3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE

The new fleaBITE radio/podcast series 3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE is a musical adventure set in Inner Space. The Inner Space of Lucy the Labrador, to be precise.

fleaBITE and his musical sidekicks ‘The Fabulous Fleamales’ travel round the bloodstream of Lucy the Labrador in a microscopic submarine. Their mission is to find out why their doggy friend is sick.

In each episode, they meet one of Lucy’s organs (Brain, Eyes, Lungs, Liver, Heart, Kidneys, Stomach) and are treated to a song.

3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE is the second fleaBITE radio/podcast series. EVERYBODY WANTS TO JOIN THE FLEABITE BAND, our first series was based on the idea of fleaBITE travelling round New Zealand (on the back of Lucy the Labrador), auditioning musical insects for his new band. We were the only independent producers to make the finals at the 2021 NZ Radio Awards (Children’s Programmes).

First time around, Shannon Williams and I performed all the vocal parts, but with 3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE, I called on my professional actor friends (Helen Moulder, Janet Roddick, and Peter Tait) to play the organ characters. The biggest coup was getting vocal maestro Michael Wilson as the lead character fleaBITE. Michael can twist his tonsils into all manner of vocal contortions. In one episode, he performs as fleaBITE, Lucy the Labrador, plus Mr Right Eye & Mrs Left Eye (a highly argumentative couple). It’s hilarious!

Michael Wilson (voice of lead character, fleaBITE).

I wrote an original fleaBITE song for each episode of 3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE, and Radio New Zealand allowed me to use their production studio to put the whole thing together, with maestro Phil Benge at the helm.

3 FLEAS IN A SUBMARINE currently takes pride of place on Radio NZ’s Best Storytime Podcasts here.

And you can hear both series on the fleaBITE website.