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Justin's House is nearly here! The very first episode will be shown on Saturday 8th October at 11am, but here's a little taste of what's in store, just for you grown-ups ;-) We can't wait!
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|17:48 UK time, Thursday, 22 September 2011
Hi, I'm Joel Stewart, Creator and Director of The Adventures of Abney & Teal. I designed the characters, and painted all the bits and pieces that their world is made up of. I work with the team on all the stories, and I oversee the finished look of the show, I also helped develop a lot of the music, and have my nose poking in just about everywhere!
I am primarily a book illustrator, who also writes (and plays a bit of music). I have always been interested in film and animation too, so when Anne Wood, founder and Creative Director of Ragdoll Productions, approached me about the possibility of developing something entirely new with them for television I jumped at the chance!
The series is about Abney and Teal who live on an island in the middle of a lake, in the middle of a park, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the big city. They share the island with an array of odd characters, and the most everyday activities seem to get them all into a host of trouble!
All the characters were invented in my sketchbooks, but it wasn't until I was out for a walk in Victoria Park in East London that I found myself casting them on an Island in a park in a city. I was just staring out at the island across the water and began to imagine the characters from my sketchbook going about their business in that setting. I heard the sounds of the city all around and realised that this was a whole world in itself, and went home to think about the best way I could make that world come to life.
For television I have been most excited by the possibilities for exploring things I hadn't been able to in books. For me a good drawing has a sense of movement in its lines and works perfectly on the page, but here I was interested more in the possibilities of combining puppets, painting, and techniques with a filmic quality. I knew that bringing all these things together would require a fantastic production team. But even now after nearly three years working on the show I'm still astonished by what we've achieved by using all these traditional, and not-so traditional methods!
I always had strong ideas about what the show should look and feel like (and we've surpassed most of those), but equally exciting has been writing with the brilliant Matilda Tristram and Steve Roberts (who is the creator of the fantastic Dipdap series), and also with Anne and the editing team. Together we've made some stories which I am just over the moon about, and I hope you will be too!
From Monday 3rd October the 'Bedtime Hour' will have a new story in the line up. From 6.00pm 'Waybuloo' is welcomed back to Bedtime with brand new episodes to join 'In The Night Garden' followed by the 'Bedtime Story', as always in the final slot of the day. This programme will already be familiar to many CBeebies viewers. Fans of 'Charlie and Lola' will still be able to watch the programme on Fridays at 17.00 and weekends at 09.15 on CBeebies. It will return to the morning line up in November. '64 Zoo Lane' will be taking a break from the schedule and will return in 2012.
We endeavour to make changes gradually at different times of the day, without changing every programme because we know this can be disruptive to some viewers. Your feedback is really important to us, so do please let us know what you think about the changes here.
It's Postman Pat's 30th birthday today! It seems he's been around as long as the dales, but it was early in the morning (just as day was dawning) on this day in 1981 that he first set off in his little red van.
Many of you have sent us your favourite Pat moments for a special Pat’s Birthday piece in the Pencaster Gazette* kindly reproduced here with their permission.
Pencaster's postal-hero celebrates the big 3-0!
If you've ever had to wait in for a birthday package, a replacement credit card, or a bottle of extra-concentrated sheep-dip liquid, you’ll have had the good fortune to meet Patrick Clifton, Greendale's very own celebrity Postman.
It only seems like yesterday that Pat and his trusty black and white cat, Jess (now contesting the record for the UK's oldest cat) set off but they’ve been bringing us our post for 30 years!
On his very first day Pat averted a disastrous birthday for the Pottage twins by finding Katy's beloved lost doll Sarah-Ann.
Since then he's proved time and time again that he will stop at nothing to ensure the residents of Greendale get their mail.
Career Highlights
In his long career, Pat's has located runaway sheep, battled snow, storms, mudslides, tamed misbehaving hot-air balloons and even confronted pirates.
Pat has never had an easy relationship with nature, within his first month as a postman he'd had his sandwiches stolen by hens, his keys stolen by magpies and was chased by a bull (an incident in which left local handyman Ted Glen with a twisted ankle).
In the harsh Greendale winters Pat had to resort to more uncoventional modes of transport.
Local resident Rose Grays remembers, '…the time Pat's van wasn't working and he ended up on Ted Glen's roller skates, then Miss Hubbard's bike!'
'And what about when he was sledging on the snow!' chips in elderly villager Scott Parry.
