CBeebies Peter Pan: The Producer's story

There are just a few days to go until this year's CBeebies panto, Peter Pan, is shown for the first time (see it on CBeebies on 19th December at 5pm). We chatted to Jon, the show's producer about the awesome task of pulling together our festive extravanganza...

Hi, Jon! Can you tell us a bit about this year’s CBeebies Christmas Show?

This year's CBeebies Christmas show is (drumroll please): Peter Pan! A brilliant story about childhood, friendship and families - and perfect for Christmas! I'm the Producer, so I've overseen both the theatre show and the filming of it for TV and it's been a long hard (but great!) job ... I had my first meeting about CBeebies Peter Pan in February! We staged the show at The Lowry in Salford at the beginning of October - to give us enough time to edit the show, add some fairy dust, and spruce it up for the TV screens.

Why did you choose Peter Pan and how have you interpreted the book for a CBeebies audience?

We chose Peter Pan because it's a much loved story at this time of year, and what with it's combination of fairies, pirates and FLYING it's no wonder its popularity has continued for over a hundred years since it was first written. There are some brilliant themes to draw out of it about being good friends and celebrating family and those are great things to focus on at Christmas. We also chose it because there's a nice range of characters to suit our CBeebies stars! We have adapted the story for CBeebies - there were some parts of the story that we didn't include because of time constraints, and because we wanted to create a clear simple narrative rather than the beautifully layered interweaving elements that J.M. Barrie created. It's very faithful to the heart of the original play, though, and I'm confident people of all ages will enjoy it!

Can you briefly explain how you go about putting a show like this together?

It's a mammoth job to put on a stage show at the best of times, and when there are the added complications of filming the production for broadcast and having very limited rehearsal time, it's even more so! We started by looking at the story and thinking how we would adapt it for CBeebies. Almost hand in hand comes the process of casting - choosing who is best for each role - and consideration is given to where the songs might fit in it all! There's then a LOT of to-ing and fro-ing between all the WONDERFUL creative people on our team to consider what the set should look like, the costumes, make-up, lighting, sound etc! Because our CBeebies presenters are so busy, we have to plan everything based on the fact that we will only have 5 days rehearsal before we perform on stage! So, ending up producing a show with such high creative ambition is a fantastic achievement and testimony to the talent of the cast, and the dedication of all the backstage crew and theatre team.

How did you choose the audience for the show?

We made tickets to the two performances available via the BBC Audiences website. Tickets were selected at random, so if you received a ticket, you were very lucky! We were blown away by the interest this year. Over 148,000 ticket applications were made, and when we were in the theatre, an estimated 30,000 people also came to an outdoor event run by BBC Learning ... so there was an enormous buzz about the place!

What was the experience of recording the show at the theatre like?

It's huge fun putting on a theatre show. Most of the TV programmes we make are very stop-start but this show runs non-stop for 45 minutes and that's what we film. The rehearsal week is like a giant rollercoaster with a countdown clock - you know that the audience is going to come in and the curtain is going to go up ... whether you're ready or not! There are so many highlights as there's a lovely sense of "family" amongst the CBeebies presenters and team. Having some people flying on stage probably provided most laughs this year. It's very difficult to look graceful whilst dangling from the ceiling - especially when you don't quite go in the direction you thought you would! Personally I will always remember working with the pirates in the rehearsal room - it was such fun to see their jokes and movement around the stage coming together. There are some things which still have me in fits even though I've seen the scenes a LOT of times!

What do you hope parents and children will get out of watching the show?

We know that whole families gather around the TV to watch the Christmas show and that it's become something of a tradition for many to join with CBeebies in this way. I hope people of all ages are wowed by the performance - by our extraordinarily talented cast, by the impressive staging and design, and by the awesome songs! There will definitely be laughs ... there might even be a few tears ... but I hope people feel that the adventure of it all is worth it and that they're left with a warm Christmassy glow inside!

CBeebies Peter Pan is on CBeebies on Friday 19th December at 5pm.

Go behind the scenes at CBeebies Peter Pan with Alex's exclusive Grown-ups video diary on CBeebies YouTube.

Find Peter Pan and lots of other Christmassy fun on the CBeebies website.

Can't wait for this year's panto? Join the chat on CBeebies Grown-ups Facebook and Twitter pages.