''Timmy Time'' is a British

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

ers created and produced by '' Bob the Builder'' producer Jackie Cockle for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

and produced by Aardman Animations. It started broadcasting in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2009. It is a spin-off of '' Shaun the Sheep'', itself a spin-off of the '' Wallace & Gromit'' film '' A Close Shave'' (1995). The first two series ran for 26 episodes. In the United Kingdom, its most recent run began in September 2011 on

. In Australia, series one started in May 2009 on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship (broadcasting), flagship ABC Television (Australian TV network), A ...

and series three in May 2011 on ABC 4 Kids. The series also aired in the United States on Playhouse Disney, later called Disney Junior, beginning on 13 September 2010, but later ended its run in May 2014.

Premise and format

In this series, Timmy and his friends have to learn to share, make friends and accept their mistakes. They are supervised by two teachers, Harriet the Heron and Osbourne the Owl. The show is aimed at pre-school-aged children, which the company described as "a natural next step for Aardman". The show is made up of ten-minute episodes, which do not feature much dialogue, much like '' Shaun the Sheep'', '' Wallace & Gromit'' and '' A Close Shave''. Shaun, his friends, Bitzer and the Farmer are absent. A filming of one episode was featured on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

's '' How It's Made''. During the show's development, the series was simply called ''Timmy''.

acquired UK-broadcast rights to the series in October 2007. In 2018, Aardman collaborated with the British Council to create "Learning Time with Timmy", a show to encourage children aged 2–6 around the world to learn the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

, along with a YouTube-exclusive series and three apps. In October 2019, Aardman announced a new rebooted version of the existing 78 episodes for CBeebies titled ''It's Timmy Time'' (also known as Timmy Time 2.0) that began broadcast later on in the month. These versions feature narration from a selection of pre-school children, and are 5-minutes in length when compared to the original 10-minute episodes.

Episodes

Characters

Children

* Timmy (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is a lamb who is the titular character and enjoys being in the spotlight. He is 3 years old in sheep years and later turns 4 in the episode Timmy's Birthday. In many of the episodes he gets into trouble; however, he learns from his mistakes and often tries to help the other characters out when he can. He is best friends with Yabba and is very close to Finlay. He also appears in ''Shaun the Sheep''. Timmy's noise is baa. * Yabba (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is a duckling who wears blue goggles and is very similar to Timmy in personality and is best friends with him. Yabba's noise is quack. * Paxton (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is a piglet who is characterised by his appetite for apples and his weight. He wears a blue sweater and is never seen without it. Paxton's noise is oink. * Mittens (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) is a kitten who is like other kittens: she doesn't like getting wet or dirty and is rather sensitive. In some episodes, she seems to have feelings for Timmy. She always loves playing with picnics. Mittens' noise is mee-eew. * Ruffy (vocal effects by Louis Jones) is a puppy who is energetic but can sometimes be mentally slow and he is a good friend too. Ruffy's noise is ruff. * Apricot (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) is a hedgehog hoglet who is very quiet and skittish. When startled or frightened by someone or something she rolls up into a ball. Apricot's noise is hicoo, although she rarely speaks. * Stripey (vocal effects by Louis Jones) is a

badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...

cub who is a bit sleepy and slow as badgers are nocturnal. Stripey's noise is honk. * Kid (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is a goat who has a large appetite like Paxton and chews anything in sight. If the thing he is chewing is taken from him he does not mind; he just moves on to something else. Kid's noise is meep meep. * Otus (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) is an owlet who enjoys helping and Osbourne's son. He can be typically found reading and is very sensitive, sometimes copying his father. Otus' noise is too-wit, too-hoo. * Finlay (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher) is a fox kit who is excitable and full of energy. Finlay's noise is yip-yap.

Teachers

* Harriet (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) is a

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

who speaks through caws and clicks. She is one of the two teachers. Harriet's noise is cluck. * Osbourne (vocal effects by Louis Jones) is an owl who is the other teacher of the class and Otus's father. Osbourne's noise is hootay hoo hoo hoo.

Side characters

* Bumpy (vocal effects by Justin Fletcher and Kate Harbour) is a caterpillar who is not a part of the class but has many background appearances in the show. Bumpy's noise is blee blub. * Timmy's Mother (vocal effects by Kate Harbour) is a sheep who is also not a part of the class, but does appear in the opening sequence, "Timmy's Christmas Surprise" and the end credits. She also appears in '' Shaun The Sheep''. Timmy's Mother's noise is baa.

References

External links

* * * *
Timmy Time on Disney Junior
{{Shaun the Sheep Television series by Aardman Animations 2000s British animated television series 2000s British children's television series 2000s preschool education television series 2009 British television series debuts 2010s British animated television series 2010s British children's television series 2010s preschool education television series 2012 British television series endings 2020s preschool education television series Animated preschool education television series Animated television series without speech BBC children's television shows British children's animated television shows British preschool education television series British stop-motion animated television series British television spinoffs CBeebies Claymation television series British English-language television shows Shaun the Sheep Television series about sheep Animated television series spinoffs BBC animated television series