Special Promotion
Pat’s experience and ability to remain cool under pressure led to a promotion.
In 2008 Pat joined the Special Delivery Service, a sort of SAS for elite postmen where integrity and public-spiritedness are prized above timekeeping and targets.
The company is doing well despite the current economic climate, and Pat has an armada of vehicles including a helicopter, two vans and a motorbike.
Despite the hardware, Pat was soon beset by ever more challenging situations.
Greendale resident Valerie Maciejczyk Cox remembers when Pat rescued Daisy the cow in his SDS helicopter .
She says: 'I'll never forget how he conned that vet who is scared of heights and never flown into dangling from the helicopter to rescue Daisy the Cow.'
It's clearly a fond memory for many locals. Melissa says: 'My son Rowan still talks about the time Pat rescued the cow with his helicopter'.
Inhabitants of the dales have witnessed Pat on ice-skates, a snowboard and even a skateboard.
One villager (who wished to remain anonymous) said 'Skateboarding? A man of Pat's age? I ask you! Is this what goes on in Metrosexual Pencaster nowadays?'
Pat's wife Sarah was even allegedly overheard outside Sam's mobile shop muttering something about a 'mid-life crisis'
*The Pencaster Gazette is a fictional newspaper and the resemblance of any characters within it to real life members of the postal service, moustachioed handymen, or bicycle-riding spinsters is purely co-incidental.
Lucky Sid met Pat and Jess when they visited the CBeebies studio
Pat also took some time out from his rounds to pop into BBC Radio Pencaster and do an exclusive interview for them, have a listen!:
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More Postman Pat :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/programme/postman-pat About Postman Pat
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14939816 Creator John Cunliffe looks back at his conception.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/postmanpat Postman Pat on CBeebies
Hi, Lenny Henry, here, and I’ve been the voice of Big and Small on CBeebies from episode one right up to seventy-eight. That’s a lot of voices! Big and Small are great characters and a joy to play. There are so many episodes where I've laughed a lot; the moments that are sublimely funny. They are a classic sitcom double act. 'Steptoe and Son' in fur! Or Big as Dean Martin with Small as Jerry Lewis. Big is very patient - up to a point, because Small is very demanding. But they balance each other: Small has a healthy enthusiasm for everything and Big provides a structure to their lives. Although Big is capable of getting really excited about mad inventions like a sound solving machine and has crazy plans like flying to the moon to collect rocks.
But it's important that the shows are not just funny, they are very simply about manners, about respecting people, about waiting your turn, about being self-less as opposed to being selfish. It's a very clever show, I think. And there are some fun shows in the new series: there's one about looking for gold at end of a rainbow (where I get to sing a Rainbow Rap; the songs are fantastic), one about building a mountain and another where Big and Small manage to get lost in the fog on their own pond.
I’ve done a lot of work for kids I have read stories on ‘Jackanory Junior’ for CBeebies and done voices on 'Tinga Tinga Tales' and ‘Little Robots’, as well as singing the theme tune on that show, which I also do for ‘Big and Small’.
The reason I do kids' work is because I have a daughter and I wanted her to see and hear what her dad does. I've written stories for her, too. I remember when she was one year old and laughed like a drain during an episode of 'Pingu'. I thought it would be great to make my daughter laugh like that with my own work.
'Big and Small' came at the right time for me. I'd done 'Little Robots' and 'Tinga Tinga Tales'. I liked the Big and Small double act. Even in the gentler episodes they are funny together. I didn't know I was going to do both voices at first but when I was asked to do both I thought about Small having a naturally high Brummie accent and Big having a lower voice, basically my own. It was a challenge to do both voices and one I wanted to rise to doing.
The head script writer on the show, Kathy Waugh, knows the characters very well. They are very sure footed scripts and full of great moments. Big's inventions are good for a laugh. And I like it when Small's mouth wobbles and he uses being upset to get what he wants. But Small is kind to Big, too, or learns to be kind.
'Big and Small' is demanding to perform, particularly with Small's high voice. You have to be vocally fit and warm up before each recording session. It comes in handy that I've done a lot of radio, and all the TV I mentioned above, where I play all the characters, so I can keep the two voices distinct. Usually, I start the day with the songs. Then I do Small and then Big. Often with voice work you record the voices first and they will shoot the action to match but with 'Big and Small' they record the action first, so I have to match my voice to the character's mouth. It can be a bizarre situation doing the lip synch. But I try to make the performance my own, bringing my own comedy to the parts as much as I can.
