The Furchester Hotel
Check in at The Furchester Hotel this September, a new puppet show for Cbeebies.
Published: 12 September 2014
The Furchester Hotel is the result of four or five years of hard work and conversations - this is a true partnership with the Sesame Workshop team and we’ve worked hard together to develop an incredibly strong, ambitious series that we’re all really proud of.
CBeebies welcomes The Furchester family with furry arms as the doors open for business at The Furchester Hotel.
The Furchester Hotel is a series for 3-6 year olds set in an ‘almost’ world-class hotel run by a close-knit family of cheerfully chaotic monsters. The series introduces brand new characters and also welcomes the beloved Elmo and Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.
As guests arrive at the hotel they are greeted by monster owner Funella Furchester, her loving husband, Furgus Fuzz, and their daughter, the unflappable Phoebe Furchester-Fuzz. Elmo, Phoebe’s cousin who is on an extended visit and Cookie Monster, who has landed his dream job as room service and dining room waiter, join the Furchester family at the hotel. Completing the ensemble is Isabel, a furry bell monster - guests won’t get any attention until she dings to announce their arrival!
The family bends over backwards and forwards and sideways (only occasionally tipping over) to be sure that the needs of every guest are met whether animal, vegetable, mineral or monster. This atmosphere of multicultural, multi-lingual and multi-fuzziness presents unique challenges for them. How do you disguise a pony who checks in for a quiet break? Where is the perfect place to put a very fussy plant? What happens when Super Rock appears and needs a new super hero cape? How can they stop Cookie Monster from eating the giant cookie guest Mr. Crumb? The Furchesters approach every problem with determination and resolve in order to keep their guests happy. They put their furry heads together (clonk!) and with some exceptional thinking, devise a solution. Even when they think they have exhausted all the possibilities, their perseverance prevails because their family motto is, “A Furchester never gives up!”
Kay Benbow, Controller of CBeebies, said: “The Furchester Hotel is the result of four or five years of hard work and conversations – this is a true partnership with the Sesame Workshop team and we’ve worked hard together to develop an incredibly strong, ambitious series that we’re all really proud of. It feels right for CBeebies and we were so excited to bring Cookie Monster, Elmo and the Furchester family over to Salford to film. I can’t wait to see the reaction of our young viewers when they hit the screens.”
“After four years in the works, it truly is thrilling to have The Furchester Hotel make its debut on CBeebies,” adds Terry Fitzpatrick, Chief Content and Distribution Officer, Sesame Workshop.
“We hope that Elmo, Cookie Monster and the whole Furchester Family will be helping children solve problems creatively for many years to come.”
Top UK puppeteers including Louise Gold (Funella), Andrew James Spooner (Furgus) and Sarah Burgess (Phoebe) joined forces with Sesame Street puppeteers David Rudman (Cookie Monster) and Ryan Dillon (Elmo) to bring all the characters to life in The Furchester Hotel. Puppet captain was Mak Wilson who also performs resident guest Harvey P Dull.
The series was filmed in the dock10 studios at MediaCityUK where a specially designed two-storey set was built. The whole set had to be raised over a metre off the floor in order for the puppeteers to perform standing in the main areas. This is not unusual for a puppet production but presented some unique challenges because of the sheer size and scale of the hotel set.
The Furchester Hotel is co-produced by Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organisation behind Sesame Street, and the In-House Production team at CBeebies, the BBC's pre-school children's channel. Tony Reed and Alison Stewart are the executive producers for CBeebies and Carol-Lynn Parente is the executive producer for Sesame Workshop. Producers are David Collier for CBeebies and Dionne Nosek for Sesame Workshop; Belinda Ward is head writer for the series.
KW
