''Baby Jake'' is a British children's television programme originally broadcast in the UK. It first aired on 4 July 2011. Baby Jake is also available on BBC iPlayer for over a year, and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. The programme features Jake, a nine-month-old baby. Jake is the youngest of ten children all living in a

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...

with their parents, all with their first names starting with the first ten letters of the alphabet. Each episode features Jake embarking on an adventure with a host of magical characters that may include Pengy Quinn the Penguin, Toot Toot the

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, Captain Spacey and the Hamsternauts, Nibbles the Rabbit and Sydney the Monkey. These characters are always doing something related to the adventure that Baby Jake is on. The show features a child narrator and all ten children are depicted in real life, although Baby Jake is given a multi-angle photographic face on an animated body. Jake's babbling is translated by his 5-year-old brother Isaac. Isaac was voiced by a real-life 5-year-old boy, in a move described by the ''Guardian'' as "a risk" since the majority of successful children's television is narrated by adults. The roles of Jake and Isaac are portrayed by real-life brothers Adamo and Franco Bertacchi-Morroni respectively, with Kaizer Akhtar providing the voice of Isaac.

Production

The programme cost £1.85m to produce, and was funded by the Irish Film Board and

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 ...

. Darrall Macqueen originated the series and produced the animated elements of the programme through JAM Media. JAM Media are an Irish animation studio who also made ''Tilly and Friends''. Maddy Darrall was quoted by the ''Metro'' as gaining inspiration for the show from watching her 7-year-old nephew understanding her 1-year-old son. The series is animated by Jam Media in Dublin and the lead writer is Dave Ingham (''

Charlie and Lola Charlie and Lola are fictional children created by the English writer and illustrator Lauren Child in 2000. They were introduced in a series of picture books and later adapted as animated television characters. Lola is an energetic and imagina ...

'', '' Koala Brothers'').

Location

The windmill featured in the series is Sibsey Trader Mill just outside the village of

Sibsey Sibsey is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated at the junction of the A16 and B1184 roads, north from Boston. Sibsey Northlands is to the north of the village. The P ...

near

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. In the programme, it is shown as a large family home with additional floors, rooms and windows rather than a working mill, although it shows full working sails. Wheat harvesting in fields in and around the mill at the time had to be delayed to allow filming to take place back in the late summer of 2010 so that they had the correct ripened wheat colours.

Series

Series one of ''Baby Jake'' ran in the UK each weekday from July to August 2011 and consisted of 26 episodes in total. Series two began on 10 September 2012 also consisting of 26 episodes. Series two was the last series commissioned. There has been no request for a further series since. The series has also been shown on Al-Jazeera.

Reception

The show was relatively popular at launch compared to other BBC Children's TV programs, occupying all top five positions on the BBC CBeebies

iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services de ...

for a week. In 2013 the show received a UK Broadcast Award.

Episodes

Series 1 (2011)

Series 2 (2012)

References

External links

* {{BBC programme 2011 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings 2010s British children's television series 2010s preschool education television series BBC children's television shows British preschool education television series BBC high definition shows English-language television shows CBeebies Television series about children