91Èȱ¬

BAFTA's children's channel of the year CBeebies is refreshing its early evening schedule for summer and reintroducing some familiar friends to help children settle down for bedtime. From Monday 30 May, loveable siblings Charlie And Lola are welcomed back to the CBeebies line-up alongside Lucy and her menagerie of exotic animal friends at 64 Zoo Lane.

These programmes will be followed by the soothing adventures of Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy in In The Night Garden and, as always, the familiar comfort of The Bedtime Story in the final slot of the day.

First broadcast on CBeebies in 2005, Charlie And Lola is based on the award-winning books by Lauren Child and follows the everyday cartoon adventures of inquisitive little sister Lola and her ever-patient brother Charlie.

And 64 Zoo Lane takes viewers on an adventurous tour of the globe as seven-year-old Lucy catches up with the animated antics of her myriad animal friends including Herbert the Warthog, Georgina the Giraffe and Isobel the Flamingo.

"We are always looking at ways to keep our schedule fresh and interesting for our young viewers without causing too much disruption to routines," says Controller of CBeebies Kay Benbow.

"We know that the bedtime hour is an important part of families' evening routines and we're sure that children will be delighted to settle down with some familiar friends as they prepare for bedtime."

Fans of current bedtime favourite Waybuloo will still be able to catch up with the Piplings every weekday at 11.15 and 15.10 and weekends at 13.00 on CBeebies.

And, as ever, parents and children can catch up with their favourite programmes at any time through the CBeebies iPlayer at .

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% 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.

CR