Elvis Cridlington (seasons 6-present)

"Elvis was always portrayed as the airhead of the fire brigade, but only every once in a while. Not to the point where a grown man who has decided by his own decisions to take the job as a fireman would be scared out of his wit of being in a helicopter harness! And when Cridlington did something wrong, like say breaking a water tap or damaging a drum? It was because either he was distracted by his love of music while he was doing his job, or he was trying to do the right thing, but it went wrong by accident. But now, he seems to be in absolute retard mode to the point where he feeds his dog chocolate, mistaking it for doggy treats, and not knowing that it could've made "Radar" here very sick, along with his retarded voice."

- James A. Williams

Elvis Cridlington is one of the main characters from the children's TV show Fireman Sam.

He was good in the first five seasons of the show, but then he was unfortunately flanderized beginning with series 6.

Why He Isn't Qualified To Be A Fireman Now

 * 1) In the first five seasons of the show, he was portrayed as a somewhat dimwitted, yet friendly firefighter, but since series 6, he became an idiotic man who acts like an absolute knucklehead.
 * 2) He is portrayed as a comic-relief in most of the episodes he is in, which is not only unfitting for his character, but also unnecessary because Elvis was still a funny character in the first five seasons of the show, so trying to make a comic-relief so that he could be more "funnier" was a poorly executed idea.
 * 3) *But somehow, he is less funnier than he was in the first five seasons, and most of the attempts at trying to make him funny are more frustrating than laughter-worthy.
 * 4) He completely sucks at doing his job as a firefighter and is seemingly unable to do anything right, while it is true that in the first five seasons he sometimes made some mistakes or even did things that a normal firefighter wouldn't do (for example: he tried to put out an electrical fire with a bucket in A Real Live Wire, and often messing up dinner like in Trevor's Training), but it was only every once in a while, but since series 6, he now does these things on a regular basis:
 * 5) *In "Model Plane", he is scared of being in a helicopter harness, even though firefighters are not supposed to be scared when being in one.
 * 6) *In the premiere episode for series 6, "Paper Plane Down", when he spots the stove on fire, instead of getting an extinguisher, he calls the fire department. Do we really have to explain what's wrong with that?
 * 7) *In "Fox on the Run", he mistook chocolate for doggy treats and didn't even know that it could have made Radar the fire station dog very sick and could have even killed him.
 * 8) *In "Froggy Fantasy", he kept losing control of whatever he was doing when he ended up sneezing, even to the point where he accidentally pressed a button on Tom Thomas' helicopter and even nearly crashed in a rescue tender, while it is true that you can somewhat lose control when you are sneezing, you don't lose THAT much control.
 * 9) *In "Norman's Big Fossil Adventure", he believed that Station Officer Steele was going to cut him or Penny from the Fire Service and he spent the entire episode trying to purposely lose his job as a firefighter, not realising that Station Officer Steele was actually making a decision to cut Elvis or Penny out of the picture he has because there wasn't enough room for both of them in the frame he had.
 * 10) His UK voice is rather annoying to listen to and it sounds like Steven Kynman trying to impersonate Elvis' voice from series 5, but failing miserably as a result.
 * 11) Much like most of the other characters who were redesigned in series 6 of Fireman Sam, his character redesign is pretty poor and ugly-looking.
 * 12) *Although his redesign is not the absolute worst, he still looks quite different from his counterpart in the stop-motion era of the show.
 * 13) At certain points, he can act extremely immature for his age.
 * 14) *The biggest example is when he treated the fire station dolly like a real person in 'Floating Cart.'
 * 15) It's never explained in any episode as to why Elvis acts like a complete idiot in these series, considering the fact he never acted this stupid in the first five series, it makes fans of Fireman Sam confused out of their minds as to why Elvis is such a knucklehead in these series.
 * 16) *Even if you consider series 6-present non-canon to Fireman Sam, it still doesn't save the fact that it still makes the viewers question why Elvis chose to be a firefighter, even though he is clearly not suited to be one.
 * 17) Much like Norman Price, his character has had zero character development in the entire series since series 6, and has barely gained any competence throughout the entirety of the CGI seasons, even in series 13, he still acts the exact same as he has always been since the switch to CGI in series 6.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite his flanderization, he is still friendly to the other firefighters and to the town of Pontypandy and he still tries to help anyone that is in trouble.
 * 2) *During "The Great Fire of Pontypandy", he once even risked his own life by leaping across to save Sam from getting hit by a burning branch.
 * 3) *Say what you will about him trying to purposely lose his job over a false assumption in "Norman's Big Fossil Advenuture", at least it does show that he cares deeply for Penny and that he will do anything to try and make sure that she doesn't lose her job as a firefighter.
 * 4) Though rarely, he can have a few funny moments here and there, like the scene in "Elvis Sings the Blues" where he goes to help Station Officer Steele and Norman Price, who are stuck in railings, while pretending to use his wheelchair as a fire engine and to repeatedly yell "nee naw, nee naw!".
 * 5) He still has a passionate love for music and for playing the guitar, much like in the previous seasons.
 * 6) Even though his voice in the UK dub is bad, at least Andrew Hodwitz (who is the actor for Elvis in the US dub) does a more good-to-decent at voicing him when compared to Steve Kynman in the UK.
 * 7) He was a much better character in the first five seasons.