In the Night Garden

In the Night Garden is a BBC children's television series, particularly aimed at babies and preschool children. It is produced by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Anne Wood CBE, Ragdoll's creative director, and Andrew Davenport, who also created Teletubbies. The programme is narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi. It is filmed mostly in live action, and features a mix of actors in costumes, plus puppetry and computer animation.

The series was announced in October 2005, and twenty episodes were first broadcast in March 2007. According to the BBC's internal magazine Ariel, more episodes are to be made in May 2007 with broadcasting resuming soon after.

The programme is said by its creators to be designed to both relax as well as entertain its intended audience of one-to-three year olds. One hundred episodes were commissioned by the BBC, with a budget of £14.5 million. ^[1]

Overview

The programme features colourful characters with unusual names: Upsy Daisy, Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka, the Pontipines, the Wottingers, the Haahoos and three Tombliboos who live in a garden. As well as trees and tropical birds (Tittifers), the garden features a large cast of other creatures for a programme aimed at toddlers. The characters mostly speak short, repetitive phrases in an invented language. The repetition of sound associated with the characters builds up familiarity amongst the target audience. The garden is a colourful, brightly-decorated environment reminiscent of a dream world. Co-creator Anne Wood said^[2]:

Each episode starts with a child in bed (a different child appears in each episode), while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the "Magic Roundabout" style gazebo that sits at the centre of the Night Garden. This story is a summary of the plot of the episode. Sometimes the characters all sing and dance together under the gazebo.

Because Igglepiggle is a visitor to the garden, he does not go to sleep, and his goodbye sequence ("Igglepiggle's not in bed!" — "Squeak!" — "Don't worry, Igglepiggle, it's time to go.") rounds off the programme. The Night Garden retreats into the night sky and we see him asleep on his little boat as the programme's closing titles roll. As Igglepiggle is clearly asleep at the beginning and end of the programme it might be inferred that the entire narrative was his dream. Oddly, he takes down the sail of his boat at the beginning in order to travel, a rather Zen like gesture.

In The Night Garden bears a resemblance in title and theme to Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen. They are both about a surreal dream-time world.

Unlike most television programmes aimed at toddlers, In The Night Garden is not primarily intended to be educational. Instead, it is intended to help children relax, and achieve calming relationships with parents. Co-creator Anne Wood stated "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions – but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed... so this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up!" ^[2]

Characters

Igglepiggle, played by Nick Kellington, is a blue creature similar to a teddy bear. He always carries his red blanket with him, and tends to fall flat on his back when surprised. He arrives at the beginning and leaves the Night Garden at the end of each episode in a boat, for which the blanket doubles as a sail. Igglepiggle has a bell in his left foot, a squeak in his middle, and a rattle in his left hand. His best friend in the garden is Upsy Daisy ^[4]. He is the only character not to sleep in the Night Garden, apart from one time when he fell asleep on Upsy Daisy's bed, and also the only character to walk on the garden path. Igglepiggle is clearly not a native of the Garden but a visitor.

Upsy Daisy, played by Rebecca Hyland, is similar to a rag doll, and appears to be of Afro-Caribbean origin. She has her own special bed, which can move around the garden; sometimes Upsy Daisy has to catch her bed when it decides to run away. Her catchphrases are "Upsy Daisy" and "Daisy Doo!" (on one occasion she said 'og pog', Makka Pakka's line) Her hair stands on end when excited, and her skirt inflates to a tutu when she dances or pulls the ripcord on her waist. Upsy Daisy has an orange megaphone on a stand and enjoys singing through it, much to the chagrin of the other residents.

Makka Pakka, played by Cameron O'Donovan, is more rounded than Igglepiggle, smaller than any of the other costumed characters, has three spikes on his head (one on the top and two on the sides), and is a creamy colour. He lives in a little cave and likes cleaning things, such as his collection of stacking stones, and sometimes the other characters themselves. Makka Pakka often stacks freshly cleaned stones into piles of three or sometimes more, the trio constructions resembling the protuberances upon his head and body. He sleeps on a stone bed, often cuddling a smooth flat stone. He travels around the Garden pushing his trolley, the Og-Pog. The Og-Pog carries Makka's sponge and soap, his red trumpet, and a bellows-like apparatus called Uff-uff which he uses to dry items after cleaning them. His house is approached by a stone-walled ditch, as his home is set half-buried in the ground. He sometimes seems to be acting as a Groundskeeper to the garden. Makka Pakka is widely recognised as the most popular character.

The three Tombliboos - Unn (Andy Wareham), Ooo (Holly Denoon), and Eee (Elisa Laghi) - are like dolls dressed in costumes with stripes and spots: red and green (Unn), brown and pink (Ooo), and pink and yellow (Eee). The names Unn, Ooo and Eee reflect phonetically how a young child might say the numbers One, Two, Three, and the Tombliboos always appear in this order by saying their names. They live and sleep in a shared bed in the middle of a bush, in the large spaces between the branches. The Tombliboos enjoy playing the drums and keyboard, which they have in their bush home, although not with any particular musical prowess, and they also enjoy playing with their large stacking cubes. Their trousers (which fall down at random moments) are often seen hanging on the washing line outside their bush home, and they usually take them down from the line and put them on before going on an adventure. They often brush their teeth before bed.

