Something Special (TV series)

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Something Special is a children's television programme produced and broadcast by the BBC. It is designed to teach children signing supported by Makaton gestures, and is specifically aimed at children with delayed learning and communication difficulties. It is aired on CBeebies (both the separate channel and CBeebies on BBC One and BBC Two).

It is presented by Justin Fletcher ("Justin" from Tikkabilla), and features various other characters (also played by Justin) and clips of disabled children. Justin speaks as well as signing, and a spoken narrative is provided over the clips of children.

The characters played by Justin (other than himself) are the Tumble Family: Mr Tumble, Grandpa Tumble and Baby Tumble. Other members of the Tumble family to have made recent appearances include two Aunts - Polly and Suki (as in the popular nursery rhyme "Polly Put The Kettle On").

The name of the programme derives from the idea that all children, irrespective of their position on the learning spectrum, are special.

A new series for 2006 started on 17th September 2006 and features the same characters as previous series. Mr Tumble can be seen in a school in the opening credits.

In March 2007 it was alleged in a red-top tabloid newspaper by a disgruntled former employee of a charity for the deaf that the show's introduction includes Fletcher signing what was described as "an English word of Anglo-Saxon origins for making love in British Sign Language." Because of that on March 20, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann program named Fletcher as the Worst Person in the World. Both Makaton and the BBC denied these claims, pointing out that "Something Special" does not use British Sign Language and that in the Makaton language, no such sign exists for the claimed profanity. The former employers of the claimant also publicly distanced themselves from his statements, .^{[citation needed]}

Something Special won RTS Education Awards in both 2004 and 2005 and was also nominated for a Children's Bafta Award in the "Best Live Action Pre-School" category.