{"id":3352,"date":"2016-02-01T23:20:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3352"},"modified":"2016-02-01T23:20:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T23:20:17","slug":"watch-with-father-9-balamory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3352","title":{"rendered":"Watch With Father #9: Balamory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, last time\u00a0I said this was going to be Katie Morag.<\/em>\u00a0 But there are two shows on CBeebies set in the Inner Hebrides,\u00a0and they couldn’t have much less in common, which is kind of interesting. \u00a0Balamory<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0aimed squarely at the nursery crowd. \u00a0And\u00a0Katie Morag<\/em>\u00a0isn’t. \u00a0And it makes sense to do\u00a0Balamory<\/em> first.<\/p>\n

Balamory<\/em> was one of the first major commissions of the fledgling CBeebies station in 2002. \u00a0It doesn’t show its age too badly\u00a0– some of the CGI in the credits is starting to look\u00a0a bit ropey,\u00a0and\u00a0the nursery computer is\u00a0visibly of an earlier generation, but otherwise it holds up. \u00a0It ran for four years,\u00a0and while the precise number of episodes seems to vary depending on which source you look at, everyone seems to agree that it’s somewhere north of two hundred and thirty. \u00a0And by some accounts,\u00a0even then, the\u00a0main reason for ending it was that the cast wanted to move on.<\/p>\n

Like many of the best shows for the very young,\u00a0Balamory<\/em> is a\u00a0format\u00a0show,\u00a0which plugs its stories into endless variations on the same\u00a0formula so that\u00a0the viewers can follow along nicely. \u00a0Balamory itself is a Hebridean\u00a0village where all the\u00a0regular characters live, in their own brightly coloured houses. \u00a0It was shot in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull,\u00a0which already had lots of coloured houses, making life much easier for everyone.<\/p>\n

There are eight regular characters –\u00a0Miss Hooley the nursery teacher (who is effectively the host and narrator), Spencer the painter,\u00a0Archie the inventor, Edie McCredie the bus driver, Josie Jump the fitness enthusiast, Penny\u00a0Pocket and Susie Sweet the shop\/cafe owners, and PC Plum,\u00a0who has so little actual crime-solving to do\u00a0that he appears to mostly occupy himself with cycling and\u00a0birdwatching.<\/p>\n

So this is the format. \u00a0As the credits end,\u00a0we see Miss Hooley leave her house and walk to either the nursery or the cafe (depending on whether she’s working that day). \u00a0Once there, she greets the viewer and lets us know what the weather is in Balamory today. \u00a0Character A comes by and establishes a problem. \u00a0It is decided that character A should visit character B, who may be able to assist. \u00a0Character A then “Which Coloured\u00a0House Are We Going To?”, inviting the viewer to speculate on which coloured we are going to. \u00a0In a calypso. \u00a0Character A then goes to Character B’s house and, after\u00a0further discussion, we establish that Character B is unable to help, but that Character C might be\u00a0the one to try. \u00a0Character C will then do their theme song (all of it, with the middle\u00a0eight and the fade out). \u00a0Character A visits Character C and recaps the plot. \u00a0Character C then saves the day by joining A (and sometimes B and Miss Hooley) in solving the problem using their own particular skill. \u00a0So Archie will show you how to make something, Spencer will do something arty, you get the idea. \u00a0Generally\u00a0some nursery children are involved at this point.\u00a0 Miss Hooley then recaps the\u00a0story again, and\u00a0goes home to end the episode. \u00a0Pretty much every standard episode is like this. \u00a0Sometimes a guest character shows up, but not often.<\/p>\n

The genius of this is that, while it’s entirely predictable on one level, it’s also\u00a0vastly flexible, because\u00a0there are so many permutations in there, and\u00a0a virtual infinity of\u00a0problems that you can use as a set-up. \u00a0Of course, if you’re devoting that much time in every episode to the songs, they need to be\u00a0good. \u00a0But they are. \u00a0Balamory<\/em> is earworm central (and they refreshed some of the songs after a couple of years, too). \u00a0More to the point, though, the show is diligent\u00a0both in taking advantage of all the available variations, and also holding some of them back for special occasions. \u00a0So,\u00a0as I mentioned, the credits sequence ends with Miss Hooley leaving her house. \u00a0They need two versions of that,\u00a0depending on whether she’s going to work or to the cafe. \u00a0But because\u00a0she then goes on to talk about the weather, they actually need several more, because the credits do indeed change to reflect what she’s going to say about the weather. \u00a0It\u00a0usually seems to be sun or rain, but there are other options\u00a0that crop up when the plot requires.<\/p>\n