RPT-FEATURE-"Bing bang" goes on in Iceland's "Lazy Town"

By Brett Young

GARDABAER, Iceland, Nov 20 (Reuters) - On a quiet Sunday in the "Lazy Town" warehouse, the man many of the world's children know as Sportacus was working up some optimism for Iceland.

"The Icelandic people will have to take huge cuts in terms of salary, housing and lifestyle," said entrepreneur Magnus Scheving -- the brains and considerable energy behind the "Lazy Town" children's television show that has run in close to 120 countries since Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. channel aired it in 2004.

"We are going back 30 years in that sense, but we will rebound quickly," he told Reuters in an interview.

His reaction to Iceland's crisis was in character.

"Sportacus," the show's Web site says, "loves to see others succeed and is disappointed when they won't even try. He looks beyond the status quo and believes there's always a new, unique way to accomplish something. He's a hero-for-all seasons, bringing vim and vigour to a world that's sorely in need of it, an unstoppable wakeup force in a town that's fast asleep."

As the Icelandic economy melts down, "Lazy Town" -- which directly employs just 50 people normally and 160 when the show is in production -- has been bombarded with job applications, many from soon-to-be redundant bankers.

Scheving said he received over 250 work applications in three days in early October, when the country's debt-heavy banks were sucked into the global financial crisis.

These are grim times for Iceland, which after rampant growth expects it could need to borrow some $24 billion over several years to ensure its financial system and currency can function properly again.

Its prime minister said in October the crisis could cost the country 85 percent of 2007 GDP.

The disaster has touched all 300,000 people in this Atlantic island nation, from former high-flyers at now-failed banks like Kaupthing and Glitnir to the fishermen who have traditionally kept Icelanders fed.

"Maybe 60 percent of the people in the United States don't know the name of the banks that went down there," Scheving said. "Every single child in Iceland knows what has happened. They are going to remember so it will not happen again."

ON THE MOVE

At 45, Scheving is arguably Iceland's best-known celebrity after the singer Bjork. The enthusiasm of his ebulliently naive character for "sports candy" -- fruit and vegetables -- soothes parents' consciences as their toddlers goggle at the derring-do of series villain, Robbie Rotten.

Constantly moving about even without his character's trademark tight blue pants, Dali moustache and floppy hat, Scheving's energy is reflected in the Sportacus persona.