Return flight for Twirlywoos on CBeebies

Produced by children’s TV specialists Ragdoll Productions, Twirlywoos returns to CBeebies in November with a second series (25 x 11”) featuring the adorable antics of four fruit tea-loving, bird-like characters: Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy and Chick. Ever curious, they seek adventure and fun wherever they go, whether in the real world or on their Big Red Boat.

A laugh-out-loud treat with lovable yet innocent comedy characters, Twirlywoos is a safe world full of silly fun and surprises. Each episode is based around simple play patterns (schemas) that are essential to a child’s future development, while slapstick humour encourages children to gain confidence in their own perceptions of the world and reinforce their understanding as they grow and develop.

Devised by Anne Wood (Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, The Adventures of Abney and Teal) and Steve Roberts (Dipdap) in close collaboration with Early Years specialist Professor Cathy Nutbrown, the show combines stop-frame animation and live action sequences set in the real world to produce a colourful and fun show that is underpinned with a strong educational element.

The new series features all new episodes that continue to explore the schemas from series one, which encourage kids to develop a deeper understanding of simple play patterns, such as “full”, “noisy”, and “rolling.” A couple of distinctive new characters add additional layers of humour as they interact with the Twirlywoos: The Robot, who spins so fast he can fly, and The Piece of Paper, who loves to tangle up and tumble the inquisitive bird-like creatures. Old favourites such as The Very Important Lady, The Marching Band and The Stop-Go Car return as visiting characters, and there’ll be more interaction with the boisterous Quacky Birds.

Kay Benbow, Controller of CBeebies, says: Twirlywoos, like CBeebies, is fun, lively and curious and I’m delighted our viewers have taken Great BigHoo, Toodloo, Chickedy and Chick to their hearts. I look forward to more of their charming adventures, to the new Twirlywoos segment on our Storytime app – and to sharing some fruit tea with them soon!”

Ragdoll’s Anne Wood says: “We’re thrilled at the response we’ve had so far to Twirlywoos and are excited to be continuing their adventures on CBeebies. The new episodes will continue to provide innovative, nurturing, inspiring and fun content that that matches young children’s learning needs.”

What did Entertain The Kids think

On seeing this episode from the brand new series of Twirlywoos Chloe (aged 6), who had seen the previous series, said that the characters are cute and very funny, especially chickadee, chick and the dancing ducks.

In watching Twirlywoos with Chloe I would say that it is for a slightly younger age group, however, there were still some genuine ‘laugh out loud’ moments and it held her attention throughout.

Twirlywoos is produced by Ragdoll Productions in association with DHX Media. The producer is Chris Wood, lead creative Steve Roberts, and it is devised and executive produced by Anne Wood. Michael Towner is the executive producer for CBeebies. The stop frame animation has been produced by leading UK animation studio Mackinnon and Saunders. The narrator is Linda Bassett.

About DHX Brands

DHX Brands is the dedicated brand management and licensing arm of DMX Media Ltd. (TSX: DHX.A, DHX.B) (DHX Media), a leading creator, producer, marketer and broadcaster of family entertainment. DHX Brands specialises in creating, building and maintaining high-profile global entertainment brands within the children’s and young-adult markets. With expertise in brand development, licensing, marketing and creative, we develop brands which captivate and inspire through engaging content, first-class distribution, quality consumer products, immersive live experiences, and digital media. DHX Brands’ world-class portfolio includes Teletubbies, Twirlywoos, In the Night Garden, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Caillou, Ella The Elephant, Johnny Test, Inspector Gadget and Degrassi. DHX Brands has offices in London, Toronto and Los Angeles.

About Radgoll Productions

Ragdoll Productions, a privately owned family company, was founded by Anne Wood in 1984 and has produced more than 1,700 internationally acclaimed children’s television programmes aimed at the youngest viewers, including the phenomenally successful, Bafta-winning Teletubbies, broadcast in more than 120 countries and territories around the world; the double Bafta-winning In the Night Garden; Bafta-winning Dipdap; and The Adventures of Abney and Teal, Rosie & Jim, Brum and internationally award-winning Open A Door.

In September 2013 Ragdoll Worldwide, a joint venture with BBC Worldwide, was acquired by DHX Media, a leading Canadian broadcaster, distributor and producer. DHX Media now own the rights to the early Ragdoll catalogue including Teletubbies and In the Night Garden.

About CBeebies

CBeebies is dedicated to delighting and surprising its pre-school audience and it remains the UK’s most watched and most loved channel for the under-sixes. Just under half of the target audience tune in every week (parents and carers with children ages 0-3 and four- to six-year-olds in digital homes) and our reach is over double that of our nearest competitor.

Our most popular shows include In the Night Garden, Something Special, Octonauts, Justin’s House, Mr Bloom’s Nursery and Tree Fu Tom together with new shows Swashbuckle and Old Jack’s Boat.

Building on our programmes by creating entertaining, educational and interactive digital content such as apps and games is something we’re very passionate about. The CBeebies website is hugely popular with our young audience and their parents and helps extend the ‘learning through play’ philosophy with an average of 1.2m unique browsers. Following the success of our first app – CBeebies Playtime, which has seen around 3m downloads – we recently launched our CBeebies Storytime app, which is all about making reading fun and is designed to help improve reading and listening skills while encouraging ‘family learning’.