{"id":3294,"date":"2015-12-21T22:08:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T22:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3294"},"modified":"2015-12-21T22:08:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T22:08:56","slug":"watch-with-father-7-something-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3294","title":{"rendered":"Watch With Father #7: Something Special"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if you pay no attention to pre-school television, it’s\u00a0quite\u00a0possible that\u00a0Mr Tumble has still managed to impinge on your consciousness, at least if you’re British. \u00a0Mr Tumble is\u00a0the signature creation of Justin Fletcher. \u00a0And if\u00a0anyone\u00a0in pre-school TV counts as a megastar, it’s Justin Fletcher.<\/p>\n

His shows are in near-permanent rotation on CBeebies. \u00a0He\u00a0stars in three – there’s Mr Tumble’s home show\u00a0Something Special<\/em>, the sketch show\u00a0Gigglebiz<\/em>, and the pantomime sitcom\u00a0Justin’s House<\/em>. \u00a0But those are just the shows that he fronts. \u00a0He also crops up as a voice artist in\u00a0Tweenies<\/em> and\u00a0Timmy Time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Something Special<\/em>\u00a0wasn’t his first show, but it was his first star vehicle. \u00a0The\u00a0format is as straightforward as it gets. \u00a0In every episode,\u00a0the gentle, childlike clown\u00a0Mr Tumble magically despatches his Spotty Bag to the real world, where\u00a0Justin is doing something or other with some kids. \u00a0In the bag, there are pictures of three “special things” which Mr Tumble would like Justin and his friends to look for.<\/p>\n

Roughly half of each episode is Justin looking for the “special things” along with the kids, and joining in with them in whatever activities they happen to prompt. \u00a0Actually finding them is not really portrayed as a challenge – you’re just supposed to point them out and wave or cheer in recognition. \u00a0The other half of each episode – the framing sequence and an extended sketch in the middle – is Mr Tumble, often with other members\u00a0of the extended\u00a0Tumble family, all also\u00a0played by Justin Fletcher. \u00a0There’s a Grandad Tumble, a Lord Tumble,\u00a0an Aunt Polly (a pantomime dame), a baker, a sailor – you get the idea. \u00a0And at\u00a0various points in the show,\u00a0we’re taught a new sign in Makaton.<\/p>\n

Makaton is a\u00a0sign language which was principally designed to be used\u00a0alongside speech, by people with learning and communication difficulties. \u00a0But its creators say it can also be\u00a0useful with young children more generally. \u00a0This\u00a0is the unspoken central point of\u00a0Something Special<\/em>. \u00a0The\u00a0children are all\u00a0disabled, and\u00a0while there’s some variation from show to show, the show doesn’t take the easy route in its casting;\u00a0many are very seriously limited in their communication and their interaction. \u00a0But aside from the fact that Makaton is being used, nobody ever points this out or comments on it in any way.<\/p>\n

When the show was first commissioned, it’s unlikely that anyone thought of it as a potential hit. \u00a0Its first\u00a0episodes weren’t even aired in the children’s slot – they were consigned to\u00a0the backwater of BBC2\u00a0schools programming. \u00a0Now, though, it sits happily in the\u00a0CBeebies schedule, treated as\u00a0a completely mainstream\u00a0programme.<\/p>\n

It’s not unprecedented for a show initially aimed at\u00a0viewers with disabilities to reach\u00a0a wider audience.\u00a0\u00a0Vision On\u00a0<\/em>did it\u00a0back in the 1970s<\/a>, to the point where it span off the entirely mainstream kids’ art show Take Hart<\/em>. \u00a0But\u00a0Vision On<\/em>‘s crossover appeal was easy to see. \u00a0Its remit was to entertain deaf children; its approach\u00a0was to\u00a0downplay\u00a0language altogether and go for visual communication instead. \u00a0The result was a highly\u00a0inventive and distinctive show with an obvious broader appeal.<\/p>\n

