Fun Song Factory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fun Song Factory | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Children's Pre-School |
| Created by | Ged Allen |
| Starring | Aston Merrygold (as Cookie), Chris Till (as OJ), Kerry Newell (as Cal), Laura Hamilton (as Melody), Polly Parsons (as Page) |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 92 (at present) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Tell-Tale Productions |
| Running time | 25 mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | November 8, 1999 – 2006 |
Fun Song Factory is a British pre school children's show on CITV aimed at youngsters. It was the first songs show that was filmed in front of a live audience of children, and has served as the pre-cursor to shows such as 'The Wiggles' and 'Hi Five'.
It was originally created in 1994 by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan, who later went on to create and produce 'The Tweenies' 'Boo!' 'BB3B!' and 'Jim Jam and Sunny'.
The first production was a sell through video filmed at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, presented by Iain Lauchlan, Sarah Davison and Dave Benson Phillips. The video was a great success, and led to a second being filmed at Chicken Shed in North London, this time presented by Iain, Dave and Michele Durler.
All in all seven videos were shot, selling an unprecedented 750,000 copies in the UK before the series was commissioned by GMTV in 1998. The TV show was originally presented by Justin Fletcher, Katie Stevens and Dave Benson Phillips. This show was nominated for a BAFTA in 1998.
The show worked well until in 2004 CITV commissioned an updated version of the show with the characters listed below.
[edit] Characters
Melody (Laura Hamilton [1]) You can always find Melody in the factory's music room. It's her responsibility to look after all the music in the Factory and to make sure all the musical instruments are tuned, primed and ready to play. She is graceful, perky, trendy and a lot of fun. She will often instigate the new songs and lead through the process of finding the right tune or lyrics.
OJ (Chris Till) You can always find O.J in the factory's workshop fixing things. He understands the factory's workings inside and out, and is always on hand to fix whatever problems might occur. O.J has his own musical toolbelt with musical tools inside, like a percussion set. He is down to earth, fun, physical and offers practical solutions to everything. He helps with the props that the factory produces and joins in the with the songs and routines. He often works with the help of the singing magical paint pot puppets who are always at hand in his workshop.
Cookie (Aston Merygold) You can always find Cookie in the factory's kitchen cooking all the food, feeding all the workers and is always making a mess. He is an all singing, all dancing super chef and knows how to rustle up a good snack and remedies. Cookie has a musical spoon that magically mixes ingredients together to make musical recipes.
Cal (Kerry Newell) You can always find Cal in the factory's dance studio choreographing new dance moves for the new songs Cal wears wrist bands that light up as she dances to the music. She is always lively and takes care of music and dancing to guarantee a fun day's work!
Page (Polly Parsons) Page is the booky one at the Factory! She looks after the archives of the factory and roots out music, lyrics. Page knows every song there is to know.
When the factory offers a prop and wants the Factory gang to sing a song she often has the knowledge to tell everyone what the song may be. Page is a little more serious than the rest of the team and is a fantastic problem solver.
She and the others get on like a house on fire and often solve problems together. Page loves solving the riddles presented by the Factory.
Page's special tool is a musical book which lights up when she turns the pages.