The Pontipines (red) and Wottingers (blue) are two families of ten tiny creatures (a mother and a father, plus four boys and four girls) similar to peg dolls, who live in adjacent semi-detached houses at the foot of a tree. The Pontipines appear in most episodes, while appearances by the Wottingers are rare. The Pontipines all dress in a very similar fashion to each other, as do the Wottingers. Each family sleeps in one room, their beds next to each other in two rows of five. The Pontipines are able to enter their home by flying down the chimney, as well as through the front door. They have no feet. The Pontipines enter the Pinky Ponk through a different door from all the other characters, and stay on a separate deck. The Pontipines and the Wottingers are animated using stop motion animation. Mrs Pontipine carries a pair of binoculars around her neck at all times, and she uses them to look for her children when they get lost. The Wottinger father figure lacks the bushy moustache of the Pontipine patriarch. Mrs. Wottinger's hat is of a different design from her red counterpart and the families' clothing while similar in design is not identical.

The Haahoos are five large pillow-like creatures of various shapes and colours. They are large inflatables. They float slowly around the garden like puffy pillows, calling a low "mmm!" sound to each other as they meet up to go to sleep in a big pillowy pile. The Haahoos appear dancing at the end of some episodes, and are then seen going to sleep.

The Tittifers are CGI enhanced tropical birds with their own unique songs. When they sing together, they signal that is it time for the the residents to sleep. There are four small blue Tittifers ("Blue Lorikeets"), three larger pink ones ("European hoopoes"), two big green ones ("White-cheeked Turacos") and one multicoloured toucan (either Channel-billed Toucan or White-throated Toucan) with a huge purple beak.

The Ninky Nonk is a train of five differently sized and shaped carriages. In comparison to the trees and other flora of the forest, it is clearly quite small, but the main characters can easily fit inside it. When it stops or starts, the seat-belted passengers jerk sharply in their seats. The accompanying loud klaxons warn everyone inside. The Ninky Nonk can drive up and down trees and upside-down along branches. The Ninky Nonk seems to stop and go on its own and, like the other characters, "goes to sleep". Exterior shots of travelling are of a toy-sized train, while interiors and static exterior shots are done on sets or life-sized models.

The Pinky Ponk is an airship, speckled with many fins. The characters often use it to travel around the forest. Judging by the farty noises it makes whilst travelling it runs on some sort of gas, although it produces no visible emissions other than the "Pinky Ponk juice" which is dispensed in "sippi cups"^[4]. Like the Ninky Nonk, the Pinky Ponk is likely a sentient machine. Exterior shots are chroma keyed model shots, while interior ones are produced on a set.

Episode List

Scheduling

Until 1 April 2008 the Show aired on the CBeebies channel every day, including weekends, at 6:25pm in the "Bedtime Hour" slot, in addition to earlier daytime showings on weekdays (like every other show on CBeebies, the same episodes are shown all day).^[5] From April until August 2008, In The Night Garden was removed from its 6:25pm "Bedtime Hour" slot, which resulted in a petition^[6] asking for the programme to be re-instated to its normal slot. One parent petitioner was quoted by the Daily Telegraph commenting that "My four-year-old refused to believe it was bedtime because ITNG hadn't been on and it was daylight outside."^[6]

The show returned to the daily "Bedtime Hour" slot at 6:25pm as of 30th August 2008, and began showing the second series (beginning with "Slow Down Everybody" on 1st September 2008).

Merchandising

In the Night Garden merchandising, DVDs, Igglepiggle dolls and other ways of 'extending the experience' arrived in the shops in the summer of 2007.

DVDs

Five DVDs have been released: "Who's Here?", "Hello Igglepiggle!", "Hello Upsy Daisy!", "Hello Makka Pakka!" and "Hello Tombliboos!". Each DVD features five episodes, the latter four having episodes relating to the character the DVD is based on.

Toys

The show's makers, Ragdoll Productions, signed a deal to make the toy producer Hasbro a global partner long before the show hit the screens. As promised, merchandise arrived in British high streets and supermarkets in July 2007, including small Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka stuffed toys and a small Ninky Nonk train with detachable carriages. Wheeled toy licensee MV Sports & Leisure Limited produced a range of scooters and trikes. Play-doh made some dough that came packaged with an Igglepiggle-shaped cut-out.

In spring 2008, many new toys arrived, including roll-along characters, Talking Cuddly Makka Pakka, Ninky Nonk Pop-up tent and more. Hasbro won the 2008 "Best Licensed Toy or Game range" Licencing Award^[7] for their In The Night Garden range.

References

^ They come in peace - Telegraph
^ ^a ^b BBC - Press Office - CBeebies press pack: In The Night Garden
^ Children's Award Winners in 2007 - Children's - Awards - The BAFTA site
^ ^a ^b | title = Little Library | publisher = Penguin Group | series = In the Night Garden... | year = 2007 | isbn = 9781405903783 }}
^ http://www.radiotimes.com - search results 2008-02-25
^ ^a ^b Anger as BBC moves In The Night Garden, Daily Telegraph, 2 April 2008
^ http://www.toynewsmag.com/news/30321/Toy-firms-scoop-Licensing-gongs

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