New Teletubbies episodes delight young audience

‘Are they going to know our names, mummy?’

Last Sunday three-year-old Baby Girl was sitting in the back seat chatting excitedly about her upcoming meet-and-greet with Teletubbies. We were going to the world premiere of the new Teletubbies series at BFI Film at Southbank, and Baby Girl was talking non-stop about Laa-Laa, Po, Tinky Winky and Dipsy. I’ve not always understood the show, but when we went to see the new episodes filmed in HD it was obvious Baby Girl loved the charming characters, so it’s clearly me who’s not entirely in touch with what’s hot.

At the premiere, the room was full of excited babies, toddlers and young children, giggling at every opportunity in the two episodes we watched, which were introduced by CBeebies presenter Cat Sandion.

Each episode covered a concept–one ‘up’ and one ‘again’–and the story repeatedly looked at that same concept, including a real-life film showing children doing different activities, such as going up in a lift, or again and again down the slide. This short film was shown twice, reinforcing the concept for young children and adding to the educational value of the show.

I may not always get the humour of the Teletubbies, but this is really all about the young audience and the loveable characters.

And what I do get is that the cute characters are extremely popular. Even I can’t resist giggling when Baby Girl says we can take turns wearing the Laa-Laa headband she received at the premiere. Lucky me got to wear it when riding the 22 bus the other day.

Teletubbies returns to CBeebies with the new episodes on 9 November