Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom
Also known as Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom
Genre Fantasy
Supernatural
Created by Mark Baker & Neville Astley
Directed by Mark Baker
Neville Astley
Phillip Hall (2012)
Joris van Hulzen (2012)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 2
No. of episodes 63 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) Phil Davies
Running time 52 x 11 minutes
Distributor E1 Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel (United Kingdom) : Nickelodeon
First shown in United Kingdom
Original run April 2009 – present
Chronology
Related shows Peppa Pig
External links
Website

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom is a British animated pre-school children's television series set in an enchanted magical kingdom with fairies, elves and insects.

It is broadcast across Nickelodeon's 43 international channels throughout Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

The show is created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker, and produced by Phil Davies at Astley Baker Davies - the company responsible for Peppa Pig. Many of the actors who lend their vocal skills to characters in Peppa Pig also work on Little Kingdom. These include John Sparkes, Sarah Ann Kennedy, David Rintoul and David Graham. The music is by Julian Nott who is noted for his "Wallace and Gromit" scores.

Setting The show is set in the Little Kingdom. The Little Kingdom has a population of Elves who live in The Great Elf Tree, an oak tree set with windows and laid out like an apartment block. The Fairy population lives in the fairy village in houses made out of toadstools. The Kingdom is ruled by King and Queen Thistle who live in the Little Castle. Others who live in the Kingdom are the Dwarves who live in the old dwarf mine, Mrs Witch and Mr Gnome. The Elves run a factory under the Great Elf Tree where they make toys and wands in the wand factory. The Elves also run the Elf Farm and a windmill.

Characters

Ben is an elf and one of the main characters alongside Princess Holly. He lives with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Elf. He lives in the Great Elf Tree, number 4. He can be quite tentative when it comes to using magic. Ben wears a blue shirt, a blue pair of shorts and blue triangular hat with an oak leaf sticking out and has red hair. Ben is a young Elf. He has many friends, and his best friend is Princess Holly.
Ben is voiced by Preston Nyman.

Holly is a fairy and one of the main characters alongside Ben Elf. She lives with her parents, King and Queen Thistle, and with her little sisters, Daisy & Poppy. She likes to use magic despite the risk of things going wrong. Her best friend is Ben Elf. She wears a pink dress, a small crown, and has blonde hair.
Holly is voiced by Sian Taylor.

King Thistle rules over the Little Kingdom. He is the husband of Queen Thistle and Princess Holly, Daisy, and Poppy's father. He is often hungry and grumpy, and sometimes hates having a bath. He has no hair, but he does have a brown beard. He wears a brown shirt and has a dark yellow crown.
King Thistle is voiced by Ian Puleston-Davies.

Queen Thistle is the Queen in the Little Kingdom and the wife of King Thistle. She is Princess Holly, Daisy, and Poppy's mother. Queen Thistle does not appear as often as Holly, but she is very responsible and she is not angry most of the time. She wears a turquoise dress and has a shiny crown and has blonde hair. Queen Thistle is Queen Marigold's younger sister.
Queen Thistle is voiced by Sara Crowe.

Holly's cheeky little twin sisters. They're not very good at magic but doesn't stop them from trying, They are quite cheeky and usually end up causing trouble with magic. Daisy wears a yellow dress while Poppy wears a red dress and they both have brown hair. As Daisy and Poppy are very naughty, Holly sometimes dislikes her sisters.
Daisy and Poppy are voiced by Zoe Baker.

Nanny Plum is Holly, Daisy and Poppy's nanny and 'teacher', and a general housekeeper for the King and Queen. She is very good at magic and capable of speaking many animal languages (including ones which she claims to be a bit difficult such as Mole, Aardvark, Ant, Centipede and Alien). She often ends up into all kinds of trouble which she was trying to prevent Holly and friends from getting into. She is also a tooth fairy. She wears a purple dress and has black hair. Although being quite bossy, she is very good at cleaning with magic. She rivals the Wise Old Elf. She is a teacher at the Fairy School and also works as a maid.
Nanny Plum is voiced by Sarah Ann Kennedy.

