Children’s TV – parsian news

‘A magical, vibrant, fantasy world’: the joyous kids’ TV show revolutionising disability onscreen

After a mum despaired of children’s toys’ failure to represent disability, she went on to create a glorious, colourful television series. This is her storySeven years ago, I sat at my desk and asked myself some big questions. Could I devise a children’…

After a mum despaired of children’s toys’ failure to represent disability, she went on to create a glorious, colourful television series. This is her story

Seven years ago, I sat at my desk and asked myself some big questions. Could I devise a children’s TV show which bursts from screens like a candy store of creativity? One that is bright, sweet and funny, capturing the magic of play and the limitless ability of young children to transcend reality and disappear into their own imaginations? Could I play with the conventions of children’s programming – which had historically excluded 150 million disabled children worldwide – and draw on my own experience as a disabled person to create a world so tangible that little fingers would long to reach in beyond the screen and hold the cute stop-motion characters in their hands?

These questions led to the creation of Mixmups. It’s a new 52-part series about three friends – Pockets the bear, Giggle the cat and Spin the rabbit – who transport themselves on playful adventures along with their guardian, the comical trunk-beaked Lucky Loover Bird. Each episode begins with the friends cooking up an idea for play – to go to space for a moon cheese sandwich, find a magical library where all the books can talk or catch a lost dream in a jar so that they can remember it for ever. They place toys and objects into a blue mixing box, add some sparkles and, using their magical wooden spoon, “Mix up the magic” (of play and imagination) and get swallowed inside the box on an adventure.

‘I was a shaking, gibbering wreck’: ex-Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding claims she was ‘bullied’ on the show

Fielding says the first year of working on the show was a ‘traumatic’ experience that included being forced to live with the Blue Peter dog against her willTV presenter Yvette Fielding, who made her name as the youngest ever host of Blue Peter, has cla…

Fielding says the first year of working on the show was a ‘traumatic’ experience that included being forced to live with the Blue Peter dog against her will

TV presenter Yvette Fielding, who made her name as the youngest ever host of Blue Peter, has claimed she was bullied while working on the kids’ TV show. The host, who was 18 when she first appeared on the BBC series, says the treatment she received was so bad that if a young presenter was treated similarly today there “would be quite a few implications”.

“I felt very lonely because I was the youngest. I was considered a kid – and a pain in the arse of a kid,” Fielding told the podcast Celebrity Catch-Up: Life After That Thing I Did. “So I didn’t enjoy the first year. I found it very traumatic.”

Hey Duggee at the Cinema! review – CBeebies earns its movie badge

An hour-long compilation of favourite preschool TV episodes brings simple pleasures for toddlers and in-jokes for the grownupsAs regular viewers of the BBC’s preschoolers channel CBeebies will know, Hey Duggee is an animated series about a friendly dog…

An hour-long compilation of favourite preschool TV episodes brings simple pleasures for toddlers and in-jokes for the grownups

As regular viewers of the BBC’s preschoolers channel CBeebies will know, Hey Duggee is an animated series about a friendly dog who runs Squirrel Club, an activity group for assorted youngsters of all species: mouse, crocodile, hippo. (Everybody’s welcome in this inclusive, anthropomorphic utopia.) Alexander Armstrong narrates in plummy, jolly tones, animator andassistant director Sander Jones does Duggee’s droll “woofs”, while young actors voice the rest of the cast.

This package, assembled for theatrical release, collates several of the show’s best episodes and it’s not hard to see why the series is so treasured by fans of all ages. Much like Peppa Pig, which it resembles a little too closely, the character design, supersaturated colour palette and highly stylised animation have an easily decipherable, eminently replicable simplicity, all the better to appeal to young minds and spawn a million items of merchandise. Every plot revolves around an effort by the troop to win badges, like Cubs or Brownies. Troop leader Duggee awards them to those who have completed tasks such as running an obstacle course.