Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend is an antagonist from Brum who is the first known girlfriend of Big Bad. Like her boyfriend, she is a thieving Big Town Baddie who wants to strike it rich. However, after a failed heist Big Bad ends their partnership leaving her destitute. When she resurfaces she tries to reverse her fortunes by stealing a designer dress. Regardless of her antics, Brum is always present to bankrupt her schemes.
She is played by Christine Nayrolles.
Biography[]
Nothing is known about her early life other than at some point she met and formed a relationship with Big Bad, a fellow Big Town Baddie.
Brum and the Snow Thieves[]
She first appears from behind the Ski Dome’s counter as customers are paying their entry fees. She looks and slowly nods with Big Bad in agreeing to steal the takings. While she eagerly eyes down the cash Big Bad unbeknownst to her ducks behind the counter. She is momentarily confused at his sudden disappearance before he drags her under with him to sneak through the counter’s back entrance. Her boyfriend gestures for them to wait until the last of the customers have paid to maximise their booty. After Mr. and Mrs. Posh pay the thieves seize their chance and grab a handful of cash each before stuffing it into her yellow bag before taking off as Brum pursues them.
The crooks dash past several other skiers and stop near a row of standing skis. She then points in the direction of Brum as the supercar approaches. Big Bad then sends the row of skis tumbling down on top of the superhero while she exclaims her delight at Brum’s predicament. The two dash behind the nearby screens and spot a couple of mannequins dressed in snow clothes and agree to disguise themselves. After Brum frees himself he drives around and spots the two posing as mannequins. However, the act fails when Big Bad sneezes causing the thieves to promptly run into the snow dome. Upon entry she slips on the snow before her boyfriend tumbles down on top of her. As he picks her up the two look on in awe at the scene before she slips again. Knowing that going in further would be a mistake they try to leave, but are forced to bolt further inside when they see Brum approaching.
Without looking the crooks crash into a snowman which topples onto them as they scream. Using their legs, they prop the snowman up for the disgruntled girl and take to the slope itself. However, the slippery surface gets the better of them and the two tumble down as skiers swerve to avoid them. She then looks back at Brum with horror as Big Bad picks her up again. The two run further up the slope and look back to see that Brum has apparently vanished. Their sense of victory is then interrupted by a descending skier who bowls Big Bad over while she darts to the side. Unknown to them Brum is using the escalator to head them off while they continue to haphazardly help each other scale the slope.
Before long both arrive at the summit and take a breather as she leans on her boyfriend. As he brushes her advance off he then spots Brum. Panicked the criminals look at each other before Big Bad drags her away. They proceed to rob Mr and Mrs Posh of their skis to beat Brum to the bottom. The supercar then calmly takes a set of skis for his front wheels to chase them down.
On the way down she and her partner prove to be terrible skiers and repeatedly sway and have several near misses. Brum cleverly skis to their right to keep them near the slope’s edge causing them to slide up an icy ramp. While the pair soar into the air their stolen skis detach before they land in the snow and promptly duck as the skis narrowly miss their heads. Brum then uses the same ramp to land in front of them to spray the dumbfounded baddies with snow. She is the first to emerge and promptly has Big Bad surrender the money. After Brum departs the beaten baddies take a breather, thinking that their troubles for the day are over but are then set upon by everyone present in the Ski Dome. Both cower as everyone pelts them with snowballs. As the attack subsides she and Big Bad look at the crowd dismayed.
Off-screen the couple leave the Ski Slope to steal another day.
Interim[]
Following the events of “Brum and the Snow Thieves” her circumstances tragically change as Big Bad dumps her for a relationship with a more criminal Big Town Baddie who is more attractive and athletic. Going by the air dates of the episodes, this occurs early on in the months between the end of series 3 and the beginning of series 4. This causes her to go downhill as evidenced by her scruffy and rugged clothes, her decaying front tooth, messy hair and the smoky stains on her face. Although the circumstances behind this are never depicted, it can be inferred from these details that she lived with Big Bad for a time before she is presumably kicked out. As a result she likely spent the next few months living between homeless shelters and the streets. Another reason for her degraded appearance would be the breakup taking a toll on her mental wellbeing. However, despite the impact of these experiences and her ex-boyfriend getting dumped after landing himself and his new girlfriend in prison following a high-stakes theft in “Brum and the Splash and Grab”, she still remained an opportunistic Big Town Baddie herself, albeit a tragic one.
Brum and the Mannequin[]
Just over a month after the arrest of Big Bad and his 2nd girlfriend (as per the chronological air dates of the episodes), she is next seen walking down one of the town’s paved streets. On display in one of the designer clothing shops, she spies a glittering golden dress and starts inspecting it in complete awe. She then daydreams herself adorned in it on a candlelit stage, modelling herself while throwing roses to her admirers. Knowing that this could be the financial break she needs, she decides to steal it. Making sure no one’s watching she enters the shop and sneaks into the display area. Brum tries to warn her off before she shoots in him a filthy look. As she unsuccessfully tries to free the dress from the dummy, Brum gives her a second warning causing her to fearfully scream. She then decides to steal the whole dummy to getaway. However, her scream has alerted the shopkeeper who charges in and tries to stop the thief from leaving the premises with the dress and mannequin in tow. However, she only manages to get the dummy’s wig back before the baddie reaches the exit. The shopkeeper tries to grab it back but only succeeds in pulling off one of mannequin’s legs.
