Well, welcome to my first ever post for nostalgia Sunday! This is a topic where I will be sharing with you all things nostalgia from the noughties. Today's topic is kid's TV, and as I watched quite a lot of TV as a child, I have broken this topic down into the different channels I used to watch. Today's channel (if you had not already guessed it) is Cbeebies. This is a channel that is mostly aimed at toddlers and pre-school aged children and I pretty much always used to have it on whenever I was getting ready to go to pre-school, when I came home from pre-school, and on the weekends. So, let's take a look back at some of the Cbeebies programmes I used to watch, some I am sure you will remember, and others you may have forgotten...
The Teletubbies
I am pretty sure that every child who was a toddler in the late nineties and throughout the noughties watched the Teletubbies. This programme was probably my absolute favourite as a toddler and I still have a Po doll (Po is the red Teletubby for those who never watched it). They consist of Tinky Winky (purple), Dipsy (green), La La (yellow), and Po (red). When they were not eating Tubby custard, Tubby toast or getting Noo Noo (the vacuum cleaner) to clean up their mess, they would show us on their TV screens what other children would get up to during their day. I remember as a child I had a Teletubbies video (yes, I am THAT old) at my Gran's and on that video they showed some children putting their waterproof suits on to go outside in the rain and explore. Have you ever seen the picture of what the Teletubbies would look like if they were on TV while it was still black and white? Tell you what, it was just as well they invented colour TV otherwise we would all have been having nightmares! If you have never watched the Teletubbies or want a quick reminder of what it was like, I have found a link to the episode I was referring to above, which you can watch here.
Come Outside
Even though this was a show that aired between 1993 and 1997, repeats of it were still shown throughout my childhood. The show focused on Aunt Mabel and her dog Pippin (RIP), who would try and teach us things about the world. This did involve Aunt Mabel flying everywhere in her spotted plane, causing climate change in the process (just joking). One episode I can remember clearly (I think I had this on video as well - either that or it was just shown on repeat a lot) was where Aunt Mabel was cooking some chips in the chip pan and went into the pantry, only managed to get locked in there, however luckily Pippin saved the day. If you are interested (I mean, why wouldn't you be?), you can watch that episode here.
The Fimbles
The Fimbles was another of my favourite TV shows on Cbeebies and I also still have one of the Fimbles dolls to this day. They consist of Fimbo, Florrie and Baby Pom. They are also joined by other characters, such as Rockit, Bessie, Ribble, and of course Roly-Mo (the mole, the myth, the legend). Who remembers the well-known (at least if you grew up in the UK in the noughties) saying 'it's storytime with Roly-Mo. Our favourite time of day'? They would also get a sixth sense known as the 'fimbly feeling', which meant they were about to find something and this is what the episode would focus on. You can watch an episode here.
The Tweenies
This was another one of my favourite Cbeebies shows (I feel like this is something I am going to be saying a lot in this post) and (yes, you guessed it) I do still have a Tweenies doll of Doodles the dog. The Tweenies consisted of some pre-school aged children including: Bella, Milo (is it weird that I found him fit?), Fizz and Jake. They also had their pre-school workers: Max and Judy; and their two dogs: Doodles (as I mentioned above) and Izzles. I think what I loved about this show was the fact that it was set in a pre-school and I was going to pre-school at the time so I felt I could relate to the characters. I also loved the singing and dancing and was fully here for it. You can watch an episode of the Tweenies here.
Balamory
Balamory was (you guessed it) one of my all time favourite Cbeebies shows as a kid. For those of you who don't know, it is set in Scotland and all of the characters live in different coloured houses (or a castle if you're being extra) and their clothes were always the same colour as their house. It always started with Miss Hoolie, who was a nursery teacher and she would always start by showing us what the weather was doing that day by turning the arrow on her weather chart. The show always tended to focus on one character, so we had: Miss Hoolie (nursery teacher); Archie the Inventor (lived in the castle and made things); Josie Jump (sports fanatic); PC Plumb (policeman); Edie McCredie (bus driver); Susie Sweet (owned the sweet shop and cafe); Penelope Pocket (worked in the sweet shop and cafe); and Spencer the Painter (painted things). Whenever a character was introduced on an episode, they always had their own introductory song, which I think is something we all need in life, for example whenever we walk into a room a song about us should play. Here is probably my favourite character introduction song from the show and it is Archie's. You can watch an episode of the show here.
Charlie and Lola
Yeah, this was another of my favourite shows on Cbeebies. So let's just all assume from now any shows that are included in this (or a future Nostalgia Sunday post) is my favourite. I had pretty much every single book from this series and would always watch it whenever it was on TV. Even though I read the books and watched the show over and over again, I could never get bored of it. It featured Charlie and HIS little sister Lola (why anyone ever thought Charlie was a girl is beyond me). Lola was small and very funny and loved drinking pink milk. This show made me want to have an older brother and made me want to be the younger sister (although now I am glad I am the older one). You can watch an episode of the show here.
Big Cook, Little Cook
This was THE cooking show that I'm pretty sure every single child growing up in the noughties watched it. It featured Ben (big cook) and Small (little cook). Was it just me that always wondered (and still wonders) how they managed to get little cook to look so small compared to big cook? I legitimately thought as a child that little cook was genuinely that tiny, which led me to wonder how a person could actually be that small and that it was lucky he was a cook so he could be on this programme as if he hadn't been he wouldn't have been able to go on the show. This show was mad, especially when little cook would go off somewhere by getting on his wooden spoon and flying off to wherever he wanted to go (I feel that if you have never watched this show, reading that sentence will have you genuinely confused and wondering what on earth was going through everyone who was involved in this programme's heads). If you are still confused by the whole thing or want to go on a trip down memory lane and watch an episode of the show, you can do so here.
Bits and Bobs
From the above picture, I'm guessing anyone who has never watched this show is just seeing two balls of fluff with eyes, a nose and a mouth. This show was so much more than that. These two balls of fluff (Bits and Bobs) would collect bits and bobs from off the street, which they would do via their car type-thing called Trug. They would go to various different places and anything they picked up they would try to figure out what it was (although would often fail when they first found it, but would eventually learn what it was by the end of the programme). If you are interested in finding out more or just want to live a bit of nostalgia, you can watch an episode here.
So there is my first ever nostalgia Sunday post and the first part of my look-back at Cbeebies programmes that aired in the noughties. I will try and get part two up very soon, but before then there may or may not be another type of nostalgia Sunday post or just a regular post from me.
I am very interested to know if any of you can remember watching any of these shows and what you can remember from them. Or, if there are any other programmes you watched on Cbeebies in the noughties, please let me know in the comments below and if I remember them too, I may include them in a future Cbeebies nostalgia Sunday post.
I would also like to know if you grew up in the noughties, particularly if you grew up in Britain, some topics you would like me to cover. I have quite a few already, however there are bound to be some I have missed so please also comment them in the comments below.
Thank you for reading and make sure you look out for part 2!
Love Beth xx