Alfonso Bonzo

{{Multiple issues| {{No footnotes|date=May 2025}} {{more citations needed|date=May 2025}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox television | image = | caption = | runtime = 25mins | creator = Andrew Davies | starring = {{Plainlist| * Alex Jennings * Mike Walling }} | country = United Kingdom | language = English | network = BBC1 | first_aired = {{Start date|1990|01|04|df=yes}} | last_aired = {{End date|1990|02|08|df=yes}} | num_series = 1 | num_episodes = 6 }}

[[File:Alfonso Bonzo.jpg|thumb|left|First edition (publ. Methuen)]]

'''''Alfonso Bonzo''''' is a 1986 British children's book by Andrew Davies. A television adaptation was broadcast on BBC 1 starring Alex Jennings as Alfonso Bonzo and Scott Riley as Billy Webb.

Billy Webb is a young boy who likes to swap things with his schoolmates. He meets Alfonso Bonzo, an "Italian exchange student" who also has a talent for swapping things (thus his self-description: he is an Italian student who exchanges things). Alfonso offers Billy a variety of temporary swaps to demonstrate his abilities: Billy's boring old dog for a greyhound that does ballet, the wonky Webb family television for a new model with a button that lets the viewer become part of the action, Billy's battered schoolbag full of unfinished homework for a brand new schoolbag containing a file folder that magically produces finished homework, but, each swap has disadvantages as well as advantages, and Alfonso Bonzo cuts an increasingly sinister figure as he leads up to one last swap, this one for keeps.

The television series later had a spinoff called ''Billy Webb's Amazing Story'', featuring Billy's further (non-Alfonso-related) adventures, broadcast in 1991.

==Cast==

*Scott Riley as Billy Webb *Alex Jennings as Alfonso Bonzo *Mike Walling as Trevor Trotman *Susan Porrett as Mrs. Webb *Fleur Taylor as Linda Webb *Gil Brailey as Mrs. Peasgood *Brian Hall as Mr. Webb

==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0462077|title=Alfonzo Bonzo}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071113082911/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/18912 BFI Film & TV Database entry]

Category:1986 British novels Category:1990 British television series debuts Category:1990 British television series endings Category:1990s British children's television series Category:British children's novels Category:BBC children's television shows Category:1990s British television miniseries Category:English-language British television shows Category:British television shows based on children's books Category:Fictional Italian people in literature Category:1986 children's books Category:Methuen Publishing books