series in 1995, he was given two sketches per episode) – and since his basic beginning, El Nombre went on to appear in a total of 79 (89, if counting those from the "revised" version of the first series) sketches on Numbertime before gaining a series of his own, acquiring dramatic storylines and a full cast of characters, while continuing to demonstrate mathematical concepts, albeit in a dramatic and entertaining way. The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created. As well as being popular with schoolchildren, El Nombre also developed a cult following amongst students and parents, because of the many references to classic spaghetti Westerns; indeed, his popularity grew so much that in March 2004, the BBC released a 3-minute El Nombre theme song as a single. Characters El Nombre: The eponymous main character of the Numbertime sketches, and the spin-off series they began, El Nombre started his life as an adaptation of Words and Pictures' Magic Pencil (in the sense of showing the viewer how to write numbers as opposed to letters); after showing Juan how to draw from one to ten, he went on to show him how to identify (and draw) shapes, as well as teach him about instances of space and position, addition and subtraction, time and money in his everyday life. Little Juan: A young gerbil whose name was a pun on "little one", Juan started his life being upset about not being able to write numbers and cried until El Nombre arrived to show him how to do it; after learning to draw from one to ten, he could not identify shapes and was despondent about it until El Nombre arrived (first to show him instances of the shapes around the town and second to draw them). He and his friends then got themselves into various dilemmas in their everyday lives, which El Nombre was called on to help them out of. Mama: Little Juan's mother, who usually could not assist Juan with his various mathematical dilemmas until El Nombre had arrived. Pedro Gonzales & Juanita Conchita: Two of Juan's friends, who first appeared in the second series of Numbertime, but were not named until the third; on one occasion in the third series, Pedro professed to be "the greatest goalkeeper in the world"