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'Genius' behind 'Teletubbies' in new go-to-sleep kids show

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Fiachra Gibbons, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/10/15/20181015_teletubbies.jpg"/><figcaption>Performers dressed as children&#x27;s toys and characters from television shows, including the Teletubbies, prepare to participate in the Hamleys Christmas Toy Parade on Regent Street in London on November 20, 2016. Niklas Hall&#x27;n, AFP</figcaption></figure></div>CANNES - &quot;Teletubbies&quot; creator Andrew Davenport has come up with a new show &quot;guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls&quot;, BBC bosses claimed Sunday.Davenport, an actor and puppeteer known as the &quot;J.K. Rowling of the under-fives&quot;, also wrote and made the worldwide hit &quot;In the Night Garden&quot;.The British public broadcaster believes that his new series called &quot;Moon and Me&quot; will transport the next generation of toddlers to the Land of Nod.It got its world premiere Sunday at the MIPJunior children&#x27;s entertainment market in Cannes, France. Davenport introduced the show by video link from Atlanta, Georgia, where he is rushing to finish the first series for the BBC&#x27;s pre-school CBeebies channel.Commissioning editor Michael Towner called Davenport a &quot;genius&quot; and said the show&#x27;s calming combination of story and song is &quot;guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls&quot;.&quot;If any of you didn&#x27;t have a lump in your throat towards the end of that, you are not human and you shouldn&#x27;t be working with children,&quot; he added, after the first work-in-progress episode was shown.A mix of puppetry and stop-motion animation, &quot;Moon and Me&quot; turns on a doll called Peppianna who lives in a toy house with her five friends including Mr Onions -- who begins every sentence by saying &quot;onions&quot; -- Collywobble, Lilyplant and Lambkin.Full of typically Davenport catchphrases such as &quot;Tiddle toddle&quot;, the show also contains a magical character called Moon Boy that could double for its creator.<div>CHILD OBSERVATION PROJECT</div>Towner described how Davenport -- a legend in pre-school television -- had turned up to his office in Salford with &quot;his trademark aluminium wheelie case and proceeded to unpack books tied in ribbon and individually wrapped boxes containing the clay maquettes of all the characters.&quot;As we read through the script, we looked at each other and said, &#x27;We have to have this!&#x27; But this being the BBC, we couldn&#x27;t afford to fully fund it but we asked him to find some partners for us and he did.&quot;The 50-episode show -- which has taken more than two and a half years to make -- will also be shown by Universal Kids in the US later this year.Davenport, who left his home in London for rural Georgia so he could work &quot;18-hour days on the show&quot;, said he wanted to create a &quot;toyhouse story for contemporary times&quot;.But before he wrote a single line, the former speech therapist spent months researching how small children interacted with toy houses.&quot;I worked with (psychologists at) the University of Sheffield to create a toyhouse play observation project. The house we were using was rigged with cameras and microphones so we could really get to see what it was like to be a toy subject to the play of a child.&quot;That threw up a whole load of interesting material that went into &#x27;Moon and Me&#x27;,&quot; he added.Davenport said the story &quot;revolves around a doll called Peppianna who comes alive when the Moon shines on her toy house. When she wakes up she writes a letter to the Moon... but little does she know that on the Moon lives a character called Moon Baby who comes down to ring the doorbell on the toy house and brings his moon magic to bring the other toys in the house to life.&quot;Towner said the series will &quot;anchor the &#x27;Bedtime Hour&#x27; on CBeebies&quot;, the sequence of yawn-inducing, eye-lid closing shows that helps hypnotize millions of British children off to bed at night.

"Teletubbies" creator Andrew Davenport has come up with a new show "guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls", BBC bosses claimed Sunday.

"Teletubbies" creator Andrew Davenport has come up with a new show "guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls", BBC bosses claimed Sunday.

'Genius' behind 'Teletubbies' in new go-to-sleep kids show

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'Genius' behind 'Teletubbies' in new go-to-sleep kids show

Fiachra Gibbons,

Agence France-Presse

Published Oct 15, 2018 08:14 AM PHT

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France

Britain

US

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children

Teletubbies

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