Following this, the crook scampers up the street and forcefully boards a departing bus. Grinning she thinks that she’s scot-free, but doesn’t notice that Brum is still following the bus. Sometime later she gets off, but her joy is short-lived when Brum honks his horn. Panicked she tries to run for it, but one of the dummy’s arms is caught on one of the bus door’s rails. With a yank she detaches the rest of the dummy from the arm and leaves it for Brum to retrieve. She briefly stops near vegetable stand for a quick break, and screams when she sees Brum approaching. This causes her to accidentally knock the mannequin’s head off into a box of cabbages. Granny Slippers picks the head off and throws it away in a fright before Brum catches it.
The thief then comes across a PS300 litter sweeper which she promptly steal while Bob, one of town’s workmen is having lunch in the Big Town Square. For a while she only manages to drive in circles, barely missing some pedestrians. Eventually she wises up and starts throwing the remaining legs and arms of the mannequin at Brum to slow him down. However, the supercar catches them with ease. With the controls of the sweeper now more familiar she then drives through a pile of dry leaves which showers Brum with them before detaching the dress from the dummy’s torso. The criminal then stuffs the dress in her denim jacket before discarding the dummy’s torso. However, she eventually takes a wrong turn which results in Brum herding her into the automated carwash. Unable to reverse out, she screams in terror as the sweeper creeps towards the massive brushes before being sprayed with soap. Upon reaching the other side, she stops, saturated and covered in thick soap and completely bewildered in exhaustion before seeing that Brum has been waiting for her. As the camera faces a delighted Brum, her face can be seen in one of the sweeper’s mirrors looking wholly horrified.
Brum then somehow ties a piece of rope to himself, and the sweeper and hauls her back to scene of her crime. As this happens she passively sits on the sweeper’s driver’s seat having surrendered to the superhero due to her exhaustion as a result of having to endure the full power of the carwash. Upon arrival, and much to her shock, she is cuffed and placed under arrest by the Traffic Policeman. After the dummy’s parts are returned by Brum, the policeman then spots the dress sticking out of her jacket. As he pulls it out, she slowly screams in horror before Bob returns it to the shop. Having lost the dress and her freedom, she snarls at the policeman before Brum departs. As this happens the Traffic Policeman forces her to wave goodbye to the superhero by waving the hand that her hand is cuffed to.
In a fate similar to that of her ex-boyfriend and his sadistic 2nd girlfriend, she is taken into custody off-screen before being locked away in the Big Town Prison for the rest of the show.
Appearance[]
Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend is a tall slender woman with pale skin, brown eyes and ginger hair. She is first seen wearing a blue singlet and shorts before she ends up wearing a tattered denim jacket and jeans with scruffy green scarf after ending up on the streets. By the time of her second episode she also has a smoke stain on her face and a decaying front tooth.
Personality[]
Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend appears to have more of a sanguine temperament as she always appears to be upbeat and happy. Even after she gets dumped and is forced to live on the streets she immediately lights up at the sight of the dress and its perceived prospects. However, she is greedy and sadistic as she relished in seeing Brum get buried under the skis after Big Bad pushes them over. Moreover, she also gets panicky when things go wrong. Despite this she doesn’t show any fear upon being arrested. Instead she gets angry at the Traffic Policeman for finding the stolen dress. Her lack of fear for going to prison can be attributed to her living roughly on the streets.
She is also not completely irredeemable. Considering how far downhill she went after Big Bad leaves her, it can be said that she felt deeply for him, and probably even loved him.
Tactics and abilities[]
In general Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend doesn’t demonstrate a great deal of cunning. During her time with Big Bad, she mainly defers to his lead. Examples include her submitting to his plan to steal the Ski Dome’s takings after all the customers had paid and following his lead in general. Her reliance on him was further showcased by her being confused and unsure of what to do when he seemingly disappeared while they were standing behind the Ski Dome’s pay counter. However, she proves to be able to operate in sync with him as shown by her getting the ideas to disguise themselves and steal Mr and Mrs Posh’s skis at the same time as him. Despite her reliance on Big Bad, she did demonstrate some opportunistic ingenuity as she pointed for him to push down a row of skis onto Brum to give them a head start which they then waste by pretending to be mannequins.
However, her reliance on her boyfriend means that she makes the same mistakes as him. The biggest example is them continuing to try and scale the ski slope in the face of oncoming skiers even though there was an escalator right next to them. Another is them running head on into a snowman when they could’ve avoided this by looking where they were going. She also freezes up when Brum appears at the slope’s summit.
