| In the Night Garden… | |
|---|---|
| Format | Children's television series |
| Created by | Andrew Davenport |
| Developed by | Ragdoll Productions |
| Starring | Holly Denoon, Rebecca Hyland, Nick Chee Ping Kellington, Andy Wareham, Elisa Laghi, Justyn Towler, Isaac Blake |
| Narrated by | Derek Jacobi |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 100 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Andrew Davenport and Anne Wood |
| Running time | 30 minutes approx. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | qubo |
| Original run | 19 March 2007[1] – 6 March 2009[2] |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Brum (TV series) |
In the Night Garden... (usually presented with an ellipsis) is a BBC children's television series, aimed at children aged from one to four years old.[3] It is produced by Ragdoll Productions. Andrew Davenport created, wrote, and composed the title theme and incidental music for all 100 episodes.[4][5] It was produced by Andrew Davenport and Anne Wood, both of whom co-created Teletubbies. The programme is narrated by Derek Jacobi. It is filmed mostly in live action, and features a mix of actors in costumes, plus puppetry and computer animation.
The series was first announced in October 2006, and twenty episodes were first broadcast in March 2007. Two series of 100 episodes (in all) were made, with the BBC confirming in 2010 that it would "not be commissioning another series."[6]
The programme is said by its creators to be designed to relax and entertain its intended audience of one to four-year-olds. One hundred episodes were commissioned by the BBC, with a budget of £14.5 million.[7]
Contents |
The programme features a large cast of colourful characters with unusual names who live in an area of sparsely wooded grassland scattered with large daisies and brightly-coloured balls of flowers. The characters mostly speak short, repetitive phrases. The garden is a sunny, colourful environment. Producer Anne Wood said:
| “ | We wanted to explore the difference between being asleep and being awake from a child's point of view: the difference between closing your eyes and pretending to be asleep and closing your eyes and sleeping. [8] | ” |
Each episode starts with a child in bed (a different child appears in each episode), while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the "Magic Roundabout" style gazebo that sits at the centre of the Night Garden. This story is a summary of the plot of the episode. Sometimes the characters all sing and dance together under the gazebo.
Igglepiggle does not go to sleep, and his goodbye sequence (Igglepiggle's not in bed! ... Squeak! ... Don't worry, Igglepiggle! It's time to go) rounds off the programme. The Night Garden retreats into the night sky and we see Igglepiggle asleep on his little boat as the programme's closing titles roll.
In the Night Garden... is intended to help children relax and achieve calming relationships with parents. Producer Anne Wood stated "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions; but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed... so this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up."[8]
In 2007[9] and 2008[10], the show won the Children's BAFTA for "Secondary-School live action," as well as being nominated in 2009.[11]
IgglePiggle (played by Nick Kellington) is a blue doll with a sideways red mohikan. He always carries his red blanket with him and tends to fall flat on his back when surprised. He is the main character of the show. He arrives at the beginning and leaves the Night Garden at the end of each episode in a boat, for which the blanket doubles as a sail. IgglePiggle does not speak, but he has a bell in his left foot, a squeak in his middle, and a rattle in his left hand, making him act like a silent protagonist. His best friends in the garden are Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka.[12] He is the only character not to sleep in the Night Garden, because he needs to find his boat, with one exception when he fell asleep on Upsy Daisy's bed, and also the only character to walk on the garden path. He was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
Upsy Daisy (played by Rebecca Hyland) is similar to a rag doll, with a brown complexion and brightly coloured clothes. She has her own special bed, and can move around the garden; sometimes Upsy Daisy has to catch her bed when it decides to run away, and then has to stop it. A true girlie-girl, she likes skipping through the Garden, blowing kisses to the other characters or to the audience. Often she will hug and kiss other characters directly (particularly Igglepiggle). Her catchphrases are "Upsy Daisy" and the more emphatic "Daisy Doo!," and she also says "Pip Pip Onk Onk!" (on one other occasion she said "og pog," which is Makka Pakka's line). Her hair stands on end when excited or surprised, and her skirt inflates to a tutu when she dances or pulls the ripcord on her waist. Upsy Daisy has an orange megaphone on a stand and enjoys singing through it, much to the annoyance of the other residents. She was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
Makka Pakka (played by Justyn Towler) is smaller and more round-bodied than any of the other costumed characters, with three rounded protuberances on his head (one on the top and one on each side) to represent stones that he uses to make into piles, and is a creamy colour. He lives in a little cave and likes cleaning things, such as his collection of stacking stones, and sometimes the other characters themselves. Makka Pakka often stacks freshly cleaned stones into piles of three or sometimes more, rather resembling the protuberances on his head and body. He sleeps on a stone bed, often cuddling a smooth flat stone. He travels around the garden pushing his trolley, the Og-Pog. The Og-Pog carries Makka's sponge and soap, his orange trumpet, and a bellows-like apparatus called Uff-Uff which he uses to dry items after cleaning them. His house is approached by a stone-walled ditch, as his home is set half-buried in the ground. He says his own name and the phrase "Mikka makka moo" when he is happy, and also the names of the Og-Pog and the Uff-Uff, and other phrases from his "song" such as "agga pang" (his soap and sponge), "hum dum" (his trumpet), and "ing ang oo." Like Upsy Daisy and the Tombliboos, he also uses a phrase meaning "goodbye," represented in publications as "pip pip onk onk." He was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces." As Makka Pakka is smaller than the other characters, he is filmed on another identical set (or garden), and where he appears with other characters, two scenes are shot in parallel.