An elf that lives in the same tree as Ben at the top in room 98. He also is the Wise Old Tailor, the elf doctor and the librarian. He also runs the Elf School and The Elf factory. His hat contains an oak leaf. He rivals Nanny Plum and strongly disapproves of magic. The Wise Old Elf's real name is Cedric. He has a twin brother, an Arctic Elf named The Wiser Older Elf.
The Wise Old Elf is voiced by David Graham.

Mr. Elf is Ben Elf's father. His job is to deliver items to various places such as food to the castle as well as working for the elf farm. Mrs. Elf complains he always works too hard. He likes all fairies. He is often grumpy.
Mr. Elf is voiced by John Sparkes.

Mrs. Elf is Ben Elf's mother. She has a lily leaf and a flower in her hat and she has brunette hair. Originally one of the smarter characters, as the show progresses she becomes one of the sillier characters.
Mrs. Elf is voiced by Judy Flynn.

Gaston is a male ladybird who lives in a small cave. He likes his house being messy as well as food that is "smelly and foul". He doesn't mind giving Ben rides when Ben needs to fly. Nanny Plum translates for him quite often. He acts quite similar to a dog, making a barking sound when he 'speaks', and fetching sticks. Gaston has two nieces, Amber and Emerald, and a nephew, Keith.
Gaston is voiced by Taig McNab, who is also credited as Editor for Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom and Peppa Pig.

Violet is a fairy who is one of Holly's friends. She wears a violet dress and has violet hair.
Violet is voiced by Lucy Moss.

Strawberry is a fairy who is one of Holly's friends. She wears a light green dress and has red hair.
Strawberry is voiced by Zara Siddiqi.

Fleur is a fairy who is one of Holly's friends. She wears a red dress, a red bow and has black hair.
Fleur is voiced by Alice May.

Rosie is a fairy and is one of Holly's friends. She wears a blue dress and has black hair. Rosie is voiced by Oriana Pooles in season 1, and Chaniya Mahon in season 2.

Tangerine is a fairy and is one of Holly's friends. She wears a dark orange dress and has orange hair. Tangerine is voiced by Oriana Pooles.

Dorothy is a fairy and is one of Holly's friends. She wears a periwinkle dress and has dark blue hair. Dorothy is voiced by Lucy Moss.

Barnaby is an elf and is one of Ben's friends. He has a sister called Nettle. He wears a brown shirt and brown shorts. He likes to play football. His hat has a wheat leaf in it. He has blond hair and his uncle is Redbeard, a pirate.
Barnaby is voiced by Stanley Nickless.

Jake is an elf who is one of Ben's friends. He wears a grey hat with a yellow leaf on it . Jake is voiced by Jonny Butler.

Oli is an elf who is one of Ben's friends. He wears a green hat with a green leaf on it. Oli is voiced by Oliver May.

Lizzy is an elf who is one of Ben's friends. She wears a hat with a pink flower in it.
Lizzy is voiced by Cecily Bloom.

Granpapa Thistle is King Thistle's father. He is a fairy with a white moustache who lives in a castle in the clouds and his real name is Victor.
Granpapa Thistle is voiced by Alexander Armstrong.

Granny Thistle is King Thistle's mother and also Granpapa Thistle's wife. She is a playful fairy whose real name is Millicent. Granpapa and Granny Thistle were Wise Old Elf's college classmates long time ago.
Granny Thistle is voiced by Morwenna Banks.

King and Queen Marigold are relatives of the royal Thistle family. Holly and her family fear that they are "boring and snooty" yet their characteristics often turn into the opposite. King Marigold wears a blue-white-red shirt, purple pants with yellow ankles and has a dark yellow crown, and Queen Marigold wears a gold dress with pink stars and turquoise ankles and has pink hair. Queen Marigold is Queen Thistle's older sister.
King and Queen Marigold are voiced by John Sparkes and Morwenna Banks, respectively.

King and Queen Marigold's son, King and Queen Thistle's nephew and Holly, Daisy and Poppy's cousin. He wears a red-white shirt, blue pants with purple ankles and a dark yellow crown, and has brown hair. He's a fairy. He has two twin brothers, Lettuce and Carrot.

