by Mof Gimmers

Knight Rider? Pah! He’s a big pretty boy jessie! Whassat? Airwolf? Pfffft! There aint a damn thing cool about a man who can fly a helicopter… although he did play cello and hung around with Ernest Borgnine. He was called Stringfellow Hawke too. Now I think about it, he was cool.

Anyway, I’m not talking about Airwolf, the real deal was the shoddy Manimal.

You see, Manimal was a posh guy. A man with a "bright future… but an even darker past".

If most 80′s action heroes relied on gadgetry to save the day, this fellow, Simon MacCorkindale, who played the wonderfully named Prof. Jonathon Chase, could turn into panthers, eagles and snakes!

What a guy!

MacCorkindale, later seen in Holby City, was the dancing hero who had hands that gave the secret away. Many a boy in my playground would contort their hands to simulate the mutation of Mr Chase, to then don their coats on their heads and swoop around like a bird a prey, skreeching at petrified/uninterested girls.

We may have not looked very cool, but then, neither did Manimal. A hero you could easily live up to. Apart from the actual transforming bit.