Fun Song Factory

Fun Song Factory is a British preschool children's television series and video series. It was originally created in 1994 by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan, who at the time, were part of the Playdays production team. The series was produced through their studio Tell-Tale Productions and was originally released as a Direct-to-video series through Abbey Home Entertainment (and later PolyGram Video)'s "Tempo-Pre-School" imprint.

Format
The series centers around a factory where music is created. In it, live presenters alongside children come inside and sing a number of nursery rhymes, which depend on per episode.

Versions

Live Shows
The series began as a series of direct-to-video features that were recorded live in front of an audience of children.

The first Fun Song Factory was released on 1 December 1994, and released as part of a series of original straight-to-video content commissioned by Abbey Home Entertainment's Abbey Broadcast Communications subsidiary. It was filmed at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, presented by Iain Lauchlan, Sarah Davison and Dave Benson Phillips, a team of children known as "Factory Workers", and costumed versions of Postman Pat, Rupert Bear, SuperTed and Dusty the Dinosaur making special guest appearances.

Following the commercial success of the feature, Abbey commissioned Tell-Tale to produce a second feature, recorded at the Chicken Shed in North London. Released on 5 January 1996, Fun Song Factory 2 was presented by Iain, Dave and Michelle Durler, with a new selection of factory workers, and Postman Pat, Rupert Bear and SuperTed returning as special guests.

Following the success of the second tape and the purchase of a stake in Abbey by PolyGram, several additional commissions were made. Party Time at the Fun Song Factory, released on 26 July 1996, began a transition to a standard format, featuring a standard factory set, and a cast of original characters being added - A fully-costumed dog character named Ozzy Octave (voiced by Nick Mercer), the foreman of the Fun Song Factory, and the puppets Fred Fixer (voiced by Iain Lauchlan), Talking paint pots and Sally Cat (voiced by Sally Preisig). Iain, Sarah and Dave reprised their roles as presenters once again, and this would continue through to The Fun Song Factory at Old MacDonald's Farm (28 September 1996), Christmas at the Fun Song Factory (30 November 1996), Fun Song Factory - Fun and Games (24 September 1997), which featured Katy Stephens instead of Sarah Davison and special guest stars Postman Pat, SuperTed and Bump the Elephant, and Fun Song Factory - Nursery Rhyme Land (5 November 1997), featuring a special guest appearance from SuperTed.

All seven DTV volumes were reissued in 2002 by Universal Pictures Video.

GMTV Series (1998)
After the original 7 videos sold a combined total of 750,000 copies in the UK, GMTV commissioned a television series in 1998, consisting of twenty-three episodes. Dave Benson Phillips now became the main presenter, and appeared in every episode. Other presenters rotated from a selection of four - Katy Stephens, who previously appeared on Fun Song Factory: Fun and Games, Karl Woolley, a producer for Tell-Tale Productions, Justin Fletcher, who made his television debut role in the series, and Alex Lovell, who also made her television debut.

Nick Mercer reprises his role as Ozzy Octave and also performed Old MacDonald in the episode "Farm Animals" (whom Lauchlan previously appeared as in The Fun Song Factory at Old MacDonald's Farm), Lauchlan would reprise the role of Fred and Preisig would reprise the role of Sally, The paint pots would also return. A new character, a talking factory hooter named Hooter was introduced.

The GMTV series was nominated for a BAFTA in 1998.

Episodes

Home Video releases 
All twenty-three episodes have been released on various VHS tapes, released by Abbey Home Entertainment and later PolyGram Video/Universal Pictures Video.

CITV series (2004) 
In 2004, CITV commissioned Tell-Tale Productions to create a rebooted version of the series, consisting of 52 10-minute episodes. Following Tell-Tale's purchase by Entertainment Rights in September 2004, the rebooted series went under the ER umberella.

The 2004 series was formatted similarly to other children's music shows like Hi-5, where in addition to the show's action songs, every episode featured a pop song. The 2004 series also ditched using presenters, instead using a cast of characters with acting names who appeared in every episode: Melody (Laura Hamilton), OJ and Cookie (Chris Till and Aston Merrygold, the latter being later part of the boyband JLS), Paige (Polly Parsons) and Cal (Kerry Newell).

Ozzy Octave and the paint pots were the only characters who returned for the 2004 series, with Ozzy now voiced by Justin Fletcher. A new character was also introduced, Ozzy's nephew named Harry (voiced by Jane H. Pickworth).

Live Show
In 2006, a live show produced by Imagine Theatre (under license from Entertainment Rights) featuring the cast toured theatres across the United Kingdom. The show featured brand new songs that were not heard in the TV series. A series of shows performed at Butlins holiday parks in June 2008 featured Dave Benson Phillips and Emma Quintin as presenters.

DVD Releases
In the United Kingdom, a double-VHS/DVD release of the series, titled "Favourite Songs"/"Farm" was released by Universal Pictures Video and Right Entertainment in August 2005. Containing twelve episode altogether.

In Singapore, HVN Entertainment released thirteen 4-episode DVD and VCD volumes of the series that made up the entire series. The volumes were titled "In the Countryside", "Songs to Please", "In the Town", "Things That Grow", "Transport", "Birds", "Sailors", "Words", "Kings & Queens", "Energy", "Important People", "In the Garden" and "Friends".

Album
In 2006, an album containing several action songs from the show was released by Demon Music Group under their "Little Demon" imprint and Right Records, titled "Songsational".

Magical Musical Market
In 2019 creator and original presenter Iain Lauchlan produced a new series titled "Magical Musical Market" for his production company "Checky Chimps TV". The show is designed to fit a similar format as Fun Song Factory itself but instead is set in a market. Lauchlan presents each episode along with two children. The children visit a different stall and meet its owner (played by Lauchlan) and then sing a song related to an item being sold. At the beginning of each episode Lauchlan and the children must sing a song in order for the market to open. Many of the songs featured were carried over from Fun Song. Episodes were also broadcast on its official YouTube channel.

References 

1998 British television series debuts
2004 British television series endings
1990s preschool education television series
2000s preschool education television series
British children's musical groups
British preschool education television series
British television shows featuring puppetry
ITV children's television shows
ITV comedy