Balamory is a live action TV series on British television channels BBC1,BBC2 and ceebies for pre-school children, based around the fictional small island community of Balamory in Scotland. It was produced between 1999 and 2005 by BBC Scotland, with 254 episodes (Including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode) made. A select series of episodes was shown for two brief seasons in the United States on the Discovery Kids channel. All Episodes were shown, and are still shown on RTE Twos The Den weekday mornings at 9:25
Within Balamory they have tried to give 'general' jobs to the characters however also give it a children's twist on it. For example Nursery teacher, Inventor, Fitness instructor, Bus driver, Police man, Painter/Musician and a shop/cafe owner. Even though many of these jobs are actual jobs of some parents i feel that the Inventor (Archie) is more of a one for children as he also lives in the Pink Castle. There was also another character which was planned for the show, but was not included. Following the lead of popular children's programmes such as 'Dora the Explorer' and 'Fifi and the Flowertots', there was going to be a 'bad' or 'mischievous' character, designed as a deterrent to bad behaviour. The planned name for this character was allegedly Millie Mischief, but the plans for this 'bad' character were cancelled by the producers as it was 'a bad influence'
Typical Episode:
A typical episode begins with Miss Hoolie opening the nursery and telling the audience what the weather is like in Balamory on the day, and then meeting one of the other main characters who has a "problem" that can be solved by visiting another main character. The main character with the problem sings and dances to a calypso-style song to decide which of the coloured houses "is the one for me" (i.e. is the one where the helpful character lives), and then makes a procession of visits to various characters until the problem is solved. For example, Josie Jump is looking after her neighbour's rabbit and needs to know how to look after it, so she goes to visit PC Plum who advises her to feed it some vegetables. Josie then decides to go to Pocket and Sweet to buy some rabbit food, then takes the rabbit to the nursery so the children can play with it.
At each visit, the progress of the story to date is summarised by drawing a rainbow of balloons in the air with the hands. The balloons burst to reveal a flashback summary of today's "story in Balamory" narrated by the visitor. The entire story is also summarised at the end of each programme by Miss Hoolie.
Each episode of Balamory contains at least four songs;
- Opening song (What's The Story In Balamory?)
- Miss Hoolie Song (Nursery Song or a Day Off song depending on if it is a working day or a day off)
- Which Coloured House Are We Going To? - A song that a character sings a song. Is also had the instrumental version for Miss Hoolie to narrate at the end of each episode.
- One or more character song
The programme is aimed at pre-schoolers, though the interactions between Miss Hoolie and PC Plum have attracted speculation from adult viewers with regard to their "will-they-won't-they?" relationship. The programme's creator had intended it as a "soap opera for children". The show can also be seen in a humorous light. The characters in Balamory are somewhat naive and light-hearted; often appearing to be children trapped in adult bodies with adult roles. The entire storyline often revolves around problems which seem obvious and simple to older viewers.
Many children's programmes have included parodies of popular films, songs and TV programmes, presumably to interest adults who might watch the show with children. Balamory employs the same device in some of its songs. Edie McCredie's second song includes several repetitions of popular film star Mae West's catchphrase, "Come up and see me sometime"- although she never actually said this exact phrase in any of her films. P.C. Plum's second song includes a spoof on the video for the Queen hit "Bohemian Rhapsody".
I have taken a lot for this as Balamory was one of the programmes which i took a lot of notes for. From this i have realised that that i would like my project to have the same effect of the story telling within a drama as Balamory has seemed to be a great hit with this style. Below is the opening sequence of Balamory.
