91Èȱ¬

CBeebies 2011

CBeebies Lights Up Little Learners

Reggie Yates breathes life into crime-busting animated mouse Rastamouse while children learn life lessons through vegetable gardening in Mr Bloom's Nursery.

Bafta's Children's Channel of the Year CBeebies today, Monday 31 January, unveiled its new season of distinctive pre-school programming that will continue to help its young audience learn through play.

Exciting new series include: Rastamouse, a colourful, musical animation based on the acclaimed books by Genevieve Webster and Michael De Souza; Mr Bloom's Nursery, which urges children to roll up their sleeves and learn valuable life lessons through the wonders of vegetable gardening; Raa Raa The Noisy Lion, a delightful new animation about a little lion who's just finding his voice; and Little Charley Bear which is designed to fire young children's imaginations.

Encouraging children to chortle is high on CBeebies' agenda with new series of comedy hits Gigglebiz and Timmy Time and creating a sense of wonder figures highly with new adventures for underwater heroes Octonauts and enchanting new homes for The Piplings in Waybuloo.

And innovative new online offerings Talkie Time (a partnership with 91Èȱ¬ Learning) and The Lingo Show inspire children to learn interactively about the magic of communication and different languages.

The channel continues to attract major UK talent to its programmes including James Corden (Little Charley Bear), James Bolam (Grandpa in My Pocket), Reggie Yates (Rastamouse) and stars including Sheila Hancock, Kimberley Walsh and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Bedtime Stories) while bringing on great fresh talent such as Mr Bloom's Nursery's Ben Faulks. It also cherishes its existing on-screen talent with Bafta-winning presenter Justin Fletcher 'signing up' for a two-year contract and preparing for a new show next summer.

Controller of CBeebies Kay Benbow says:

"We hope that our new season of programmes will help CBeebies become more accessible than ever before allowing children to get closer to their favourite shows. Mr Bloom's Nursery, our first in-house production from our new home in the North West, was filmed on location in Stockport and Manchester and, following the success of last year's series of Mr Maker Comes To Town, we'll be taking I Can Cook on the road this year."

"We're dedicated to ensuring that children see their lives reflected on screen, regardless of their ability or background, and most of all we hope that they're inspired by our programmes in a fun way to learn a little bit more about the world around them".

The 91Èȱ¬'s recent Strategy Review made the provision of quality children's programming one of its top five editorial priorities.

Notes to Editors:

CBeebies is dedicated to delighting and surprising its young audience and it remains the UK's most watched and most loved channel for the under-sixes.

Almost half of the target audience tune in every week (parents and carers with children aged 0-3 and four- to six-year-olds in digital homes) with 55 per cent saying it is one of their favourite channels. Our reach is around three times that of our nearest competitor.

Our most popular shows include In The Night Garden, I Can Cook, Something Special and Waybuloo. New shows this year include Rastamouse, Little Charley Bear, Mr Bloom's Nursery and a brand-new series for CBeebies favourite Justin Fletcher.

The CBeebies website is also hugely popular with our young audience and their parents and helps extend the 'learning through play' philosophy. Last year it averaged at just under 800k unique users.

CBeebies has just been crowned Bafta's Children's Channel of the Year and is also Freesat Children's Channel of the Year.

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