In The Night Garden

***In the Night Garden*** is a British live-action preschool children's television series, aimed at children aged from one to six years old. It is produced by Ragdoll Productions. Andrew Davenport created, wrote, and composed the title theme and incidental music for all 100 episodes. It was produced by Davenport and Anne Wood, the team that also co-created *Teletubbies*. The programme is narrated by Derek Jacobi. It is filmed mostly in live action, and features a mix of actors in costume, puppetry and computer animation. The characters include Iggle Piggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka, the Tombliboos, the Pontipines, the Wottingers, the Haahoos, the Ninky Nonk and the Pinky Ponk.

The first episode was first broadcast on 19 March 2007. Two series were made, with 100 episodes in all. The BBC confirmed in 2010 that it would not be commissioning another series. The show's budget was £14.5 million.

The programme's creators have said that it is designed to relax and entertain its intended audience of one- to six-year-olds.

## Overview

The programme features a large cast of colourful characters with unusual names who live in a magical forest scattered with large daisies and brightly coloured flowers. The characters mostly speak short phrases, and each has their own special song and dance. The garden is a sunny, colourful environment and the music is jaunty and music box-like. Producer Anne Wood said:

Each episode starts with a different child in bed, while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. Then the camera pans up to the sky and zooms in, followed by flowers. After the title appears under a hedge, either the Ninky Nonk or the Pinky Ponk appears. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the magical 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 dance together under the Gazebo.

Igglepiggle 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 turns into the night sky and Igglepiggle is seen asleep on his boat as the end credits roll.

*In the Night Garden...* is intended to help children relax and achieve calming relationships with parents. Wood states: "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 getting everything up."

In 2007 and 2008, the show won the Children's BAFTA for "Pre-school live action," as well as being nominated in 2009.

## Broadcast

Until 29 March 2008, the show aired on the CBeebies channel every day, including weekends, at 6:25 PM in the "Bedtime Hour" slot, in addition to earlier daytime showings on weekdays. From 29 March until 29 August 2008, *In The Night Garden...* was removed from its 6:25 PM "Bedtime Hour" slot, which resulted in a petition 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 *In the Night Garden...* hadn't been on and it was daylight outside."

The show returned to the daily "Bedtime Hour" slot at 6:20 pm as of 30 August 2008, and began showing the second series (beginning with "Slow Down Everybody") on 1 September 2008.