In the Night Garden

As there are several little monsters living with Mrs. G and me here in the swamp the television programmes watched are often what they want to watch.

In the main Cbeebies tends to be the channel of choice. There are some superb programmes on there. Doodle do and Charlie and Lola are favourites of the big and little monsters alike. There is also some utter rubbish. The Roly Mo Show and the Bobinogs are truly awful.

The latest addition to the Cbeebies stable is 'In the night garden'. It seems to be pitched at the same age group as the teletubbies but less post apocalyptic in tone. Who controls the loud speakers that ascend from the flower beds to issue instructions to the hapless teletubbies?

ITNG - has a cast of fairly distinct characters that don't actually seem to do that much and what they do is repetitive in the extreme. If you haven't seen it go to the CBeebies website to get a flavour. But it's quite good natured and seems to hold our 2 year old in raptures - which is probably the point. I can't make up my mind as to the particular qualities of the programme and may well have ended up being dismissive if it weren't for the fact that Derek Jacobi both narrates and sings throughout. Having the Emperor Claudius singing and clucking throughout is surprising and does give the programme a degree of credibility. Perhaps if Jacobi is to be forever linked to Grave's view of the worlds view of the 4th Julio-Claudian Emperor perhaps Jacobi is still playing to type.