Andrew Davenport, the genius behind Teletubbies, has come up with a new show “guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls,” BBC bosses claimed Sunday.
Davenport, an actor and puppeteer known as the “J.K. Rowling of the under-fives,” also wrote and made the worldwide hit In the Night Garden.
The British public broadcaster believes that his new series called Moon and Me will transport the next generation of toddlers to the Land of Nod.
It got its world premiere Sunday at the MIPJunior children’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’s pre-school CBeebies channel.
Commissioning editor Michael Towner called Davenport a “genius” and said the show’s calming combination of story and song is “guaranteed to stop children climbing the walls”.
“If any of you didn’t have a lump in your throat towards the end of that, you are not human and you shouldn’t be working with children,” he added, after the first work-in-progress episode was shown.
A mix of puppetry and stop-motion animation, Moon and Me 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 “onions”—Collywobble, Lilyplant and Lambkin. “‹