Baby Jake
|09:00 UK time, Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Hello – Maddy here – creator and producer of Baby Jake for production company Darrall Macqueen and juggler of all things family! Although I don’t have 10 children like the windmill family in Baby Jake, I have a one year old and a three year old that require regular chasing! Neither of them feature in this new CBeebies show, although they have inspired much of the series warmth and humour.
Baby Jake is a refreshingly natural series, starring a real baby, which begins on CBeebies this July. Baby Jake is the youngest of 10 children who live in a windmill with their parents. His six-year-old brother Isaac is the series narrator who can understand all Baby Jake’s giggles and gurgles and opens the door to an imaginary world where Baby Jake sings, dances and baby-talks with his animal friends Pengy Quin, Sydney the Monkey, Nibbles the Rabbit and the Hamsternauts.
At the heart of Baby Jake is the relationship between our 9 month old baby boy Jake and his older sibling, Isaac aged 6. We wanted the on-screen connection between these brothers to be as genuine as possible so we’ve cast two real life brothers, Adamo and Franco, as Baby Jake and Isaac – see how natural they are together on the show! We auditioned hundreds of babies before we found the right Baby Jake. It was total luck that when baby Adamo came to one of our last auditions with his Mum, along came his brother Franco too. I auditioned them both together and could hardly contain my delight when they cuddled and kissed so naturally for camera and clearly had the magic that we had been looking for. They were both fun children to work with. Thanks to their Mum, Nicola, too because they were really beautifully behaved children on the TV set!
Once we had cast Adamo as our Baby Jake we set about photographing him for the animators (Jam Media, based in Dublin) who required multiple poses to transform Adamo into a photo realistic walking, talking, crawling animated baby. Over three days in a photographic studio we used 7 stills cameras – all clicking simultaneously – to generate around 15,000 images of Baby Jake for the animators to use. When you film with a baby there are formal guidelines which must be adhered to and these include the hours on set that a baby can work. Shooting with so many cameras was the only way to get the job done!
There was a lot of good luck and positivity throughout the entire production of Baby Jake – including a double rainbow in the sky at the windmill location in Lincolnshire which you will see we have used to end the show. It really was an incredible sight! I hope this image and the sunny warmth of this family-focused programme strikes an emotional chord with all of you and your family – if so, come and laugh and smile with Baby Jake everyday at 10.15 and 14.15 on CBeebies from Monday 4th July.
Comment number 1.
At 09:25 30th Jun 2011, U14919084 wrote:wow looks fantastic, sure my kids are going to love this! thankyou :)
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Comment number 2.
At 14:12 3rd Jul 2011, thomasmichael wrote:We can't wait for this to start, we really like it when Jake wiggles his bottom!! Wish it was on at weekends for school age beebie fans.
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Comment number 3.
At 11:23 4th Jul 2011, MammyAnna wrote:Just watched Baby Jake with my 9month old and he loved it! First time ever he just sat still to watch...brilliant well done :)
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Comment number 4.
At 12:17 5th Jul 2011, sarahsamandjosh wrote:Just found Baby Jake. My 2 and 4 years olds totally loved it, both laughed right the way through peeka boo. me too! agree can we have it on weekends pls :)
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Comment number 5.
At 22:03 6th Jul 2011, rachelb wrote:My 18 month old daughter watched this for the first time Monday after being absolutely mesmerized by the adverts for it. I have never seen her so absorbed in anything before, she loved it. Today she kept pointing to the TV saying " gen baby gen! she laughed through the whole episode and I saw a whole new side to her. Problem is she won't watch anything else now!
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Comment number 6.
At 09:18 7th Jul 2011, U14919084 wrote:my 2 year old drags me to the tv whenever this comes on, she loves it, but my 4 year old wants to wach to after seeing the adverts. problem is hes at school, i know its aimed at the younger ones but would be great if it was shown on weekends to. he wached it on iplayer last night but that just causes fights in our house, with 4 fighting for the best spot infront of the screen!
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Comment number 7.
At 22:00 8th Jul 2011, Louisa wrote:My 3 year old son loves Baby Jake! I love it too and as I'm due to give birth to another baby boy soon, I'm getting him excited about having a baby brother like Isaac.
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Comment number 8.
At 17:54 13th Jul 2011, Marina wrote:My 10 month old daughter absolutely loves Baby Jake. She giggles every time she sees the trailer for it, so I was impatient to see her reaction to a full episode. It is the only thing she will sit and watch and I love it too, because it is cute, simple, doesn't contain silly made up words like in Waybulo or In The Night Garden and Jake and Isaac are adorable together. Well done.
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Comment number 9.
