In the Night Garden

...exists between waking and sleeping in a child's imagination. This place is inhabited by a community of toy characters that care for each other and have fun.

Night Garden Characters
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Iggle Piggle
He is a blue teddy like character; he is energetic and always jumping around. Despite this energy he often needs reassurance and comfort, which is why he carries around his red blanket. If ...
...Piggle is always the last in bed, he sleeps in his boat. For which he uses his blanket as a sail during the day.

Upsy Daisy
Upsy Daisy, is a happy doll, she has coloured spiky hair and wears a variety of colours on her top, tights and skirt. She loves to dance through the garden, whilst dancing she pulls the cord on her waist and her red and white skirt fills with air, when finished, she pulls the cord again and it deflates. ... more

If you've got little ones at home you'll know what I'm talking about, for those of you who don't I'm going to tell you all about a children's program that was released this year and is now a little child's favourite.

If you think I may be going strange and speaking a different language, please feel rest assured that this is a new world, a magical place that exists between waking and sleeping in a child's imagination. This place is inhabited by a community of toy characters that care for each other and have fun.

Night Garden Characters
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Iggle Piggle
He is a blue teddy like character; he is energetic and always jumping around. Despite this energy he often needs reassurance and comfort, which is why he carries around his red blanket. If anything surprises Iggle Piggle, he falls over, but quickly gets up again. At the end of the programs we say goodnight to everyone. Iggle Piggle is always the last in bed, he sleeps in his boat. For which he uses his blanket as a sail during the day.

Upsy Daisy
Upsy Daisy, is a happy doll, she has coloured spiky hair and wears a variety of colours on her top, tights and skirt. She loves to dance through the garden, whilst dancing she pulls the cord on her waist and her red and white skirt fills with air, when finished, she pulls the cord again and it deflates. Upsy Daisy and Iggle Piggle are best friends. She sleeps in a flowery bed which has a mind of its own and occasionally chases her around the garden.

Makka Pakka
This is one of the smallest characters in the garden, Makka Pakka, likes nothing more than collecting and washing stones. He pushes his Og-pog (3 wheeled vehicle to transport his cleaning things around) and uses the soap and sponge to clean them. He also likes to clean the faces of his friends too. He lives in a small stone cave, and when he goes to sleep he cuddles up with his favourite stone.

Tombliboos
There are three of these tumbly toys, Unn, Ooo and Eee. They totter around as a group, and every now and again their trousers fall down. They live in a large green bush, which has various paths inside that look like a cross between curly wurlies and pretzels. Whilst inside this bush, they play the piano, bang the drums or stack and sort their building bricks. Each one is dressed in a two colour stripy all in one, their trousers are the same colours, but are spotty. Unn's clothes are red and green. Ooo's clothes are brown and pink and Eee's clothes are pink and yellow.

Pontipines
The Pontipines are a family of ten peg-dolls, Mum, Dad, 4 Boys and 4 girls, who live in a tiny white semi-detached house at the foot of a tree. The children often go out into the garden and Mrs Pontipine uses her binoculars to find them. This also encourages children to count them. The Pontipines where red clothes and red hats.

Wottingers
Family of ten, who live next door to the Pontipines. They look identical except they wear blue coats and hats. You don't often see the Wottingers, If you do see them, they are often waving at the Pontipines or dancing on the carousel.

Har-hoos
These are five enormous smiley inflatable characters, they roam around the garden gentle and sedately, they are so big they can stop the Ninky Nonk in its tracks. They are not featured much in the programs but they do come together at the end, when everyone goes to sleep.

Ninky Nonk
This is a strange train which is made up of 5 different sized and shaped carriages. The characters have their own carriage, but they do occasionally travel in different ones. The first one is red and orange stripy, in a u shape, with a large green ball on the top, this is the front of the train, and doesn't take any passengers. Next is a large green and yellow, spherical carriage with windows all round. Thirdly is a mini carriage which looks like the Pontipines house, and only they and the Wottingers would fit in there. Next is a tall red and blue vertically striped carriage, inside you have to go up some stairs to sit in the top part. Lastly, this carriage can only take one passenger, it is orange blue and yellow, Iglle Piggle likes to travel in here.
The Ninky Nonk, travels through hedges, up and down trees, it's always a bit of a bumpy ride, all characters must buckle themselves into their seats securely.
There are lights inside and outside the Ninky Nonk, They change flash and change colour when it is about to start moving, or coming to a stop.

