The Beady-Eyed Robber is a menacing antagonist from the children’s program Brum. She is an evil Big Town Baddie who desires to become a famous model within the Big Town, even though her clothes show that she already leads a relatively opulent life. In an attempt to aide her ambitions, she steals a newly purchased pearl necklace before being literally trashed by Brum.
She is played by Heather Tyrrell.
Biography[]
Nothing is known about The Beady-Eyed Robber’s life or why she is a violent and angry crook. All that can be inferred about her life prior to her appearance on Brum is that she is an upper class Townswoman who has had no prior contact with law enforcement as evidenced by her immaculate clothes and polished appearance. Consequently, she is likely a wealthy socialite of some sort within the Big Town, which is noteworthy because most Big Town Baddies appear to be low to middle class citizens. However, she seeks to further pad her pockets by getting a career in modelling. It's implied that she has experienced trouble achieving this as she feels that wearing expensive jewellery will vastly improve her prospects in this area. Additionally, it is slightly implied that she mugs people to take their valuable possessions as evidenced by her wearing a hood and hiding out in an alleyway.
Brum and the Stolen Necklace[]
The Beady-Eyed Robber first appears emerging from behind a dumpster when Brum drives past with Miss Lover and her boyfriend. Curious she follows them to the Big Town Jewellery store where the couple agree to purchase an extravagant pearl necklace. The robber creeps up and watches intently as they enter the store. She then steps forward and immediately falls in love with the same necklace on display. She pulls back her hood and falls forward towards it, grinning covetously. The thief to be then fantasises about being an acclaimed model wearing the necklace as she receives a standing ovation. However, as she jerks awake from her daydream she sees the shopkeeper removing it from display. Becoming temperamental, she shakes her fists in a rage as Brum tries to empathise with her frustration. Having seemingly lost the necklace she thinks is the key to enabling her modelling prospects, the baddie storms off in a huff.
When the couple emerge from the shop, the robber returns and stares coldly at the necklace and with disgust at the couple when they kiss. She then takes the opportunity to try and undo the necklace from Miss Lover’s neck, but Brum revs his engine as a warning causing the baddie to abort her initial attempt at the theft. However, when the couple lean in for another smooch the robber quickly sneaks up and succeeds in undoing the necklace from the girlfriend’s neck and promptly dashes down the stairs and flees down the alleyway as Brum gives chase. As she runs, the baddie clutches the necklace in her right hand while happily staring at it before she stumbles across some boxes. Grinning evilly, she knocks some over to slow Brum down. However, the supercar drives straight through them and bowls a bin over with ease much to the robber’s anger. The thief then arrives at the end of the alleyway and desperately looks for some transportation before eying down a scooter. Flashing another evil grin she blocks the woman’s path and orders her off before scooting away as Brum catches up.
As the Big Town Baker exits his shop carrying two trays of cream pies, the robber scoots past and smashes them into his face. For no apparent reason she reverses direction and rides past the hapless baker with Brum hot in her high heels. She then rounds another building and pushes past another man before looking ahead with dismay to see her path being apparently blocked by two workmen moving a piano. Breathing deeply she scoots towards them. The workmen try to get out of her way but they inadvertently keep blocking her by moving in the same direction as her. Giving into rage, she throws the scooter aside and slams her fingers into the piano’s keys disorienting the workmen. She then unceremoniously shoves one of them over before trying to ram Brum with the entire piano. However, the superhero smashes his way through with no trouble.
Up ahead the robber sees the Traffic Policeman who signals for her to stop. In response, she shoves him onto a workwoman’s wheelbarrow. With Brum still trailing her, the thief pushes past another couple and flashes an evil smile when she gets the idea to lose him by using the revolving entrance of the shopping centre in front of her. Unfortunately for her, Brum uses this against her by driving into the revolving door and accelerating its rotator speed. This builds up to the point where the robber is flung out into the air causing her to drop the necklace which lands on Brum’s bonnet ornament. The robber continues to soar into the air before eventually landing in a bottomless trashcan within a filthy alleyway, resulting in a yucky squelch. Dazed and befuddled, she slowly pulls herself up from the bottom of the trashcan with her hair tousled and sees Brum racing towards her. Screaming in terror she tries to run away, but is slowed down by the trashcan her body is imprisoned in. However, Brum takes control of where she runs by flapping his doors close to where she is, causing her to run up the alleyway side-to-side in an awkward fashion.
