Balamory
New to CBeebies - from Monday 2 September
What's the story from Balamory?
Meet
the residents of Balamory this Autumn on CBeebies, in a new, live
action daily programme for pre-school children, set around the adventures
of the small island community of Balamory, in Scotland.
The
cast is a mixture of children and adults - the young children of
the local nursery and their teacher, Miss Hoolie.
These
regular characters will be joined by PC Plum, Archie the Inventor,
Spencer the Painter, Edie McCredie the bus driver, Josie Jump the
fitness instructor, and Susie Sweet and Penny Pocket who run the
local sweet shop.
Each
programme will blend drama and documentary to provide and entertaining
and informative experience for viewers, as well as some new, larger
than life friends in the shape of the regular characters.
Each
day's stories are set in the picturesque village of Balamory, where
pretty, coloured houses nestle around a charming harbour.
As
well as the narrative of the day's events, each programme will contain
colour songs, puzzles, poems, dances and a Story of the Day, all
revolving around Balamory life.
PC Plum
PC
Plum is a warm-hearted gentle community policeman, who can always
be spotted riding around town on his policeman's bicycle.
He
sharpens his investigative skills in the sleepy town by keeping
a close check on the local flora and fauna.
As
a result, he has a wide knowledge of both these and the wildlife
that lives and feeds upon the island.
He
has been known to stop traffic for hours to let a hedgehog or a
family of toads to cross the road and finds great satisfaction following
a snail's silvery trail to its woodland hideout.
With
a swish of his trusty magnifying glass, every footprint, every call,
every plant or animal of every type will be identified by PC Plum's
keen eye.
He
enjoys sharing the tales of his adventures on the island with the
villagers over a hot cup of tea. In fact, you've only to brew a
fresh pot of Darjeeling in Balamory and you can be certain that
PC Plum will be ringing your doorbell before you've a chance to
say "One lump or two?"
PC
Plum is something of an innocent with simplistic boundaries; he
is a good blocking character, dressed in his smart uniform, he adores
rules and organisation as well as the great outdoors.
He
loves being a policeman more than anything else. He longs to one
day emulate his grandfathers feats of crime detection, by catching
a criminal or solving some dastardly crime, even though he has only
ever arrested a mischievous magpie for stealing one of Miss Hoolie's
sparkliest earrings.
PC
Plum has a nephew who attends the nursery and this dutiful uncle
sometimes takes him to the nursery in the mornings.
Miss
Hoolie
Miss
Hoolie is the nursery school teacher, the narrator and the inspiration
for the series.
Bright,
sparkly, humorous, forgetful, engaging, warm, quirky, in fact she
is every child's dream teacher and the source from which all the
stories radiate.
Something
of an eccentric, she has a cheeky sense of humour. She is fearless
and exudes positivity, always certain that every question has an
answer, whether it is right or wrong hardly seems important as long
as the mind is stimulated.
She
loves children and empathises with their simplistic outlook on the
world. She has a special soft spot for both PC Plum and Suzie Sweet.
She
identifies in many ways with the shopkeepers carefree nature. The
one person, sometimes at odds with Miss Hoolie, is Penny Pocket
and her obsession with adding and subtraction; mathematics was never
Miss Hoolie's strong point.
Edie
McCredie the Bus Driver
Edie
McCredie drives the Balamory nursery school bus. She is a cheery,
strong, determined, down to earth highlander with a passion for
travel, especially on buses.
She
has visited the four corners of the world, from Antarctica to the
Gobi desert and has framed photographs and souvenirs from her many
trips covering the walls of her home.
Her
passion for busses has led to her living above the bus garage, which
she enters via a fireman's pole descending through the floor of
her living room.
She
knows everything there is to know about engines and the way they
work and occasionally gets exasperated with other road users, especially
PC Plum and Spencer, who seem to be eternally blocking her path
on the narrow winding roads around Balamory.
Josie
Jump the fitness instructor
Josie
is in charge of physical education at the primary school next door
to Miss Hoolie's nursery school.
She
is mad about movement and dance and her enthusiasm isn't only reserved
to the gym or dance classes but covers all aspects of sport.
She
referees the football and the rugby, is captain of the swimming
team, she coaches basketball and has been the Balamory cricket teams
top scorer for two seasons on the trot.
Josie
also has a real gift for telling stories via expression, movement
and dance.
This
is a gift, which comes in very handy both when she's teaching and
when she is performing another invaluable community role as childminder.
Archie
the inventor
This
character lives in the pink turreted tower of an old castle and
occasionally helps Miss Hoolie at the nursery school, where he uses
his talents for making things.
His
castle tower houses his wide ranging set of salvaged items from
which he constructs his various madcap inventions.
Among
the number are vintage yoghurt pots, plastic bottles, pebbles, newspapers,
cardboard boxes and reams and reams of sticky tape and string.
Each
invention is generally aimed at helping to make both his and his
chums lives a little easier, though his intervention can sometimes
create havoc.
He
is aided at times by Nobby, the robot.
Penny
Pocket and Suzie Sweet the shop owners
Suzie
Sweet and Penny Pocket run the village shop and café.
Suzie
is everyone's favourite granny. Penny is in her early twenties and
is a wheelchair user.
Suzie
has owned the traditional styled general store in Balamory for many,
many years. She loves to tell the customers tales about every item
sold in her shop.
For
example, if you buy some potted salmon from Suzie you will also
get, free of charge, a potted history of the fishes journey through
the raging Atlantic waves and along fast flowing rivers and streams
to reach your dinner plate.
Penny's
talents lie not in her imagination but in her logic. Give her a
puzzle or a mathematical problem to solve and she will have the
answer before you can say 'Two tins of baked beans please'.
Suzie
is older than Penny and has a large collection of grandchildren
who are regularly to be found in the shop and the café, where
the lure of toys, scones and books, all housed under the one roof,
can prove irresistible
Spencer
the painter
Spencer's
job is to paint the coloured houses that line the harbour front
and streets of Balamory.
In
his spare time, he loves to paint pictures. He is an eternally cheery
individual, who sees the world as simply a variety of wonderful
colours and sounds.
He
travels around the island on his rickardy, brightly coloured bicycle,
complete with a trailer, which houses his collection of paint pots,
brushes, extendable ladders and a variety of his percussive musical
instruments.
His
ladder is musical too, with each painted rung acting like a musical
scale, ascending and descending.
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