Even after her partnership with Big Bad ends and her having to live on the streets for a few months, her tactics don’t improve. When stealing the designer dress she makes the classic mistake of stealing directly in front of Brum, despite having first-hand experience at the trouble that would bring. It’s also possible that when she spotted the dress in at the shop window that she failed to see Brum and only spotted the supercar after he tried to warn her off. However, this shows how poor her observational skills are. This trait is further confirmed by her being unable to take the dress off the mannequin despite the zip being at the front. Additionally, her trick of using the bus to escape Brum was short-sighted because the supercar followed it with ease and it cost her valuable money which ironically would’ve been better spent putting into her prison account. Moreover, he trick of stealing a street sweeper as a getaway vehicle proved disastrous as she didn’t have the necessary experience to drive it and ended up going in circles for long while. This also attracted a lot of public attention to her crime.
Other examples of her dimwittedness are the events leading to her arrest. This includes when she went through the car wash. Instead of either reversing or hopping off the pedestrian street sweeper, she stays on and goes straight through the car wash before she is carted off by Brum back to the scene of her crime where she is promptly arrested. This could have been avoided if she jumped off and ran or tactfully surrendered the stolen dress in exchange for Brum letting her go. Her lack of will to do so resulted in her getting taken to prison.
- Athleticism: Possessing a lean physique Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend demonstrates a good level of athleticism in a few areas.
- Durability: She proves to reasonably durable as she is able to outrun Brum for a time despite having lived roughly on the streets for a few months. She is also able to withstand the power of the carwash and sustain no damage.
- Strength: She is shown to be moderately strong as she was able to shove Mr Posh away from his skis.
- Speed: She is also quite fast, being able to keep pace with Big Bad and maintain a reasonable lead over Brum.
- Smuggling skill: She displays a rudimentary level of skill at smuggling as she successfully conceals the dress within her jacket. However, the frill of the dress stuck out, giving it away.
- Stealth: She’s also reasonably stealthy as she was able to hide behind the cash counter of the Ski Dome with Big Bad.
- Skiing: She shows a rudimentary level of skill at skiing or snowboarding, but her lack of balance causes her to nearly crash into Big Bad.
- Driving: She shows some skill at driving, but due to her lack of knowledge of the street sweeper she mostly goes in circles until Brum guides her into the carwash.
- Disguises: She’s also skilled in the use of disguises as she was able to dress up in snow clothes and pose as a mannequin.
- Acting: She pretends to be a mannequin after disguising herself. However, her act didn’t fool Brum.
- Safecracking: The Big Town Bumper Book reveals that she also engages in safecracking and bank robberies. These are activities she does not participate in during her live appearances on Brum. While the extent of her skill in these areas is never shown it can be inferred that her safecracking abilities aren’t that sophisticated due to her being a relatively dim crook by nature.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- As with all Big Town Baddies, her defeats are symbolic.
- Her getting snowed in by Brum and then pelted with snowballs by the skiers showcases how she has been pummelled.
- Her final defeat in “Brum and the Mannequin” when she gets ushered into the carwash while carwash the narrator quips that “she’s going to get cleaned up” is symbolic on the following levels;
- Firstly, the quip that “she’s going to get cleaned up” refers to her unkempt appearance.
- Secondly, this could be a pun on how she’s going to get banged up when she’s arrested. This is a callback to The Rascally Big Town Robber’s first arrest where Brum quips that “he’s all rugged up”.
- Thirdly, the quip could also reference how she going to be cleaned up by the Big Town Prison. This is ironic as the prison would have to clean her up by delousing and then dressing her in a fresh prison uniform. This would also involve her getting dental treatment.
- Fourthly, her rotting tooth and appearance could also symbolise how she is going to rot in prison. This carries another ironic meaning because while she will have to maintain proper hygiene to avoid the contempt of other inmates she’ll still be rotting away on the inside for not getting away with her crimes.
- She’s also a foil to The Beady-Eyed Robber on the following levels;
- Although their crimes are motivated by the desire to become famous models, The Beady-Eyed Robber wishes to do so to become richer while Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend wishes to do so to improve her unfortunate circumstances.
- Their physical presentations are opposed. The Beady-Eyed Robber maintains an immaculate appearance with her well-combed hair, evenly applied makeup and a polished outfit. By the time of “Brum and the Mannequin” Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend by contrast is dishevelled with a discoloured tooth, rough looking clothes and messy hair.
- Whereas The Beady-Eyed Robber is a rogue who exclusively commits her crimes alone, Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend has worked with accomplices.
- Their defeats stand in contrast. The Beady-Eyed Robber’s comeuppance involves her getting mucky by falling into a trashcan with a sickly squelch. Contrastingly, Big Bad’s 1st Girlfriend gets cleaned and sponged down by a carwash.
- She is the only Big Town Baddie who gets handcuffed on the show.
- She is Big Bad’s 2nd criminal accomplice.
- Coincidentally the closing shot of Brum leaving her in the custody of the police before the credits roll in “Brum and the Mannequin” is almost identical to the closing shot in “Brum and the Pantomime Cow”, an episode where he then-future boyfriend Big Bad appears.
- Ironically in “Brum and the Snow Thieves” she is easily able to strip a mannequin of its winter clothes to disguise herself, but later in “Brum and the Mannequin” she can’t take the dress she wants off of the dummy and is forced to steal the mannequin too.