I'm from the Midlands, the Black Country, and I never see a character from the Midlands on TV or in films. I always try to push for my real voice. With 'Big and Small' I did the accent and they said 'Great'. So Big and Small are from the Black Country, too. I'm very pleased about that!
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|16:57 UK time, Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Hello I’m Cerrie CBeebies presenter, writer, Mama and now it would seem adventurer! The CBeebies house has already relocated (with a new wonderfully colourful and beautifully modern set) to the city of the future: Media City and in exactly three weeks our journey north begins!
It’s the closing of a chapter and the opening of a fresh page. A fresh start, a new energy. And there is something wonderfully uplifting about the prospects of a new adventure. But I could not write about moving to Manchester, without first saying my goodbyes to London. In three weeks we will kiss farewell to our favourite parks, theatres and museums, our favourite cafes, bars and bookshops and all of our favourite memories. For me, wandering through London is like strolling through a street map of memories. It’s such a huge city, such a hub of cultural diversity and it holds so much history. And so much of my history. My earliest London Memory is riding a camel at London Zoo, being gripped with terror that I might fall of and die, thankfully I survived! Then I had my first ever audition at the Unicorn theatre. And soon Tuesday became my favourite day of the week, because that was the day my mum and I would travel up to London past the smokey chimney pots and then down onto the bustling underground, before we hurried into the theatre, with its curtains that smelt of dust, to begin rehearsals.
Later I was a member of the national youth theatre and had some of the best summers of my young life, hanging out around Camden and rehearsing late into the night on Holloway road. I got my first acting job in London when I was 23, and have lived here on and off ever since. Eventually I fell in love with Hackney; I bought a house and had a child. And then I got my fabulous job and we moved west to the bright lights of shepherds bush.
And now we are nomads lingering at my parent’s home, waiting to re-locate to Manchester. Anticipating all the new adventures that await us. The CBeebies house is up there, looking fantastic, and glowing with positivity.
So now all I have to do is the make the transition to our real new home. A new nursery, for little un, a new neighbourhood for her to explore. New cafes to try out and most importantly new memories to lay down. And I’m genuinely happy to be going. London for all its brilliance and romantic nostalgia can be a hard city, especially as a mother. And Manchester is not a completely unfamiliar landscape. (I studied here – ten years ago!) I remember wandering through Chorlton just after I graduated. Like most young actors I was broke on a daily basis and could only imagine what it might be like to live in Chorlton or even afford a donut. And somehow my dreams seem to have come true, because in three weeks time we are moving to a lovely little flat, just near where I used to dream of living all those years ago.
Between now and then I’m trying to squeeze in as many London-centric things in as I can, one of which was trip to London Zoo, with my almost three year old. The lions were asleep. The elephants had gone. The camels, snakes and tigers, were all strangely still. The highlight for my daughter was getting a pencil in the shop. As we headed home that night both of us agreed, it’s definitely time to head North.
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|15:17 UK time, Monday, 5 September 2011
Hello
You may have noticed that we have a new home. As of today the links between the programmes come from our new studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.
I worked in Children's Television during the early days of the Broom Cupboard where we soon learned that reading out birthday cards and getting excited about new shows made children's television personal and relevant. I like to think of Alex, Andy, Cerrie and Sid as the CBeebies family and we know from your post and emails that you are really fond of them and feel they're part of your family too. So I was delighted that all four of them agreed to carry on working with us here in BBC North.
Moving house is a great chance to take a fresh look at your living space. On CBeebies we try to help make sense of the world around our audience by creating a place that feels familiar. In our new set there's a bunk bed, a kitchen, a make area, a huge window on the outside world and a cosy corner where we'll read the Bedtime Stories at the end of the day.
The decoration is probably a bit brighter than your home - I don't know anyone else with an orange fridge! We hope that the set design makes it an inviting place where children want to be.
Just as in nursery or playgroup because we are in the studio every day our presenters can celebrate the important moments in children's lives as they happen. It's an important part of our public service remit that the presenters count to Christmas on the advent calendar, celebrate festivals like Diwali and Chinese New Year, talk about the seasons and read out birthday cards.
I'd be really interested to know your thoughts and your children's reactions to our new home. And of course, a new home means a new address for post. It's:
CBeebies
PO Box 1234
Salford
M5 0DN
Kay
