Bananas in Pyjamas star claims iconic B1 and B2 costumes stolen by Russian mobsters

A Bananas in Pyjamas star has told how the Russian mafia allegedly tried to skin the ABC for $100,000 while holding the show’s famous costumes hostage.

Kenneth Radley, who played B1 in hit 90s kids’ show, said he learned recently that the suits were stolen during a global marketing trip around the world.

And it was going to cost big to get them back.

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“They took the banana suits all around the world to get photographs at iconic places, they just put dancers or somebody in the suits,” Radley told The Final Encore podcast.

“It was (head of marketing and franchising) Grahame Grassby who took the suits to Russia and it was just him and the suits and the suits went missing in their road cases.”

‘$100,000 ransom’

Radley, who starred as B1 for a decade, said the costumes had been “stolen by the Russian mafia in Moscow” and “we didn’t even know this until recently”.

“This is true - a ransom note (was) given to (Grassby) saying we want $100,000 Australian for you to get the suits back,” Radley explained.

“Grassby’s gone ‘What? I’m a marketing man here and now I’m dealing with the mafia’.

“So somewhere in Russia right now there’s two banana suits.”

Radley told News Corp the costumes cost $20,000 to make and that Grassby was walking a briefcase with that amount of cash to a mafia handover when he thought better of it.

He instead got on a plane and left Russia with the money but not the famous suits.

“(B2 actor) Nicholas (Opolski) and I were improvising what B1 and B2 would be saying to each other down in the gulag,” Radley told the podcast after learning about the international abduction plot.

“Unknown (story) - this is a brand new thing.”

A Bananas in Pyjamas star claims the costumes were stolen and held hostage by Russian mobsters. Credit: Mick Tsikas/AAPIMAGE

Radley, an accomplished actor who has also appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Rabbit-Proof Fence, went on to explain how he continues to be asked about the program by kids who “Google you”.

“They are mad about Bananas in Pyjamas today. We stopped shooting the thing in 2002 so it’s so long after and the enduring effect and the solid presence of Bananas in Australian culture makes me so proud,” he said.

“We made a real difference to a lot of people’s lives, a lot of kids’ lives and it was a beautiful thing to do.”