The Tombliboos - Unn (Andy Wareham), Ooo (Holly Denoon/Isaac Blake), and Eee (Elisa Laghi) - are like morbidly obese plush dolls dressed in costumes with stripes and spots: red and green (Unn), brown and purple (Ooo), and pink and yellow (Eee). The names Unn, Ooo, and Eee reflect phonetically how a young child might say the numbers One, Two, Three, and the Tombliboos always appear in this order by saying their names. They live among the branches of a large bush, on a series of platforms connected by stairs and chutes. The Tombliboos enjoy playing the drums and keyboard, which they have in their bush home, although not with any particular musical prowess, and they also enjoy playing with their large stacking cubes. Their trousers (which fall down at random moments) are often seen hanging on the washing line outside their bush home, and they usually take them down from the line and put them on before going on an adventure. They often brush their teeth before bed. Tombliboos enjoy kissing each other whilst cuddling and reciting their name Tombliboo. They also have a staying together Tombliboo song, which consists of them singing "Tombliboo, Tombliboo, Unn, Ooo, Eee!" over and over again.. Tombliboo Eee is shorter and smaller than Ooo and Unn and she is a female Tombliboo. They were first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game."
All the above characters are played by actors in costumes.
The Pontipines (red) and The Wottingers (blue) are two families of ten tiny creatures (a mother and a father, plus four boys and four girls) similar to peg dolls (and somewhat similar in appearance to the puppets seen in Camberwick Green and sequels), who live in adjacent semi-detached houses at the foot of a tree. The Pontipines appear in most episodes, while appearances by the Wottingers are rare. The Pontipines all dress in a very similar fashion to each other, as do the Wottingers. Each family sleeps in one room, their beds next to each other in two rows of five. The Pontipines are able to enter their home by flying down the chimney, as well as through the front door. They have no feet. The Pontipines enter the Pinky Ponk through a different door from all the other characters, and stay on a separate deck. The Pontipines and the Wottingers are animated using stop motion animation, using the pictures for the footage. They constantly chatter, making "mi-mi-mi" sounds in a high pitch. Mr Pontipine's moustache occasionally flies off his face and settles on Mrs Pontipine. Mrs Pontipine carries a pair of binoculars around her neck at all times, and she uses them to look for her children when they get lost. The Wottinger father figure lacks the bushy moustache of the Pontipine patriarch. Mrs. Wottinger's hat is of a different design from her red counterpart and the families' clothing, while similar in design, is not identical. The Wottingers can be glimpsed in the general dance sequences, but are not seen going to bed. The Pontipines were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces" and the Wottingers first appeared in the episode "The Pontipine Children in the Tombliboo Trousers."
The Haahoos are five very large inflatable pillow-like creatures of various shapes and colours with eyes and smiling mouths. They move slowly around the garden with deep springy sounds ("boing, boing"). The Haahoos appear behind the gazebo during general dance sequences, and are also seen going to sleep, closing their eyes and deflating slightly. They come in the shape of a flower, an x, a star, a circle and a figure of 8. They were first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game."
