CBeebies welcomes its youngest ever visitor on the morning of Monday 27th April. She is 6 week old Evangeline and the CBeebies audience will be able to follow her development over the next year.
The idea was sparked from a dim and distant memory of the baby who regularly appeared on Blue Peter nearly 50 years ago when John Noakes and Peter Purves showed viewers how to look after little Daniel. Back in 1968, it was groundbreaking on British television for men to be featured caring for a child. Although times have changed greatly since the days of Daniel, it is still just as crucial today to show our impressionable CBeebies audience how huge the responsibility of bringing up children is.
We know how much our audience loves babies and we hope they will be as interested and intrigued as any family would be with a newborn. Having introduced the audience to Evangeline, our newest presenter Ben Cajee will continue to share her developmental milestones over the coming months. Just like a new parent, Ben was nervous holding the baby at first but we fully anticipate him becoming an experienced carer as time goes by.
Evangeline’s father is a BBC colleague and he was aware I had been thinking for over a year about introducing a baby to our audience. When he knew his wife was expecting their first child, we joked about her becoming a TV star and we were delighted when that became a reality – obviously with his wife’s approval!
Evangeline’s parents accompanied her on her first television appearance and she really was as good as gold. She had a feed in a dressing room before coming in to the CBeebies House. It was new territory for everyone and soon the entire crew were mesmerised by the baby. Evangeline already knows the way she prefers to be held – and she only cried when her wishes weren’t followed.
Before making any arrangements to have a baby in the studio, we discussed how we would ensure her wellbeing and although it was not deemed necessary to have a chaperone present in addition to a parent, the BBC felt this would be advisable owing to her age.
Every child who 'performs' on CBeebies has to be licensed by their local authority. The Licensing Officer concerned gave us huge support in our mission to show pre-schoolers how babies develop and after granting us a licence for Evangeline, she said it was a first for her too!
The baby’s licence allows her to be with our production team for up to five hours although of this, only two hours are allowed for 'performance'. In the event, Evangeline was only with us in the CBeebies House for half an hour. We want to take baby steps … and everyone is looking forward to seeing her again in the next few weeks.
READ MORE: Support from CBeebies Grown-ups for looking after babies and toddlers
