''Tikkabilla'' is a UK children's television programme, shown on CBeebies. The programme aims to educate pre-school children in an entertaining manner. The title "Tikkabilla" comes from the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

word meaning "

Hopscotch Hopscotch is a popular playground game in which players toss a small object, called a lagger, into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. It is a ch ...

", a popular children's game.

Format

The show features two different presenters and a small dragon puppet named Tamba, who resembles

Spyro the Dragon ''Spyro the Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation on September 9, 1998. The first game in the ''Spyro'' series, it stars the title character, a young purple dr ...

in colouration. Tamba serves as the programme's naive child; the programme's educational content is introduced as the presenters explain things to Tamba. Whilst Tamba appears in every episode, a team of presenters take it in turns to pair-up in each show. These presenters include

Justin Fletcher Justin Fletcher (born 15 June 1970) is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter on the BBC pre-school television channel CBeebies. Speaking and performing in various, often self-created, roles, he specialises in slapstick co ...

Sarah-Jane Honeywell Sarah-Jane Honeywell (born 5 January 1974) is an English actress, writer, TV and radio presenter, blogger and singer. She is best known for her work on the CBeebies television channel. As well as appearing on pre-school TV, Honeywell is a suppor ...

, Simon Davies, Lorna Laidlaw, Paul Ewing, Veejay Kaur (series 3–4), Toni Fruitin and Amit Sharma (both series 4 only) and

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

(series 1–2 only). Tamba is performed by puppeteers Sue Eves (series 1 to 4) who created the voice for Tamba; Alison McGowan (series 2 and 3) and Katherine Smee (series 4). Sue Eves has also written many scripts for the programme. Much of the show's format follows that of 1964–1988 UK children's programme ''

Play School Play School or Playschool may refer to: Television * ''Play School'' (British TV series), a BBC production aimed at preschool children * ''Play School'' (Australian TV series), an Australian Broadcasting Corporation production based on the Briti ...

'' and later show '' Playdays''. Tikkabilla presenter Simon Davies also presented ''Play School'' in its later years and ''Playdays'' in its early years and Justin Fletcher played Mr Jolly in the live stage show production of ''Playdays''. In the Tikkabilla studio, which features a large, colourful house, the presenters and Tamba perform songs, tell stories, play games and make things. Occasionally, special guests visit, normally to demonstrate a special skill or performance. The iconic square, round and arched windows made famous by Play School are again used as a device to transport the viewer from the studio to the outside, real world. Location items, sometimes featuring the presenters and Tamba and usually including young children, introduce the wider world to the young audience. Tikkabilla features mini-series inside the programme, such as Bonny, Banana and Mo, Sami's Worlds,

Summerton Mill ''Summerton Mill'' is a British children's television series created by Pete Bryden and Ed Cookson. It was first shown on the CBeebies channel in 2005 as a segment of the BBC's Tikkabilla. It has subsequently been repeated both within Tikkabill ...

and

Higgledy House ''Higgledy House'' is a British children's television show on the CBeebies channel. The programme originally aired as a segment on ''Tikkabilla'' before the episodes were reformatted as a standalone series in 2006. Synopsis The series stars J ...

, the latter two of which were later shown as standalone programmes on CBeebies. Tikkabilla sometimes shows animated clips originally from other educational

BBC #REDIRECT 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 ex ...

programmes mostly from '' Words and Pictures'' and ''

Numbertime ''Numbertime'' is a BBC educational numeracy television series for primary schools that was aired on BBC Two from 20 September 1993 to 3 December 2001. For its first four series, it was presented by Lolita Chakrabarti. El Nombre, an animated ...

''. One episode once showed an animated clip from ''

Hotch Potch House ''Hotch Potch House'' is a 1996 BBC television series aimed at preschool children. It stars Richard Coombs as Raggs, Francis Wright (''Art Attack'') as Shelley and Rebecca Nagan (''Rosie and Jim'') as Woolie. It was directed by Vivienne Cozen ...

''.

Production

writes for the programme as well as writing for sister show

The Story Makers ''The Story Makers'' is an educational children's television programme that was broadcast on the BBC's pre-school digital television network, CBeebies as well as being one of the launch programmes for the channel. ''The Story Makers'' is set in ...

. Francis Haines and Liz Kitchen wrote the majority of the programme's music. Francis Haines and

Jake Hook Jake Patrick Robert Hook is an English, million-seller songwriter, producer and arranger. Hook signed with EMI, in December 2009, on the strength of the single " Coming Home" by The Soldiers. Origins Jake Hook was born in the London Borough of ...

co-wrote one of the songs.

External links

* {{BBC programme
CBeebies - ''Tikkabilla''
at

bbc.co.uk BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

(Archived) BBC children's television shows 2002 British television series debuts 2000s British children's television series 2007 British television series endings British preschool education television series British television shows featuring puppetry 2000s preschool education television series CBeebies Television series by BBC Studios Television series about dragons