Before long, she ends up back at the scene of her crime, physically exhausted. Delighted, the boyfriend retrieves the necklace and adorns his girlfriend with it as she smiles at the hapless criminal. In response, the thief angrily, but vainly tries to reach for the loot before the couple passionately kiss. Things get even worse when the robber suddenly sees the Traffic Policeman arriving; being pushed on the wheelbarrow she shoved him onto by the workwoman. Squirming with fear while looking as if she’s going to soil herself, the baddie stands helplessly as the Traffic Policeman arrests her by bear hugging the bin she’s in as she silently screams. In a last ditch effort to avoid the horrors of prison she briefly pretends to be dead, but knowing that her fate is sealed she drops the act. As Brum departs everyone applauds while the robber hunches over in a state of quiet anger and dejection in losing her both her affluent lifestyle and modelling prospects.
Following this, she is subsequently taken to prison where she remains for the rest of the show.
Appearance[]
The Beady-Eyed Robber is a tallish woman with red painted nails, pale skin, dark brown eyes and short blonde brunette hair. She adorns herself in polished black clothes including red leather high heels, a thin coat with a feathery hood and a red waist belt. In her daydream she’s wearing a light pink designer dress with two feathery drapes.
Personality[]
The Beady-Eyed Robber is a highly choleric individual who easily gives into rage and violence when things don’t go her way. This is evident in her reaction to the pearl necklace becoming unavailable and her continuously assaulting people. These traits indicate that she is very spoilt which is consistent with her being a socialite.
The Beady-Eyed Robber is also an evident misanthrope and misandrist as shown by the following scenarios. Firstly, she regards the love and affection shared by her victims with disgust, indicating that she doesn’t believe in true love or relationships. Secondly, she shoves past a harmless couple even though she could’ve just avoided them. Her misandrist traits are showcased by her pushing a male bystander out of the way when she could have just scooted around him, her gratuitously smashing the baker’s pies into his face, her violently shoving a workman onto the ground after he unintentionally gets in her way a few times and fourthly when she deliberately rams the Traffic Policeman onto a wheelbarrow. All of these actions also demonstrate how brazen she is, a point which corroborated by her stealing the necklace in broad daylight with no disguise whatsoever.
She is also shown to be very cowardly when confronted with her arrest as she is immediately overcome by fear. However, her extreme fear of prison can be explained by her being a wealthy socialite who is completely unaccustomed to penal institutions. Additionally, this also reveals a layer of great vulnerability about her, despite her antagonistic tendencies.
The only thing that is a remote redeeming trait is her believing that she needs a pearl necklace to become a model which may indicate a level of insecurity. However, this is refuted by the evident vanity within her daydream.
Tactics and abilities[]
Even for the standards of the Big Town Baddies, The Beady-Eyed Robber is a brazen and reckless crook. In full daylight she swipes the necklace off of Miss Lover’s neck before fleeing. In general she simply tries to outpace or keep ahead of Brum and never bothers to hide or disguise herself.
Her attempts at using the environment to hinder his pursuit are mostly pitiful. The first involved her knocking down some empty boxes into his path while gloating about it. Her arrogance turned to shock and frustration when this proved ineffective which shows how painfully unaware she is when it comes to the effectiveness of her own tactics. The second involved her pushing a piano into Brum’s path which he simply drives through. This instance shows that she is able to use an obstacle to her advantage because the workmen pushing it kept moving it into her way. However, this also shows how dim she really is as she could’ve easily just ran or scooted around them instead of continuing to move in the same side to side direction as them. Additionally, she also tries to duck into a shopping centre to give the supercar the slip. From here she demonstrates the extent of her lacking foresight.
Firstly, when Brum intercepts her attempted escape by pushing against the revolving door causing it to spin, she could’ve ducked to the side into the shopping centre. Instead she kept pushing against the door which causes the momentum to build to the point where she cannot escape it and gets flung out and lands in a trashcan. Secondly, as she emerges from the bin and sees Brum driving up the alleyway and immediately panics before she starts running away while Brum coaches her straight back to the scene of her crime. Less than a minute later the Traffic Policeman arrives and formally places her under arrest. She could have avoided this by simply staying in the bin out of sight until Brum had driven past and then crawl out of it or she could have just stayed where she was after her head emerged from the trashcan when Brum arrived and pretended to be too dazed for Brum to even care. However, in her defence she could not have known that Brum would be speeding up the exact alleyway she was in when she emerged from the trashcan. Regarding the latter, the only way Brum would be able to get her back would be by knocking the trashcan over with her still in it and then rolling it up the alley.