The Tittifers are CGI enhanced tropical birds with their own unique songs. There are four small blue Tittifers (Shaft-tailed Finches), three larger pink ones (European hoopoes), two big green ones (White-cheeked Turacos) and one multicoloured toucan (either Channel-billed Toucan or White-throated Toucan) with a huge purple beak. They sing usually between segments, and when they sing together, near the end, it is time to sleep. They were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
The Ninky Nonk is a train of five differently sized and shaped carriages. Its size is paradoxical: exterior shots of the moving Ninky Nonk show a toy-sized train, quite small compared to the main characters and scenery, while interiors and static exterior shots are done on sets or with life-sized models so that the main characters can easily fit inside. When it stops or starts, the seat-belted passengers jerk sharply in their seats. A range of bells and klaxons warn everyone inside. The Ninky Nonk can drive up and down trees and upside-down along branches. It does not go on the rails, but it goes on the land. The Ninky Nonk seems to stop and go on its own and, like the other characters, goes to sleep. The engine is banana-shaped, and is followed by a green spheroidal carriage used by Makka Pakka and the Tombliboos, a tiny house-like carriage used by the Pontipines (and sometimes the Wottingers), a blue rectangular carriage with a flashing light (similar in appearance to the TARDIS from a UK program called "Doctor Who") used by Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle, and a tall rounded single-seater carriage used by Igglepiggle when travelling alone. It was first featured in the episode "Everybody, All Aboard the Ninky Nonk."
The Pinky Ponk is an airship, speckled with many slowly-waving fins and several small propellers that can spin fast, plus a large propeller at the rear that always turns very gently. The characters often use it to travel around the forest, and during their journey are able to drink "Pinky Ponk juice" which is dispensed in "sippi cups."[12] As well as whirrings and clankings, and a sporadic honking sound from the "Ponk light" at the front, the Pinky Ponk makes flatulent noises.[13] Like the Ninky Nonk, the Pinky Ponk is of paradoxical size: exterior shots are chroma keyed model shots showing a model smaller than the main characters, while interior ones are produced on a set into which they can fit. It has two doors, one for the costumed characters and the other for the teeny tiny characters. One table has three seats (for the Tombliboos), another table has two seats (for Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy), and the third has one seat (for Makka Pakka). The Pontipines take a table with 10 seats in the small room, and sometimes the Wottingers will take the table a level lower than the Pontipines. It was first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game."
The Stepping Stone Path is only walked on by Igglepiggle. It leads to the gazebo.[14] It was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
The Daisy Patch is a field full of daisies. Upsy Daisy is usually the only character that can be seen in the patch.[15] It was first featured in the episode "The Pontipines in Upsy Daisy's Bed."
Makka Pakka's cave is where Makka Pakka lives. Outside his cave behind a boulder is where he keeps his Og Pog. It was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces." Makka Pakka often seems to act in the capacity of a park keeper. His song goes like this: "Makka pakka akka wakka mikka makka mooo, makka pakka akka wakka mikka makka moo, hum dum agga pang ing ang ooh, makka pakka akka wakka mikka makka moo!!"
The Tombliboo Bush is where the Tombliboos live. It is the largest house in the garden with so many fun things to do such as playing music, playing with blocks and brushing teeth (like the Pinky-Ponk and the Ninky-Nonk it is bigger on the inside). It was first featured on the outside in "The Tombliboos' Waving Game" and on the inside in the episode "Too Loud Tombliboos!! Nice and Quiet!!"
The Pontipines'/Wottingers' House is a small house at the foot of a tree where the Pontipines and Wottingers live. It was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
The Tune Bridge is a musical bridge located near Makka Pakka's cave. Whenever someone walks on the bridge, it plays a musical tune. It was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces."
The Gazebo is where the characters meet to do a dance at the end of some episodes.[16] It even gives clues to the characters. It has a picture of all the characters (except for the Titiffers), a tree, the tune bridge, the Tombliboo Bush, The Tombliboo's instruments, Igglepiggle's blanket and a rectangle like picture. The first dance was first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game" and it first gave a clue in the episode "Igglepiggle's Blanket in Makka Pakka's Ditch".
The Titiffers branch is where the Tittifers sing at a certain section and at the end of an episode. It was featured in all episodes.
Until 1 April 2008, the show aired on the CBeebies channel every day, including weekends, at 6:25 pm in the "Bedtime Hour" slot, in addition to earlier daytime showings on weekdays (like every other show on CBeebies, the same episodes are shown all day).[17] From April until August 2008, In The Night Garden... was removed from its 6:25 pm "Bedtime Hour" slot, which resulted in a petition asking for the programme to be re-instated to its normal slot.[18] One parent petitioner was quoted by The Daily Telegraph commenting that "My four-year-old refused to believe it was bedtime because ITNG hadn't been on and it was daylight outside."[18]
The show returned to the daily "Bedtime Hour" slot at 6:25 pm as of 30 August 2008, and began showing the second series (beginning with "Slow Down Everybody") on 1 September 2008. From December 2008, the show was moved again, this time to 6:00 pm. As of January 2010, it airs at 6.20 pm.
