BBC - CBeebies : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

How good are the presenters?	Standard
How good is the content?	Good

Advantages:	Good quality preschool children's programmes
Disadvantages:	Can get repetitive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

~ ~ ~ Overview ~ ~ ~

“Can I watch My Beebies?” is a question usually heard around breakfast time in our household. “My Beebies” refers to the BBC preschool channel CBeebies which can be found on digital television. I do limit Jacob’s TV time generally and he isn’t a child who is happy to be sat glued to the telly for hours on end – he’s far too busy causing other kinds of mayhem. But the CBeebies channel can be found turned on in our living room at some point most days of the week.

~ ~ ~ Presenters ~ ~ ~

The channel takes the format of showing several programmes in 4 hourly blocks interspersed with items from the CBeebies presenters, usually in the studio but sometimes out on the road too.

There are 5 presenters – Sid, Chris, Poi, Sue and Nicole – who fill in the time between programmes with Blue Peter style things to make, reading out birthday cards, singing songs and any other short items that may be needed to plug a 2 minute gap. Generally they are fairly professional at what they do and don’t seem to mind jumping around making fools of themselves – a prerequisite for a children’s TV presenter!

~ ~ ~ Programmes ~ ~ ~

The programmes shown on the channel aim to be educational for the most part and I think the majority of them are of a high quality – much as you would expect from the BBC and their many years of children’s programming experience behind them. Most of the programmes are also well-known on terrestrial telly as they are often shown on the CBeebies slot on BBC2.

Some of Jacob’s favourites include Balamory, Tikkabilla, Smarteenies, Bob The Builder, Tweenies and Fimbles. There are a variety of “real people” (Balamory, Tikkabilla), “skin characters” (Tweenies, Fimbles, Teletubbies) and cartoon programmes shown on the channel which means pre-schoolers are exposed to a good selection of programmes. A couple of my favourites are Balamory and Tikkabilla.

Balamory is set on a fictitious Scottish island of the same name. All the characters are based in their own brightly coloured house and each has their own specific skill. For example Spencer is an artist and musician, Josie Jump is a fitness fanatic and Edie McCredie is quite an accomplished mechanic who has travelled a lot. The story lasts 20 minutes and takes a simple format for each episode. One character has a problem and visits Miss Hoolie, the teacher at the Balamory nursery who suggests another character they could go and see to help them. The first visitation always ends in disappointment but leads them on to visit a further character who is then able to help. Hope that makes sense! The show has its own selection of songs which get sung each episode enabling young children to pick up the words and join in. It’s a very watchable programme and in fact, I think in Jacob’s earlier days I enjoyed it more than he did.

Tikkabilla is the new Playschool and is one of the favourite shows in this household. It lasts half an hour which is quite a length for captivating a pre-school audience but Jacob will not move while this is on so it must be doing something right. The show has 6 presenters – 3 male and 3 female – who present each show in male/female pairs. They are also joined by Tamba, a purple dragon puppet who is quite cute. The half hour whizzes by as the presenters do craft items, sing songs, play games, read stories. There is even the round, square and arch windows which I’m sure many of you will remember as a feature of Playschool. The songs are fun, two of my favourites being the Tikkabilla Jive and The Mood Song. I even find myself singing along to these despite the fact I’m soon told off. Obviously at 2 Jacob has an image to uphold and having his mother singing along to Tikkabilla songs just isn’t cool!

Other shows such as Tweenies, Teletubbies and Bob The Builder have been around for years and need little introduction. Cartoons on the channel include Clifford the Big Red Dog, Sergeant Stripes and Angelmouse none of which could be classed as educational but are there to add a bit of light-hearted fun to the proceedings and I think overall the channel achieves a good balance of education and fun.

~ ~ ~ Scheduling ~ ~ ~

Having CBeebies on for the full 13 hours a day it broadcasts would soon drive most adults insane. This is because although it is on for 13 hours, as mentioned earlier, it repeats itself in 4 hour blocks. The channel wakes up at 6am and shows a variety of programmes until 10am at which point we go back to the 6am schedule. The programmes then start again at 2pm. There is actually a good reason for this. Apparently pre-school children love to know what’s going to happen and a 4 hour gap is ideal for their memory levels at this age so there’s even educational philosophy behind the scheduling. However, it doesn’t make the third sitting of the same Teletubbies episode any less painful!

To be fair I’m sure there aren’t many children who watch 13 hours of CBeebies every day and you are always safe in the knowledge that if a favourite show is missed at least you know there’s a good chance you’ll be able to catch it later in the day. This 4 hour scheduling is the same at the weekends although they do have a different order of shows and sometimes programmes are only shown on Saturday and Sunday, Playbus being one of these.

Programmes are taken off the air for several weeks at a time to rotate the ones that are shown. This is quite good as it gives room in the scheduling for less established programmes as well as having a break from the old favourites.

~ ~ ~ Bedtime Hour ~ ~ ~

The mathematicians among you will have noticed that the programmes are repeated in 3 blocks of 4 hours yet the channel is on for 13 hours a day. The extra hour is the Bedtime Hour which runs from 6pm – 7pm. The idea of the Bedtime Hour is to calm children down before their bedtime and the hour includes several “story” programmes such as the Fimbles, the Story Makers and 64 Zoo Lane which are generally quieter shows.

There are also a couple of bedtime songs sung by the CBeebies presenters and all in all the Bedtime Hour promotes calmness which from a parents perspective is great. After a busy afternoon at nursery Jacob seems to enjoy crashing out on the sofa and listening to the stories.

~ ~ ~ Carrot Club ~ ~ ~

Another feature of CBeebies is the Carrot Club. I’m not quite sure where this originated from or why but I think it’s something to do with Beeby and Bracken, the CBeebies pet rabbits.

Basically the Carrot Club runs 3 times a day for half an hour at 8.30am, 12.30pm and 4.30pm and usually consists of two or three shorter programmes and instead of the usual presenters doing the links, there is a female voiceover while on the screen children dressed in orange are shown running around in the “Carrot Club”. There doesn’t appear to be any particular reason for the change in format for this half hour slot each day – perhaps they’re just trying to promote carrots!

~ ~ ~ Website ~ ~ ~

To complement the channel there is the CBeebies website which has links to various games and activities which are associated with the programmes they show. It is heavily promoted on the channel with new activities being added regularly. There are a range of games to appeal to a variety of ages some of which can be played by children on their own, some of which require adult assistance.

The website has just launched My CBeebies which is a more personalised area that requires a login ID and password. At the moment it is quite limited although we are looking after Jacob’s virtual pet, Peter Panda and I’m expecting this section to expand considerably during the coming year.

Overall the website is suitable for the age range it is aimed at and is often updated. There is also information for parents about the programmes they show on the channel.

CBeebies can be accessed through Sky, Cable and Freeview and broadcasts from 6am – 7pm seven days a week.