Tweenies

Tweenies
Created by	Will Brenton Iain Lauchlan
Developed by	Tell-Tale Productions for BBC Worldwide
Starring	Body actors Simon Grover Jenny Hutchinson Angela Reynolds Voice/Animatronics Justin Fletcher Bob Golding Coleen Daley Emma Weaver
Opening theme	"Are You Ready to Play?"
Ending theme	"Are You Ready to Play?" (instrumental)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	390 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Judy Whitfield Clare Elstow
Producer(s)	Kay Benbow Robin Carr Iain Lauchlan Will Brenton Karl Woolley
Camera setup	Davy Johnson
Running time	18-20 minutes
Distributor	BBC, HIT Entertainment
Release
Original network	BBC CBBC CBeebies
Picture format	16:9
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	6 September 1999 (1999-09-06) – 24 July 2002 (2002-07-24)
External links
Website

Tweenies is a British children's television programme, originally broadcast on the BBC's CBBC programming block. The children's TV show first aired on 6 September 1999 with Tweenie Band and finished with its last episode, What Makes Summer? that aired on 24 July 2002. Episodes of the programme have been repeated since; first on CBBC until CBeebies was formed on 11 February 2002 & occasionally on BBC2.

Overview and history

The idea for the programme came from Iain Lauchlan and Will Brenton, a pair with a track record of being involved in BBC children's programming. Together with Karl Woolley and Helen Cadwallader they set up Tell-Tale Productions at Elstree Film Studios in Hertfordshire. Iain Lauchlan was a presenter on Play School, Fingermouse and Playdays, meeting Brenton, a director, writer and also a presenter, during the latter. Together they started producing two of the Playdays strands before forming their own production companies Tell-Tale Productions and, more recently, Wish Films. They also created The Fun Song Factory, Boo!, BB3B, Jim Jam and Sunny, Basil Hair The Squirrel and Entertainment Right's The Magical Lives of Toys.

Tweenies is a production of Tell-Tale Productions in association with the BBC. Animation for the show was produced by A Productions, an animation studio based in Bristol, England, with Ealing Animation providing some animation in a few early episodes. Computer animation for the series was provided by Clockwork Digital, with Ben Mars animating Mungo, the computer creature who appears in some later episodes.

The characters are well developed and children are able to predict what their responses might be. The mixture of story, song and creative activity provides excellent opportunities for children to learn through play. Music plays an important part in the programme and children are encouraged to join in with songs and actions.

The programme is set in a playschool attended by the four Tweenies themselves: Bella, Milo, Fizz and the youngest, Jake. They are in the care of two adults, Max and Judy, and two dogs - Doodles & Izzles.

The show includes a "Tweenie Clock", with five circular lights arranged in a pentagonal shape with the lights denoting "News Time" (Circle Time in USA) - Orange, "Messy Time" - Blue, "Song Time" - Yellow, "Telly Time" (Video Time in USA) - Green and "Story Time" - Red. "Surprise Time" is a special time determined when all five lights glow. A button at the centre of the clock (Purple) is pressed to select the activity that will be undertaken next.

It is currently being shown on CBeebies, the BBC's channel for young children. Like a number of other CBeebies programmes, a live stage version of the show has toured in the UK. The most recent tour, Top of the Tots, toured the British Isles during 2009, the series' 10th anniversary. In addition, the tour also played several shows in Hong Kong in late September and early October 2009. The Tweenies are also regulars on the annual CBeebies Live tours around the British Isles. Between 2003 and 2005, there was also a Tweenies theme park, at Alton Towers in the Cred Street section aimed at younger children, which replaced the Barney section and then was removed in favour of Bob the Builder. In 2000, Tweenies won two awards: Best PreSchool Educational Program and Best Live Action PreSchool Programme.

The original prototypes for the Tweenies characters were designed by Sally Preisig of Mimics Productions; they were later re-scaled into two sizes for the characters shown on the series. In addition, Preisig also designed the character costumes and was co-constructor/developer for the Tweenies' full-size puppets. The costume fabric comes from the UK and was imported and dyed into their present colours; it is about the same thickness as fleece jumpers.

Characters

The Tweenies consist of Bella, Milo, Fizz, Jake, Doodles, Izzles, Max, Judy, and are sometimes joined by Max's sister Polly. Other characters have appeared occasionally, including Milo's uncle, Mickey, Jake's mother, Fizz's father and Bella's grandmother. There have also been several animated characters.

The four main characters appeared in the first episode Tweenie Band, which was filmed in 1998 at Elstree Studios & aired on 6 September 1999.

The Tweenies were played by only one set of actors, while the voices are provided by other actors. Unless otherwise indicated, all the following actors and voice talent were in the show from 1999 until its last episode, What Makes Summer? in July 2002.

This is the cover art for Tweenies: Doodles' Bones

Cast

Episodes

The Tweenies aired its first episode Tweenie Band on 6 September 1999 on its original programme block CBBC and last aired on 24 July 2002 with What Makes Summer? on its current channel CBeebies. In total, there are 390 episodes.

There have been special episodes, such as a series of Be Safe With The Tweenies and expanded 40 minute episodes.

Albums

Data from AllMusicCharts.com

Singles

Data from AllMusicCharts.com

Broadcast

• Noggin (USA) - 7 April 2003 – 10 April 2006
• CBeebies (UK) - 11 February 2002 – present
• ABC (Australia) - 4 July 2000 - 27 June 2003
• CBBC (UK) - 6 September 1999 – 10 February 2002
• BBC2 (UK) - 1999 – 2009

Merchandise

DVDs & Videos

These were released by BBC Worldwide and some various DVD's are still available in retailers.

Many of the above videos have also been dubbed into other languages. In addition, several of the Tweenies videos were produced in special versions for retailers with additional footage (for example, the "Party Games, Laughs & Giggles" video distributed at Marks & Spencer stores carried 2 additional segments, adding 10 minutes to the video's running time). Many of the above videos were also released as DVDs under different names. iTunes has released a Best of Tweenies volume 1 which consists of the first 6 episodes of the series.

Books

From 1999 until 2006, various books were released from the Tweenies, based on the episodes that were mostly aired. There were also annuals that were released from 2001–06 and other books, based on each character from the Tweenies.

Toys & Games

From the late 90's into the early 2000s, the Tweenies were one of the most popular set of children's TV characters at the time, which led to a wide range of different types of merchandise being sold everywhere. Many toys were sold in various retailers, such as Toys "R" Us, Argos & Woolworths. Some of these toys & games consist of soft toys, playsets, collectable figures, board games, jigsaws & puzzles, talking toys, the video games; Tweenies: Doodles' Bones and Tweenies: Game Time, and many products.

Awards

Complaints

Following complaints after a January 2013 broadcast of the 2001 episode "Favourite Songs", which included a skit of Max dressed and behaving like disgraced, late TV/radio presenter Jimmy Savile, the BBC apologised and announced that the episode would not be broadcast in future.^[3][4][5]

References

External links

• Tweenies at BBC Online
• Tweenies at the Internet Movie Database
• Tweenies at TV.com