Pinky Ponk
The Pinky Ponk is a large green airship. It is covered in different coloured spots, and speckled with many fins and landing lights. The characters travel in the part underneath, which gives them a great view of the garden. Just like the Ninky Nonk, it also has lights which flash, when it's about to take off and land.

Titifers
The Titifers are a group of coloured birds who sit in the trees and using their calling song, joins together to form a harmony. This tune acts as a signal to the characters in the night garden that it is bedtime. There are four blue birds with white chests, three pink birds which dip their heads to the music, two large green birds, and a toucan.

The Program
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Each program last for 30 minutes, you start off by Iggle Piggle sailing in his boat, he takes down the sail (his blanket) and using it to cover himself up, he drifts through the water, and the camera zooms in on the sky and the stars, the stars become the lights in the Night Garden, It almost appears as if Iggle Piggle is having a dream, you then see a hedge where the title appears and it's good then to guess whether you will see the Ninky Nonk or Pinky Ponk.

From here you go into the garden and the majority of the program tells a basic story, based around one character. All the other characters get involved at some point. Near the end they all have a dance on the carousel, then start to go to bed. The main character goes to bed but asks for a story first. A story is in picture form and is read to them and basically describes what you have just watched. They then go to sleep, all except Iggle Piggle who wonders down a stony path, we say night night to him and then see him back in his boat, fast asleep under the red blanket, with all the twinkling lights/stars above him.

Behind the Program
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In the Night Garden has been created by Anne Wood and Andy Davenport, they are also the creators of the ever popular Teletubbies.
As part of the 'Ragdoll' company they wanted to create a program which uses repetition and anticipation to build confidence, satisfaction and enjoyment, this is created at a pace and with characters that children under the age of 4 could understand.

From the Internet - Andy is the author and composer of the show. He drove the conceptual process - from the characters and their rhymes, to the architecture within the garden and the music in the show. He is a brilliant storyteller, and has written all of the 100 episodes. Anne has been fundamental in producing the programme. She is driven to innovate, and as a producer she has the vision and determination to fight for the best possible creative outcome.

Opinion
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It took me a while to understand all the characters, who they were and what they do. There is so much to learn, whether you're a child or adult. Each main character has their own song, I still don't know them by heart yet, my son Toby loves to dance and pretend he is Makka Pakka (or walnut whip as I've often heard him refered as) clapping his hands and touching his toes. There is also a new language to learn, I'm not going to tell you all about these as I'm sure you would love to see the program for yourself, and discover this wonderful magical garden. If you do go and have a look, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to. 

Toby first watched this with his Dad, once he got home from work each day, now it's part of his routine to watch it before he goes to bed. As it is on at 6.20pm on cbeebies, the timing doesn't work too well with his routine as the programs last for 30 minutes, so doesn't finish til 6.50pm. We have started to record each episode on sky+ then play an episode at 6pm to finish at 6.30pm, where we are then ready for bed. As each program finishes Toby waves to each character as they go to sleep, then gets up himself and heads towards the stairs.

At the moment In the Night Garden is being shown
Monday - Friday 8.30am BBC2
Monday - Friday 11.00am, 2.00pm & 6.20pm CBeebies
Saturday & Sunday 6.20pm CBeebies

I don't know what we'll do if the BBC changes their listings, maybe we'll have to buy a DVD to have on standby just in case.

As we have a few Christmas shop catalogues at home at the moment Toby loves to look through them, and gets very excited when he sees one of the characters, we can't walk through the book section in W.H.Smiths without him trying to grab the Night Garden books.

I must confess that I do like watching it myself, with Toby of course, it is funny, the pictures are bright and clear, although the language may be a bit unusual at times, you can talk to your child about what is on the screen, colours, counting etc. I feel this is a good program for children who don't like going to bed, you can encourage them to be like their friends Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy. It is a good show for children aged 1-4 yrs and just like the Teletubbies I think they will be around for a while.

Derek Jacobi is the narrator and he also sings the characters songs, his voice works well with the program, it is soft and soothing. I think he has done a very good job

Products
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As we are leading up to Christmas there are a variety of products available for your little ones, including dvds, cuddly toys, mini plastic toys, and a wide selection of books.

I'm sure stocks will run out of such items, as this is always the case when a popular program releases toys just in time for Christmas.

Night Garden products can be found in most toy shops and on many sites on the internet.

Further information
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For further information about the Night Garden you can go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/inthenightgarden
http://www.inthenightgarden.co.uk

For further information about Ragdoll and the other programs they produce you can visit:
http://www.ragdoll.co.uk

Thank you for entering the magical world of the Night Garden

Nicola x (9/11/07) 

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