| Balamory | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Brian Jameson |
| Developed by | Balamory Ltd |
| Starring | Julie Wilson Nimmo Miles Jupp Kasia Haddad Buki Akib Juliet Cadzow Andrew Agnew Rodd Christensen Mary Riggans Kim Tserkezie |
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Language(s) | English, Turkish, and Spanish |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Brian Jameson, Balamory Ltd |
| Running time | 39 minutes |
| Distributor | BBC Scotland; BBC |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One, BBC Two, CBeebies and qubo |
| Picture format | 16:9 Widescreen |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | 2002 – 2005 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Balamory was a live action television series on British television (BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies) for pre-school children, based around the fictional small island community of Balamory in Scotland. It was produced between 2002 and 2005 by BBC Scotland, with 254 episodes (Including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode) made. The series was created by Brian Jameson.
Balamory was filmed mostly in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, with the exception of scenes at Archie's castle filmed at Fenton Tower in North Berwick.
A select series of episodes was shown for two brief seasons in the United States on the Discovery Kids channel. It was also shown on TLC. Episodes were shown until recently on weekdays on RTÉ Two's The Den and continue to be shown on The Den's replacement, RTÉjr.
Contents |
Other than Suzie Sweet and Penny Pocket, who share a building and run pocket and sweet a shop set in Balamory, each main character has their own house in the town, and each house has a distinctive colour. The colour of each character's house is the same as the clothes they wear with the exception of Penny Pocket, who lives in the Red House but wears blue, and PC Plum, who lives in the white house but wears a police uniform. They also have their own songs which they often sing during their appearances in the programme.
| Character | Actor | Role | House |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miss Hoolie | Julie Wilson Nimmo | Nursery teacher | Green house |
| Archie | Miles Jupp | Inventor | Pink castle |
| Josie Jump | Buki Akib; replaced by Kasia Haddad in 2005 | Fitness instructor | Three-storey yellow house |
| Edie McCredie | Juliet Cadzow | Bus driver | Blue garage/house |
| PC Plum | Andrew Agnew | Policeman | White and black police station |
| Spencer | Rodd Christensen | Painter/Musician | Orange house |
| Suzie Sweet | Mary Riggans | Shop and café workers | Red building |
| Penny Pocket | Kim Tserkezie |
A typical episode begins with Miss Hoolie opening the nursery and telling the audience what the weather is like in Balamory today, and then meeting one of the other main characters who has a "problem" that can be solved by visiting another main character. The main character with the problem sings and dances to a calypso-style song to decide which of the coloured houses "is the one for me" (i.e. is the one where the helpful character lives), and then makes a procession of visits to various characters until the problem is solved. For example, Josie Jump is looking after her neighbour's rabbit and needs to know how to look after it, so she goes to visit PC Plum who advises her to feed it some vegetables. Josie then decides to go to Pocket and Sweet to buy some rabbit food, then takes the rabbit to the nursery so the children can look after it.
At each visit, the progress of the story to date is summarised by drawing a rainbow of balloons in the air with the hands. The balloons burst to reveal a flashback summary of today's "story in Balamory" narrated by the visitor. The entire story is also summarised at the end of each programme by Miss Hoolie.
Each episode of Balamory contains at least four songs;
The programme is aimed at pre-schoolers. The programme's creator had intended it as a "soap opera for children".[1] The show can also be seen in a humorous light. The characters in Balamory are somewhat naive and light-hearted; often appearing to be children trapped in adult bodies with adult roles. The entire storyline often revolves around problems which seem obvious and simple to older viewers.
There are many songs in Balamory, mainly sung by the actors. These songs are used consistently throughout the series when characters or circumstances are introduced to the episode. In the run starting from October 2004, new songs were introduced. These songs are longer and take up more time in the episode, so the old versions are still used often.
Corpus Christie Primary School Choir, Knightswood, Glasgow sang the theme tune 'What's The Story In Balamory?'
In addition to the character-specific songs mentioned above, there are many more general songs:
Some of these songs are available on a CD named Balamory: Strike Up The Band.
| Song | Used/character | Series |
|---|---|---|
| What's The Story In Balamory? | Main theme | All |
| Nursery Song (Everybody, Everyone) | Nursery and work day – Miss Hoolie | All |
| What Do You Want To Do Today? | Day off – Miss Hoolie | 1–2 |
| Strike Up The Band | Day off – Miss Hoolie | 3–4 |
| Coloured House Song | 10 slight variations Archie PC Plum Spencer Josie Jump Penny and Suzie (both individually and together) Edie McCredie |
All |
| I'm Archie, The Inventor | Archie | 1–2 |
| Great Inventions, Groovy Solutions | Archie | 3–4 |
| I'm PC Plum | PC Plum | 1–2 |
| Follow The Clue | PC Plum | 3–4 |
| Climbing Up My Musical Ladder | Spencer | 1–2 |
| If You Need A Little Rhythm | Spencer | 3-4 |
| Josie Jump Is My Name (Jump a Little Higher) | Josie Jump | 1–2 |
| Cheer You Up | Josie Jump | 3–4 |
| I'm Suzie Sweet, I'm Penny Pocket | Suzie Sweet/Penny Pocket | 1–2 |
| Suzie's Cooking | Suzie Sweet | 3–4 |
| Penny's Song | Penny Pocket | 3–4 |
| When I Honk My Horn | Edie McCredie | 1–2 |
| Let Me Take You On A Journey | Edie McCredie | 3–4 |
Very few episodes feature actors other than the main characters and the children. Terry Wogan made a guest appearance in one episode (The Game Show) as a television director. This episode also features Greg Hemphill who is Julie Wilson Nimmo's husband in real life, and John Altman who plays Nasty Nick Cotton in Eastenders. Keith Floyd also appears in Suzie Sweet's song "Suzie's Cookin'".
Occasionally, the shots of children entering the nursery are cut down for repeats for time reasons.
On 30 May 2005 the BBC announced that it would not order another season of the series, citing they wanted to experiment and create more new programme ideas. In that very same year the cast of Balamory went on tour named 'The Balamory Tour'.
Balamory was often parodied on the programme Dead Ringers. Sketches included CSI: Balamory, the declaring of Balamory North in the 2005 UK General Election and the depressing 'real' drama, Balamory.
In Tooth and Claw, a 2006 episode of the sci-fi series Doctor Who which is set in 1879 Scotland the Tenth Doctor pretends to be a "Doctor James McCrimmon of the township of Balamory".
In the BBC Three sketch comedy series Little Britain Andy (an overweight adult man who pretends to be disabled so he can sit in a wheelchair) watches Balamory in the last episode of the third series whilst singing the opening song.
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