At 23:33 16th Jul 2011, Richard Upton wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 10.
At 12:33 19th Jul 2011, Lucy wrote:Baby Jake seems to be a very bright and cheerful program, but I do always switch over when it's on! As my 2 1/2 speeks really well, but babbles away like baby Jake each time he watches it! All the other cbeebies caracters are brilliant, and Elliot has learnt alot from them! :) x
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Comment number 11.
At 11:29 25th Jul 2011, JosieSB wrote:My three your old loves this program and so do I. I love anything that encourages using your imagination such as Show Me Show Me etc. My daughter often wants to "play" Baby Jake after watching an episode, reenacting an adventure with the help of cuddly toys. The only downside is that my daughter has started drawing on her knees!!
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Comment number 12.
At 22:02 29th Jul 2011, Jade wrote:When i first watched baby Jake me an my children loved it. i could not believe my eyes when i saw the likeness of baby Jake an his brother to my two sons not only are they around the same age 10 months and 5 yrs but they look the same too my 10 month old Blake looks like Jake (whos nick name is baby Blake) but my 5 year old son Harvey is a dead ringer for baby Jakes brother (apart from eye colour) an how close they bond with eachother is the same too. that much so friends an family have watched the show an commented on the fact my boys look like the characters from Baby Jake in a result to this im putting them forward now to a casting agency as they both love the camera :) I love the programme it makes the whole family giggle.
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Comment number 13.
At 11:22 31st Jul 2011, Annetteo wrote:I have 2 and 3 year old boys who love watching Baby Jake. They laugh and giggle all the way through. At first I thought it was great for them too but now my 3 year old has regressed to speaking like a baby, and when spoken to will only mimic the way baby Jake speaks/babbles. Slightly concerned about this and it is becoming very frustrating. Is this usual? My estranged partner has asked me to stop allowing the boys to watch it.
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Comment number 14.
At 09:18 1st Aug 2011, esitch99 wrote:My children both love this show, including my 5 1/2 year old son! We watch it every night before bed on the iPlayer while they have their toast. It's really helped my 3 year old daughter who has a speech delay. She gets so excited when this show is on. Definitely a keeper!
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At 09:35 4th Aug 2011, cas1701 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 16.
At 14:09 11th Aug 2011, libertys mummy wrote:my little lady loves this she is 11 months and it is one of only two shows she is glued to whilst is on absolutely brilliant any chance you can make it about 2 hours long so i can get more done ha
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Comment number 17.
At 14:23 5th Sep 2011, Ishyshrey wrote:My 6 year old daughter and 10 month old son love to watch Baby Jake together. My daughter really relates to the cuddles at the end between the on and off screen brothers, and loves the little kiss Jake gives Isaac. My son loves Baby Jakes son and bounces up and down in his bouncer to the extent he almost falls out of it! Excellent show - Thank you
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Comment number 18.
At 00:47 29th Sep 2011, AndyTheAstronomer wrote:You are to be heartily congratulated for such a beautiful and imaginative programme. The sheer warmth and love between the two brothers is extremely touching to watch, and the innovative way in which "Jake's" adventures are realised on screen is inspirational. We have an 8-month-old daughter who is probably a little young for most of the CBeebies programmes, giving most of them just an occasional and cursory glance, but she is riveted by Baby Jake and often laughs and gurgles at him. The programme is a total winner and has set a new standard for children's television, in my humble opinion. Well done to all concerned and I sincerely hope that Baby Jake will still be on CBeebies when our daughter Chloé is old enough to really understand what the programme is about.
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Comment number 19.
At 11:24 2nd Oct 2011, BumpMomma wrote:I don't like it haha but my daughter LOVES it. She can't get enough of it, honestly!!!
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Comment number 20.
At 13:32 5th Oct 2011, Daisyjaynesmummy wrote:my 15 month old daughter LOVES this proramme. she squeals with delight when baby jake sings his song :)
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Comment number 21.
At 09:29 8th Oct 2011, firejuggler wrote:My little boy of 11 month loves baby jake. From a Dad perspective I love the windmill and the decor actually is there any room left in that windmill we would love to live there. Keep up the great work on the show. Thanks
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Comment number 22.
At 00:34 30th Jan 2012, pddaddy wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 23.
At 13:26 2nd Jun 2012, Joebiness wrote:Unfortunately I do not agree with most of the comments about Baby Jake. After letting my 2 year old watch this programme she has started trying to speak and act like a baby. What concerns me more is that she has started drawing on herself because that is apparently what baby Jake does! I think this programme is trying to dumb down our children and there are much better and more educational programmes on the TV. She won't be watching Baby Jake again.
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