Elvis Cridlington (Seasons 1-5)

Elvis Cridlington is the one of the main characters from the popular children's TV show mh:besttvshows:Fireman Sam. He is one of the firefighters at the Pontypandy Fire Station and has also been assigned the position of station mess manager. He is voiced by John Alderton in the first four seasons and John Sparkes in season 5.

Why He Was Qualified To Be A Fireman

 * 1) He manages to come across as a great sidekick to Sam and while he isn't exactly a "perfect firefighter", but he is shown to be just as good as at his job of being a firefighter as Sam is.
 * 2) His dimwitted and somewhat inattentive personality is enjoyable and memorable.
 * 3) He has tons of memorable lines and quotes, such as "Clear off you bushy-tailed menace!", "It's sort of on the oven isn't it, not uh not in the oven", "I'll be on that roof before you could say a-wap-bup-loop-bup-a-loop-bup-boom!" and most notably "Great Balls of Fire!".
 * 4) He is a pretty funny character and is shown to have some funny moments in the show, like the part where he pretends to be a beast in "Beast of Pontypandy" and the scene in "Carnival of Junk" where Station Officer Steele tries to remember what he did in his childhood, in which Elvis tricks him by making him think that he hunted dinosaurs.
 * 5) He has a passionate love for music and is generally shown to be a pleasant singer for the most part.
 * 6) John Alderton and John Sparkes both do great jobs at voicing him.
 * 7) He's shown to care deeply about the rest of the firefighters and the people in Pontypandy.
 * 8) *In Seasons 3-4, he is shown to have an interesting relationship with Penny Morris, which later evolved into a romantic one.
 * 9) Some of the episodes that focus on him are enjoyable to watch.
 * 10) He is willing to give morals about fire safety to the children, and while not as good as Sam, is shown to be somewhat of a good role model to children.
 * 11) *In fact, he sometimes teaches the children in the show some important fire safety tips, like in the episode "Mummy's Little Pumpkin", where he tells Norman to always be careful with candles in pumpkins and to always blow them out before bedtime.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Even though his character is supposed to be somewhat dumb in the episodes he is presented in, sometimes his dimwitted nature can lead to him acting like an idiot and doing something that a normal firefighter shouldn't normally do:
 * 2) *He once tried to put out a TV fire with a bucket of water in "A Real Live Wire", not realizing that he was supposed to turn the power off before putting out the TV fire.
 * 3) **This is also a continuity error as he previously knew how to put out a TV fire in the Season 4 episode "Disaster for Dinner".
 * 4) He can sometimes be treated as a butt monkey in a few episodes of the series.
 * 5) *The most notable episode to where he is treated like a butt monkey is in "Fit For Nothing", one scene for example had Norman Price turning the speed up on the treadmill that Elvis was using, causing Elvis to fly across the room.
 * 6) His character got flanderized horribly in the CGI era.

Trivia

 * His character is named after the singer Elvis Presley who he idealized as a child and even maintains a similar hairstyle.
 * He appeared in every episode of the show during Seasons 1-5.