once he had finished, as it gave them an excuse to play again); this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero. His appeal was instant and his success prompted rapid development of his role in the series (as from the second 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. A gerbil named Pablo also appeared in the ninth series of "Numbertime" after Juan entered a competition on Radio Flamingo to win a holiday to the seaside resort of Costa Fortuna and won; Juan, Mama, Pedro, Juanita and Maria met him when they arrived at the resort's hotel (because he was their guide to it), and he went on to front a ring-toss stall when they visited its fairground the following week. Although none of the "El Nombre" sketches on "Numbertime" ever had a specific title, those of the first series were introduced by an announcer as "Episodes 1-10" (and they were slightly lengthened for the "revised" edition of that series, in September 1998; the third line of the opening song and his farewell catchphrase were also changed several times, to reflect the series' focus). All twenty-six episodes of the spin-off "El Nombre" series (thirteen in 2001 and a further thirteen in 2003), however, were titled - and their names are listed here. The first six episodes of the first series were aired on BBC One as double bills in the CBBC strand on Fridays at 3:45 pm, while the next seven were aired individually on Wednesdays in the same timeslot; three episodes were later repeated on BBC Two as part of the CBBC Breakfast Show on 1 June, 19 July and 20 July 2001, but neither they, or the other ten episodes of the series, were repeated after that.