", "Danny - you bin-liner" and "you glovepuppet", but his main passion in life is cooking and was heartbroken when he got an "A" in cooking,as he is used to getting A+'s. His hero is
Ainsley Harriott. Quite a few of the episodes end with either Taj and Danny shouting 'SEYMOUR! and chase him out of the room. But on the other hand he is a good buddy for things related to cooking.
Danny
Danny is Taj's other best friend and is by no means the brains of the Rudeboy company, yet is sometimes referred to by Taj as a "genius" for random get-rich-quick schemes. Danny has been occasionally seen pining for Taj's mum, helped along mostly by Taj's mum using it to persuade Danny to do chores for her. Loves Kareesha more than anything, and seems to think that she has the same feelings for him.
Mrs. Josephine Lewis
Mrs. Lewis is Taj's mum. Unknownst to her, she is the reason that Taj started Rudeboy for. She helps her family when they are in trouble, but is shown to have the fitness level of
The Crust's Gran'Ma Flosse. She also tends to be extremely fearsome when called for it. In the third series, she meets Seymour's dad, and starts dating him. In the fourth series, she accepts a marriage proposal from Seymour's dad, and nearly marries him, but decides to give it more time just when they are at the altar. In the final episode of series four, she is shocked when she discovers that her son is Rudeboy. She eventually decides to spend the money.
Jazmin
Jazmin is a waitress at local diner Chill-Out-Grill and moved in with Taj's family. She works with Kareesha because Missy's gone to L.A. Carlton is her uncle who doesn't find it hard to give her an excuse to take a lunch break (on the contrary for Kareesha). She believes in enjoying herself and doing lots of shopping. At first her and Kareesha don't get on but after Kareesha finds out about Jazmin being Carlton's niece she forgives her and they get on really well. She is a lodger at the Lewis' household, and in series four Seymour starts delevoping feelings for Jazmin.
Kareesha
Kareesha Lopez is a waitress at local diner the Chill-Out-Grill. She enjoys nothing more than going on a shopping-spree and is the most do-the-minimum waitress ever seen. Danny has a crush on Kareesha, and refers to her as "Kareesha-sha-sha-sha". Kareesha's best friend is Missy, Taj's sister, who is in Hollywood trying to make a movie career. Kareesha's mum makes a brief appearance in one episode. She is portrayed as a mad party girl, distracting Mrs Josephine Lewis from her studies, until Jasmin intervenes.
Missy
Missy Lewis is Taj's sister, and she left her job as a waitress at the Chill-Out-Grill to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. She likes shopping, partying and boys and getting a share of Taj's fortune.She dosen't do anything but look and file her nails and is rude to customers.
Michael
Michael is Taj's rival because he's Dudeboy and Taj is Rudeboy. Michael's father bought Ricardo's father's record shop. During the third series he is an equal to Taj, has a good head for business, is fair and is kind. During the fourth, he takes over Ricardo's role: portraying a dim-witted idiot, who completely fancies Alex. The abrupt change in his character is notable, when he is forced to dress up in a Bunny costume, and is beaten up by a bunch of Year Sevens.
Alex
Alex is a good organiser and listener. Taj, Ricardo and Michael all fancy her, but she was Taj's secret girlfriend until near the beginning of the fourth series. They pretended to split in series three because Alex was fed up of being left out of Kareesha and Jasmin's plans and parties. She also can be annoyed at Taj for spending to much time on his laptop or mobile phone keeping Rudeboy in order.
Omar
Omar Lewis is Missy and Taj's younger brother, and during the third and fourth series develops a definite character, and is usually the main character in the sub-plots. In the first and second series, he is usually in a
judo suit, and seems to like judo,
karate, a TV programme called 'Squirrel Wizard' and
skateboarding. At the end of the third series, upon entering Taj's room, he sees brand new Rudeboy gear in his drawer, and puts two and two together.
Ricardo Murray
Ricardo Murray was Taj's rival but the pair made up when he left. Ricardo believes he is the finest thing on two legs and in winning a
"Search For A Band" competition, became the 40th member of band 20-20, before he was dropped from the group and left to live with his mother in Italy. Ricardo is portrayed as a complete idiot, who is the opposite of Taj, Alex and Tamsin, and after Danny, he is the most slapstick character in the show (for example, being squirted by mustard during one episode). In the first and second series, he and his dad ran a music shop and in series two Taj,Omar,Missy and Ricardo thought that Taj's mum was going out with Ricardo's dad.
Carlton
Carlton is the owner of The "Chill Out Grill". He is never seen on screen, but various characters have mentioned seeing him (for example, Omar refers to seeing Carlton running around in Scooby-Doo pyjamas when The Chill catches fire.). Carlton is described as a miser - to the extent that he waters down the ketchup - and rarely does something that does not benefit him. Jasmin is his niece, and because of this, he is constantly making jokes about Missy, Kareesha or Jasmin. Missy and Kereesha always calls him a 'tightwod'
Tamsin
In series one, Tamsin is portrayed as Ricardo Murray's girlfriend but Taj Lewis has a secret crush on her. She usually dumps Ricardo for such reasons that she will not wear fur and that he does not spend enough time with the elderly.
Patrick
Patrick is one of Omar's dumb-witted friends and is a brother of Danny Spooner. In series 4 Omar and Leon gets Patrick to be a "homework Doctor" where he basically does other people's homework for a fee.
Leon
Leon is the third of the three Musketeers. While Omar is the leader of his gang, Leon often takes over. He is shown as being rather sneaky and greedy. He is the most annoying of Mrs L's guests.
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Kerching! game*
BBC summary of the programme
