Religion was too much – Beloved Rölli got a dull boarding pass from Yle –

Allu Tuppurainen has become known for his Rölli character. Juha Veli Jokinen

Rölli, a fairy tale character loved by Finns, was first seen on Yle TV2 in September 1986. The character who lives in Röllimetsä got into many different adventures, and was not spared from funny antics.

The character was created by Allu Tuppurainen, who himself played the main role in the series. In 2006, Finns even voted Rölli as the most popular fictional character.

The sixth production season of the series was the last, after which Rölli has only ventured into movies. Tuppurainen’s daughter Heta Tuppurainen says now in his news book My father, Rölli (Docendo) what happened to the popular TV series in the end.

The book shows that Allu Tuppurainen wrote new Rölli episodes for Pikku Kakko in 2014. The episodes dealt with war, media and smart devices, among other things.

However, the episodes were never made.

Father sent the manuscripts to Pikku Kakkone, but received a message in response, the tone of which was too strict for him and required too many edits and flexes, which he was not ready to do. One such was the treatment of war. The word war should have been changed.

The war horn episode is funny, the answer was heard, but in these times I wouldn’t talk to children about war, but more about arguments/disagreements and coming to terms. As such, the episode ends in a fun and positive way.

The fact that the Rölli stories dealt with religion also rubbed off on Ylea.

In the father’s opinion, Rölli does not deal with religion, in the opinion of Pikku Kakkonen, he does. The program reportedly does not serve any kind of religion today. The ban also extends to terms that incite religion in one way or another. Panna (whoops) includes forest spirits, fortune-telling, horoscopes, levitation and angels, among others.

In Allu Tuppurainen’s opinion, the cooperation between Rölli and Pikku Kakkonen had come to an end.

He wasn’t ready to give up the character’s distortions and punk spirit. His reply message to Pikku Kakkonen ended like this: It’s a pity that this happened. I’m not saying I’m right, but I can’t do too much against myself either. That would feel like selling the soul (oops! religion.).

Heta Tuppurainen: Isäni, Rölli (Docendo, 2024) will be released on October 17. Italicized passages are direct quotes from the book.