Something Special<\/em>\u00a0doesn’t have that flash, but\u00a0it’s equally distinctive in its own way. \u00a0Under the hood, it’s a very simple,\u00a0traditional show\u00a0of a sort that nobody else really makes any more. \u00a0A traditional, if gentle and unthreatening, clown does some physical comedy. \u00a0A nice presenter meets some kids and they look at some interesting things. \u00a0The simplicity is partly because the target audience are assumed to be working hard to follow it. \u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0on a pre-school channel, that applies to\u00a0a lot of the younger viewers anyway. \u00a0Hence the potential appeal\u00a0to the very young generally.<\/p>\n

The show’s current positioning, as a mainstream show which just happens to have a lot of disabled kids, is in line with\u00a0CBeebies’ broader approach of\u00a0portraying\u00a0disabilities as something everyday and unremarkable. \u00a0Disabled children\u00a0show up on\u00a0Swashbuckle<\/em> from time to time, with\u00a0appropriate modifications to the format. \u00a0Melody\u00a0<\/em>is\u00a0basically an introduction to classical music, but has a visually impaired girl as its title character. \u00a0(Less obviously, the animations are also apparently designed to be extra-accessible\u00a0to the visually impaired.) \u00a0And since\u00a02009, the rotation of\u00a0continuity announcers has included Cerrie Burnell, whose right arm stops just below the elbow. \u00a0The Daily Mail said\u00a0it would scare the kids. \u00a0It doesn’t.<\/p>\n

If anything,\u00a0Something Special<\/em> is vaguely unusual in featuring\u00a0exclusively<\/em> disabled children, but I suspect\u00a0the alternative\u00a0would involve an awkwardly wider age\u00a0range. \u00a0Ultimately, the show has the nerve to\u00a0commit to a very simple format. \u00a0And if you’re going to do something simple, you need to do it really well. \u00a0Fletcher does. \u00a0He’s a very good character comedian, which becomes more obvious when you see the wider range of characters he\u00a0does for\u00a0Gigglebiz,\u00a0<\/em>but it’s still readily apparent from the range of\u00a0variations on Mr Tumble that he gets to play here.<\/p>\n

There have been occasional attempts to try and\u00a0take Mr Tumble beyond this format. \u00a0Fletcher certainly knows better than to try and install him in the\u00a0comparatively rapid-fire\u00a0world\u00a0of\u00a0Gigglebiz<\/em>,\u00a0where his languid pace would be totally wrong. \u00a0But there\u00a0was a live show earlier this year,\u00a0The Tale of Mr Tumble<\/em> – filmed for CBeebies, like a lot of spin-off theatre – which\u00a0tries to do an origin story for him. \u00a0I’m not going to say it didn’t work – the kids\u00a0loved it, after all – but\u00a0you really have to bend the character to make him\u00a0into a protagonist. \u00a0He’s not designed for it. \u00a0Nothing about him cries out for a back story. \u00a0He is childlike\u00a0and unchanging and his natural home is a five minute sketch in which he tries to find a missing hula hoop. \u00a0On\u00a0Something Special<\/em>, he’s comedy with training wheels for the very young,\u00a0though with enough subtleties to make his segments pretty entertaining for the parents too.<\/p>\n

The real-world\u00a0sections call for something different. \u00a0You have to speak slowly and clearly\u00a0to\u00a0make it as easy as possible for the audience to follow. \u00a0Many\u00a0of the children are very limited in their ability to interact with Justin. \u00a0Pitched slightly wrong, it could so easily seem awkward or\u00a0patronising. \u00a0But it doesn’t. \u00a0It works because, above all else, it simply feels sincere\u00a0–\u00a0there’s\u00a0a sense of genuine, unsullied conviction\u00a0in what the show is\u00a0doing. \u00a0There’s something wonderfully pure about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That’s one\u00a0aspect of the Justin Fletcher empire. \u00a0Next time,\u00a0Gigglebiz<\/em> and\u00a0Justin’s House<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even if you pay no attention to pre-school television, it’s\u00a0quite\u00a0possible that\u00a0Mr Tumble has still managed to impinge on your consciousness, at least if you’re British. \u00a0Mr Tumble is\u00a0the signature creation of Justin Fletcher. \u00a0And if\u00a0anyone\u00a0in pre-school TV counts as a megastar, it’s Justin Fletcher. His shows are in near-permanent rotation on CBeebies. \u00a0He\u00a0stars in three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watch-with-father"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3296,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3294\/revisions\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}