Swashbuckle: The researchers’ story

Hi guys, can you introduce yourselves and tell us what you do?

Hi! We’re Kate and Richard, the researchers on series 2 of Swashbuckle. It’s been our job to find the teams of Swashbucklers who will compete to try and win back Gem’s jewels from the naughty pirates. Once we’ve recruited the teams, it’s our job to look after them and their parents when they come to the studio, and give them some Swashbuckle training so that they have the best shot at winning!



How do you go about finding the children to take part in the series? What sort of things do you have to consider?

We contact a large number of primary schools, and initially we just ask whether their pupils would like to take part in a pirate-themed games session at school. We spend about an hour at each school playing Swashbuckle-based games, and while we’re doing that, we look out for the children who are confident and wouldn’t be afraid to have some banter with our naughty pirates. We’re trying to spot those children who always have a big smile on their faces and who enjoy teamwork and encouraging others.



We’re also looking to choose children who represent the diversity of the CBeebies audience, so for example, children with disabilities, and from a whole range of backgrounds. Once we’ve chosen four classmates to be a team of Swashbucklers, we invite the rest of their friends to be in the audience, because it’s great for the team to have their peers in the studio to cheer them on!



Because we film in Salford, and don’t want to ask our audience or contestants to make a long journey, we search for schools within an hour’s drive of our studio. We know that there are thousands of schools and children outside this area who would love to be involved, but that hasn’t been possible on this series. 



For series two, we’ve visited more than forty schools over two months to find our 94 new Swashbucklers. We’ve both lost our voices, and our ears have been ringing because the children cheered for each other incredibly loudly!



We hear that you’ve also had to track down some grown-up Swashbucklers for this series too – how hard was that?

Yes! This series we’re introducing some special all-ages episodes where the teams of Swashbucklers are made up of both children and adults. Well, why should the children have all the fun?! Swashbuckle has proved to be as popular with parents as their children, so we think it’s a great idea to involve teams of friends and family playing together.



We recruited grown-ups in a similar way to the children – we invited families to come to a games session. We thought there might be some reluctance from the grown-ups, but we quickly realised that we couldn’t have been more wrong. We had parents in parrot costumes doing the Swashbuckle salute, grandfathers climbing through the play-tunnel without a moment’s hesitation and blindfolded teachers being led through an obstacle course by their pupils… it was great fun!



And there’s also a special celebrity all-ages Swashbuckle episode in the works for Children in Need this year – but Captain Sinker has forbidden us to reveal who the celebrity participants are.



What’s a typical day like for you when you’re filming Swashbuckle?

We film two episodes of Swashbuckle a day, so it’s pretty busy! From the minute the contestants arrive at the studios, it’s just go, go, go. First of all we give them their Swashbuckle makeover – they get into their costumes, visit the make-up department, and have a safety equipment fitting.



The show’s then filmed in chunks so that the children get rest periods throughout, but we researchers are always thinking about what’s coming next – we’ll be talking the Swashbucklers through the rules of the game they’re about to play, and often demonstrating what they need to do on the soft-play shipwreck. It’s actually quite a job to make sure the children aren’t SO excited that they run out of energy before the end of the day!



Have you tried out any of the Swashbuckle games? Are you any good?

Richard: I’ve been lucky enough to try all the games, and I can honestly say that I’m absolutely, breathtakingly…AWFUL at them! Not to make anyone jealous, but you can’t begin to imagine how much fun it is to play the games. Pirate Cannons is a particular favourite of mine…



Kate: Tumbly Barrel is my nemesis! It catches me off guard all the time – but that’s probably because I’m too slow. The Swashbucklers are much quicker.



What’s your pirate name?

Richard: My pirate name has to be Crow’s Eye Rich – the reason for this is…erm…that my eyesight’s not too bad. Not much to brag about though!



Kate: My pirate name is Crab Claw Kate….and we both hope you’re really enjoying Swashbuckle series two!





Catch brand new Swashbuckle on the weekends on CBeebies. 

Check out what really goes on behind the scenes in our exclusive video shot by Cook and Line!