Aliex Yuill on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''The Story Makers''
is an
educational
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
children's television
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...
programme that was broadcast on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's pre-school
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
network,
CBeebies
CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...
as well as being one of the launch programmes for the channel. ''The Story Makers'' is set in a children's library, and encourages
literacy
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
and
creativity
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...
.
The programme
The programme starts as the library shuts in the evening. At the stroke of midnight, Jackson and Jelly (pink and green
puppet
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...
s who live in the library and hide in the daytime) come out and are joined by a presenter, one of the members of the Wordsworth family, who recites "The sun is down, the stars are bright, Story Makers come out at night. "The Wordsworths together with Jelly and Jackson are the Story Makers.
Objects found in the library or appear by magic are put into the top of the story machine (transformed from a
desktop computer
A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply ...
); Jelly, Jackson and the story maker then recite "Imagine, imagine, imagine a story!" and the story machine makes a book containing a story based on the object. The story in the book is then "read out" (although this is replaced on screen by
live action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
or an
animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...
). The first story is usually a Playbook (live action with small children), and the remaining stories are animated (
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
s),
stop-motion animation
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
, or puppets). The characters in the stories are fairly consistent, including Sniff and Wag (two puppet dogs), Blue Cow (a cartoon cow, created by
Blue-Zoo
Blue Zoo Animation Studio is a British animation studio known for producing children's television series, commercials and, short films. Founded in 2000 by Oli Hyatt, Adam Shaw, and Tom Box from Bournemouth University, the studio has gone on to w ...
), and Kevin the Spaceman (puppet). There is always a Blue Cow story and a Playbook – the other story varies between each episode.
As dawn begins and the sun rises the Story Maker takes his or her leave ("Dawn is upon us, the morning is nigh, we've made our stories, and we bid you goodbye") and disappears. Jelly and Jackson hide, and the story machine turns back into a computer, but the books produced overnight remain for the librarian and children to find when the library opens in the morning. From Series 2–4, Jelly and Jackson sometimes look at what the kids or the librarian are doing during the credits, and hide to make it look like they are invisible to the humans. This never happened in Series 1.
Characters
The Wordsworth family members
The main live action presenters are the Wordsworths:
*Milton Wordsworth – Played by
Danny John-Jules
Daniel John-Jules (born 16 September 1960) is a British actor, singer and dancer. He is best known for playing Milton Wordsworth in The Story Makers and ''Red Dwarf'', Barrington which are both children's series. Also he played in ''Maid Maria ...
(appears in every series except series 2).
*Byron Wordsworth – Played by
Michael Offei
Michael Shaun Offei (born 4 October 1966) is an English actor. He is best known for starring in the CBeebies
CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the br ...
(appears in series 2–4)
*Shelley Wordsworth – Played by
Lauretta Nkwocha (appears in series 2–4)
*Rossetti Wordsworth – Played by
Dystin Johnson
Dystin Johnson is a British actress and screenwriter.
She is best known for playing Norma Starkey in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series, '' Shameless'', in a recurring role for series 1 and 3, then in the main cast for series 4–6. Following her ...
(appears in series 2–4)
*Webster Wordsworth – Played by
Joe Vera
Joe Vera (born April 20, 1941, Pomona, California, United States) is a Mexican-American graphic designer, creator of some of the most recognized logos of the early 1970s in Mexico, such as the Emblem of Cancun in 1974 and the poster for the ...
(appears in series 2–4)
*Blake Wordsworth – Played by
Paul J. Medford (only appears in series 4)
In Series 1, Milton Wordsworth was the only live action presenter.
Others
* The Librarian (appears at the beginning and end of the programme), (sometimes a woman, sometimes a man)
* Children in the library (appear at the beginning and end of the programme except series 1)
* Playbook children (appears in every series)
*
Blue Cow Blue Cow may refer to:
* Blue Cow (cartoon), a cartoon cow who appears in both ''The Story Makers'' and ''Tikkabilla''
* Blue Cow, New South Wales, a village in NSW, Australia
* The Blue Cow, one of the "blue" public houses and inns in Grantham
* B ...
appears in all of the episodes where she is always curious about the world outside her farm
The puppets
The show also featured two puppets:
* Jackson (voiced by
Nick Mercer
Nicholas Stanley Mercer (born 25 December 1949) is a British Anglican priest who was the Vicar general for the Diocese of London from 2007 to 2017; he was additionally Archdeacon of London from 2014 until 2016.
Early life and education
Mercer w ...
) is a pink
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
and he is the adoptive big brother to Jelly, he wear pink velcros. He is 6 years old.
* Jelly (voiced by
Aliex Yuill) is a green
porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...
who has some of her quills sticking out, she is Jackson's adopted younger sister. She is 3 years old.
The puppets have also appeared on ''CBeebies Springwatch'' and ''CBeebies Autumnwatch''. Jelly was also a recurring character in ''
Green Balloon Club
''Green Balloon Club'' is a British children's factual television program that started on CBeebies on 20 June 2008.
Format
''Green Balloon Club'' focuses on the adventures of four children - Jay, Cat, Lilly-Rose and Ant, as they travel throughou ...
'', another show that aired on CBeebies.
In December 2007, Jelly & Jackson appeared as contestants on a puppet special of ''
The Weakest Link
''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...
'' hosted by
Anne Robinson
Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist. She was the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' (2000–2017). She presented the Channel 4 game show ''Countdown'' from June 2021 to July ...
which was originally broadcast on Friday 28 December 2007 at 18:00GMT on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
, they were voted off after the sixth round.
Home media releases
In 2004, two VHS tapes and DVDs containing episodes from the first series were released by the
Contender Entertainment Group
Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...
under license from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. The first volume contained five episodes from the series, and the second release was a "Bumper Special", featuring ten episodes, five on each VHS tape/DVD.