As of February 2008, in Canada, the show airs daily at 5:30 am on Treehouse TV, Mondays to Fridays at 7:30 pm, and Saturdays at 10:30 am.
As of March 2011, in Australia, the show airs on ABC2 every day at 6:30 pm.
As of October 2008, in India, the show airs every day on the CBeebies channel, including weekends, at 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm.
As of 2008, in Norway, the show airs every weekday on the NRK Super channel, at 5:30 pm.
As of 2009, the show airs on TV2 in Malaysia on weekday mornings at 8:30 am.
As of 2009, the show airs on Luli and Hop! in Israel. Twenty new episodes began broadcasting on CBeebies on 9 February to continue at 6 pm daily.
As of 2010, Series 1 of the show airs daily on Baraem on Nilesat and Arabsat covering the Middle East in Arabic at 7:30 PM.
As of 2010, the show airs on Clan in Spain sometime around 8:30 am on weekdays and around 7:50 am on weekends.
Af of October 11, 2010, In The Night Garden airs on Discovery and Hasbro's children's network The Hub as part of the "HubBub" programming block, the first time the show airs in the United States.
In The Netherlands, it airs on Disney Junior.
In the Night Garden... merchandising, DVDs, Igglepiggle dolls and other ways of "extending the experience" arrived in the shops in the summer of 2007.
Several Region 2 DVDs have been released in the UK:
| DVD Title | Episodes |
|---|---|
| Who's Here? | Makka Pakka Washes Faces Tombliboos Waving Game |
| Hello IgglePiggle! | IgglePiggle's blanket in Makka Pakka's Ditch Jumping for Everybody |
| Hello Upsy Daisy! | Quiet Please Tombliboos!! Upsy Daisy Wants to Sing!! Upsy Daisy Kisses Everything! |
| Hello Makka Pakka! | Makka Pakka's Stone Concert Runaway Og-Pog |
| Hello Tombliboos! | Too Loud Tombliboos!! Nice and Quiet!! The Tombliboos' Busy Day |
| Isn't That A Pip?!? | The Pontipine Children Of The Roof Looking For Each Other |
| Look at That! | IgglePiggle’s Tiddle Makka Pakka’s Piles of Three |
| What Fun! | Sneezing Hide and Seek |
| All Together! | Waving From Ninky Nonk Playing Hiding with Makka Pakka |
| Best Friends | Upsy Daisy’s Tiring Walk Trubliphone Fun |
Each DVD features five episodes.
A Boxset, Hello Everybody!, has been released containing Hello IgglePiggle!, Hello Upsy Daisy!, Hello Makka Pakka! & Hello Tombliboos! Each of these titles have episodes relating to the character the DVD is based on.
The show's makers, Ragdoll Productions, signed a deal to make the toy producer Hasbro a global partner before the show hit the screens. As promised, merchandise arrived in British high streets and supermarkets in July 2007, including small Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka stuffed toys and a small Ninky Nonk train with detachable carriages. Wheeled toy licensee MV Sports & Leisure Limited produced a range of scooters and trikes. Play-doh made some dough that came packaged with an Igglepiggle-shaped cut-out.
In spring 2008, several new toys arrived, including roll-along characters, Talking Cuddly Makka Pakka, Ninky Nonk Pop-up tent and more. Hasbro won the 2008 "Best Licensed Toy or Game range" Licensing Award for their In The Night Garden... range.[19]
In January 2009, a spokesman for the BBC confirmed that they had asked Hasbro to change the skin colour of the Upsy Daisy doll following "a handful of complaints" on the age-inaccurate looking skin color which is dark brown. The doll was released with a noticeably lighter complexion than seen in the television series, as it was based on the animated version of Upsy Daisy.[20]
In the Night Garden Live! started a UK tour in July 2010. The show takes place in an inflatable, purpose-built show dome. Liverpool (Sefton Park) saw the show's world premier followed by London, Glasgow and Birmingham.[21][22]
When the show was being exported to the USA, it was reported that the scenes from some episodes would be cut from them to make room for commercial time. That is because the HubBub channel had to advertise some commercials during the pause of the show. The logo of the show was seen again when it was reminding the fans that it was about to pause for the TV commercials and it also reminds the fans that the show is back on and it will lead to another clip that shows what is happening.