Even her plan to use the necklace to become a model was stupid because she technically wouldn’t need it to do so. She would only have to produce a portfolio of herself in clothes that best suited her appearance before acquiring a client and an agent. As an implied socialite she should’ve known that stealing a necklace to do so was completely unnecessary.
- Strength: The Beady-Eyed Robber is shown to be exceptionally strong, having effortlessly shoved the Traffic Policeman backwards onto a wheelbarrow to avoid getting caught. She even manages to push a piano straight into Brum’s path with no real problems.
- Stamina: The Beady-Eyed Robber demonstrates an above average level of stamina as she was able to sustain a near continuous chase with Brum without faltering while wearing high heels. She is only physically taxed after falling from a great height into a trash can before she is forced back to the scene of her crime while having to carry the trash can around her.
- Exceptional Durability: She is also shown to have a near superhuman level of durability as she was able to survive a great fall without breaking or shattering her ankles, legs or back. This is all the more impressive as she lands in the trashcan feet first while wearing high heels.
- Speed: She also demonstrates a reasonable amount of speed and is even able to pull out a lead on Brum while wearing high heels.
- Scooting: The Beady-Eyed Robber is also skilled in the use of a scooter which she effectively used as a getaway vehicle. However, it didn’t drastically increase her speed.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- As is the case with most Big Town Baddies, her defeat is highly symbolic on the following levels;
- Her falling into a garbage can is foreshadowed by her very first appearance being her emerging from behind a dumpster
- Brum causing her to land in a garbage can mildly foreshadows how she is going to be dumped in prison. This doubly ironic because prison is sometimes referred to as “the can”.
- The squelch of her landing in the bin signifies that her clothes have been spoiled by the bin’s rotting contents. This symbolises how she’s going to rot in prison for her crimes.
- Her being placed under arrest while she is stuck in the rubbish bin shows how she has been reduced to complete trash. This is also a dark irony because she daydreamed about being a supermodel.
- Her landing in a rubbish bin shows how she has been trashed by Brum.
- Another layer of irony of her being first seen sitting amongst the trash even though even though her appearance is immaculate with her evenly applied makeup, well combed hair, polished shoes and her clean black clothes. This contradiction shows how she is complete trash on the inside. Ironically, when she ends up in prison she’ll be eating trash.
- Her hiding in an alleyway wearing a hood while people walk by implies that she has a history of mugging people. Additionally, her evident phobia of prison means that she likely had no prior contact with law enforcement before her arrest.
- She is the first female Big Town Baddie and the first female antagonist to be a thief.
- The Beady-Eyed Robber is a parody/homage to both The Rascally Big Town Robber and The Shadow on the following levels.
- All 3 steal highly valued items in the Big Town.
- All 3 dress in dark clothing.
- All 3 have a well-maintained appearance as both The Rascally Robber and The Shadow are clean-shaven with the latter maintaining a neat moustache. The Beady-Eyed Robber has well-combed and smooth hair and evenly applied makeup with a polished outfit.
- All 3 get arrested in all of their appearances. However, The Rascally Robber and The Shadow appear in 2 episodes whereas The Beady-Eyed Robber is a one-shot villain.
- Additionally, her defeat mirrors elements from how Brum bests The Rascally Robber and The Shadow.
- Her landing a bin which envelops her body with her legs poking out of the bottom is mildly reminiscent of when The Rascally Robber’s body was enclosed in a rug.
- In the same way that Brum catches The Shadow in an alleyway of dumpsters, he also bests The Beady-Eyed Robber by flinging her into a bin in an alley full of dumpsters.
- Additionally, her defeat mirrors elements from how Brum bests The Rascally Robber and The Shadow.
- Her defeat of falling into a trashcan is a foil to Nick and Rob’s similar defeat several episodes earlier. When she lands in a trashcan there is an audible squelch, but when she emerges she isn’t covered in any garbage. However, when Nick and Rob fall into a dumpster there is no comical sound effect that follows, but when the two emerge they are plastered with filthy rubbish. Additionally, The Beady-Eyed Robber is arrested and imprisoned following this whereas Nick and Rob go on to appear in 4 more episodes.
- Although she is the only baddie on Brum to be outright described as “evil” by the narrator, The Beady-Eyed Robber does not qualify as a Pure Evil character because she does nothing that sets her well above the other Big Town Baddies.
- Heather Tyrrell, the actress who portrays her, was also a script researcher for 8 of the show’s episodes.
- This makes it odd that her character never reappeared again.
- During her daydream she has a mole on her face which doesn’t appear again.