Prince Sam is voiced by Richard Ridings.

Barnaby's pirate uncle. He claims to be a pirate, yet is good in nature. He is polite but often overdoes it, such as by kissing Nanny Plum's palm every time he talks to her. He wears a pirate hat.
Redbeard is voiced by David Rintoul.

One of Daisy and Poppy's friends. He is featured in "The Party" and refers to himself in the third person, (e.g."Tarquin likes parties!"). He is Marta and Sid's brother who come to Daisy and Poppy's magical party.
Tarquin is voiced by Jonny Butler.

One of Daisy and Poppy's friends. She is featured in "The Party". She is Strawberry's rude little sister who also has a rude wand that sticks its tongue out. She has red hair.
Raspberry is voiced by Abigail Daniels.

One of Daisy and Poppy's friends. She is featured in "The Party". She is Barnaby's little sister. She has a stinging nettle in her hat which stings every time a person touches it. She continuously stings King Thistle.

A Garden Gnome who is featured in several episodes. He likes to eat and sleep.
Mr. Gnome is voiced by David Graham

An enormous fish that Mr. Elf has tried to capture many times. Holly, King Thistle and Ben tried to capture him despite Mr. Elf's warnings and they too were no match.
Big Bad Barry is voiced by Richard Ridings.

Lucy is a human girl (considered a 'giant' to the citizens of the little kingdom) and one of Ben and Holly's friends. She lives with her parents.
Lucy is voiced by Abigail Daniels.

A black and white dog who is Lucy's pet. He starts licking the Wise Old Elf every time he sees him.

Mrs. Fig is Holly's magic school teacher and all the other elves and fairies go to magic school as well. Holly and her friends are old enough to go there. Mrs. Fig is often grumpy that the Wise Old Elf made a jelly flood in the magic school. Mrs. Fig is voiced by Morwenna Banks.

Mrs. Fotheringill is Daisy and Poppy's playgroup teacher. She is featured in Daisy and Poppy's Playgroup.

Captain Squid is an Elf Pirate and one of the Wise Old Elf's sons. He is always in competition with his brother Redbeard, who is also an Elf Pirate.
Captain Squid is voiced by Andy Hamilton.

This character is based on Boris Johnson, the mayor of London.[1] Fairy Mayor is voiced by Alexander Armstrong.

She is the teacher at Lucy's school and once locked Ben and Holly in a drawer! She too is a big person, who only knows about the little kingdom.
Miss Cookie is voiced by Naomi Wilkinson.

Geography

At the start of every episode a map is shown and the Wise Old Elf will say "Today's adventure starts at the (Setting of the episode)" At the very centre of the map is The Meadow. Other locations include:

In the episode Picnic on the Moon, the Wise Old Elf says "Today's adventure starts in outer space." The map says that the Little Kingdom is located in Mercia, United Kingdom.

Each area of the trees that surround The Little Kingdom are named as:

Written Language

Most of the text seen the episodes is in Lorem ipsum, a dummy text used in the printing industry and based on Latin. However, English text does occasionally appear. There are also some examples of a runic script (loosely based on Futhorc) that appear in the dwarf mine and in secret tunnels beneath the little castle.[2]

Voice cast

CharacterVoiceMagic Gender
Ben ElfPreston NymanMale Elf
Princess HollySian TaylorFemale Fairy
Gaston the LadybirdTaig McNabMale Ladybird
Nanny PlumSarah Ann KennedyFemale Fairy
King ThistleIan Puleston-DaviesMale Fairy
Queen ThistleSara CroweFemale Fairy
Mrs ElfJudy FlynnFemale Elf
Mr ElfJohn SparkesMale Elf
Wise Old ElfDavid GrahamMale Elf
VioletLucy MossFemale Fairy
StrawberryZara SiddiqiFemale Fairy

Episodes

List of Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom episodes

References

1.

  1. ↑ Buchanan, Kirsty (2 December 2012). "Boris Johnson has new role in Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom". www.express.co.uk. Northern and Shell Media Publications. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtPHIU8Tj2I?t=5m10s

http://www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/littlekingdom/explore.aspx

External links