Balamory

Balamory
Created by	Brian Jameson
Developed by	Balamory Ltd
Starring	Julie Wilson Nimmo Miles Jupp Kasia Haddad Buki Akib Juliet Cadzow Andrew Agnew Rodd Christensen Mary Riggans Kim Tserkezie
Country of origin	Scotland
Language(s)	English, Turkish, and Spanish
Production
Producer(s)	Brian Jameson, Balamory Ltd
Running time	39 minutes
Distributor	BBC Scotland; BBC
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One, BBC Two, CBeebies and qubo
Picture format	16:9 Widescreen
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	2002 – 2005
External links
Website

Balamory is a live action television series on British television (BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies) for pre-school children, based around the fictional small island community of Balamory in Scotland. It was produced between 2002 and 2005 by BBC Scotland, with 254 episodes (Including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode) made. The series was created by Brian Jameson.

Balamory was filmed mostly in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, with the exception of scenes at Archie's castle filmed at Fenton Tower in North Berwick.

A select series of episodes was shown for two brief seasons in the United States on the Discovery Kids channel. It was also shown on TLC. Episodes were shown until recently on weekdays on RTÉ Two's The Den and continue to be shown on The Den's replacement, RTÉjr.

Main characters

Other than Suzie Sweet and Penny Pocket, who share a building and run pocket and sweet a shop set in Balamory, each main character has their own house in the town, and each house has a distinctive colour. The colour of each character's house is the same as the clothes they wear with the exception of Penny Pocket, who lives in the Red House but wears blue, and PC Plum, who lives in the white house but wears a police uniform. They also have their own songs which they often sing during their appearances in the programme.

Character	Actor	Role	House
Miss Hoolie	Julie Wilson Nimmo	Nursery teacher	Green house
Archie	Miles Jupp	Inventor	Pink castle
Josie Jump	Buki Akib; replaced by Kasia Haddad in 2005	Fitness instructor	Three-storey yellow house
Edie McCredie	Juliet Cadzow	Bus driver	Blue garage/house
PC Plum	Andrew Agnew	Policeman	White and black police station
Spencer	Rodd Christensen	Painter/Musician	Orange house
Suzie Sweet	Mary Riggans	Shop and café workers	Red building
Penny Pocket	Kim Tserkezie

Typical episode

A typical episode begins with Miss Hoolie opening the nursery and telling the audience what the weather is like in Balamory today, and then meeting one of the other main characters who has a "problem" that can be solved by visiting another main character. The main character with the problem sings and dances to a calypso-style song to decide which of the coloured houses "is the one for me" (i.e. is the one where the helpful character lives), and then makes a procession of visits to various characters until the problem is solved. For example, Josie Jump is looking after her neighbour's rabbit and needs to know how to look after it, so she goes to visit PC Plum who advises her to feed it some vegetables. Josie then decides to go to Pocket and Sweet to buy some rabbit food, then takes the rabbit to the nursery so the children can look after it.

At each visit, the progress of the story to date is summarised by drawing a rainbow of balloons in the air with the hands. The balloons burst to reveal a flashback summary of today's "story in Balamory" narrated by the visitor. The entire story is also summarised at the end of each programme by Miss Hoolie.

Each episode of Balamory contains at least four songs;

• Opening song (What's The Story In Balamory?)
• Miss Hoolie's song (Nursery Song or a day off song depending on if it is a working day or a day off)
• Which Coloured House Are We Going To? (Sung by one of the characters. There is also an instrumental version for Miss Hoolie to narrate at the end of each episode.)
• One or more character songs

Audience

The programme is aimed at pre-schoolers. The programme's creator had intended it as a "soap opera for children". The show can also be seen in a humorous light. The characters in Balamory are somewhat naive and light-hearted; often appearing to be children trapped in adult bodies with adult roles. The entire storyline often revolves around problems which seem obvious and simple to older viewers.

Music

There are many songs in Balamory, mainly sung by the actors. These songs are used consistently throughout the series when characters or circumstances are introduced to the episode. In the run starting from October 2004, new songs were introduced. These songs are longer and take up more time in the episode, so the old versions are still used often.

Corpus Christie Primary School Choir, Knightswood, Glasgow sang the theme tune 'What's The Story In Balamory?'

In addition to the character-specific songs mentioned above, there are many more general songs:

• "What's The Story In Balamory?" is the theme song of the show
• "Coloured House Song" (several slightly different versions, depending on who is singing it)

Some of these songs are available on a CD named Balamory: Strike Up The Band.

Song	Used/character	Series
What's The Story In Balamory?	Main theme	All
Nursery Song (Everybody, Everyone)	Nursery and work day – Miss Hoolie	All
What Do You Want To Do Today?	Day off – Miss Hoolie	1–2
Strike Up The Band	Day off – Miss Hoolie	3–4
Coloured House Song	10 slight variations Archie PC Plum Spencer Josie Jump Penny and Suzie (both individually and together) Edie McCredie	All
I'm Archie, The Inventor	Archie	1–2
Great Inventions, Groovy Solutions	Archie	3–4
I'm PC Plum	PC Plum	1–2
Follow The Clue	PC Plum	3–4
Climbing Up My Musical Ladder	Spencer	1–2
If You Need A Little Rhythm	Spencer	3-4
Josie Jump Is My Name (Jump a Little Higher)	Josie Jump	1–2
Cheer You Up	Josie Jump	3–4
I'm Suzie Sweet, I'm Penny Pocket	Suzie Sweet/Penny Pocket	1–2
Suzie's Cooking	Suzie Sweet	3–4
Penny's Song	Penny Pocket	3–4
When I Honk My Horn	Edie McCredie	1–2
Let Me Take You On A Journey	Edie McCredie	3–4

Production

Very few episodes feature actors other than the main characters and the children. Terry Wogan made a guest appearance in one episode (The Game Show) as a television director. This episode also features Greg Hemphill who is Julie Wilson Nimmo's husband in real life, and John Altman who plays Nasty Nick Cotton in Eastenders. Keith Floyd also appears in Suzie Sweet's song "Suzie's Cookin'".

Occasionally, the shots of children entering the nursery are cut down for repeats for time reasons.

Cancellation

On 30 May 2005 the BBC announced that it would not order another season of the series, citing they wanted to experiment and create more new programme ideas. In that very same year the cast of Balamory went on tour named 'The Balamory Tour'.

Cultural impact

Balamory was often parodied on the programme Dead Ringers. Sketches included CSI: Balamory, the declaring of Balamory North in the 2005 UK General Election and the depressing 'real' drama, Balamory.

In Tooth and Claw, a 2006 episode of the sci-fi series Doctor Who which is set in 1879 Scotland the Tenth Doctor pretends to be a "Doctor James McCrimmon of the township of Balamory".

In the BBC Three sketch comedy series Little Britain Andy (an overweight adult man who pretends to be disabled so he can sit in a wheelchair) watches Balamory in the last episode of the third series whilst singing the opening song.

Episode guide

• Season One
• Season Two
• Season Three
• Season Four

Awards

• Nominated for Best Pre-school Live Action Series at the 2003 BAFTA Children's Awards.
• Awarded Best Pre-school Live Action Series at the 2004 BAFTA Children's Awards.
• Nominated for Best Pre-school Live Action Series at the 2005 BAFTA Children's Awards.

External links

• CBeebies - Balamory at bbc.co.uk
• Details of live show tour in UK 2005
• General information (including population figures) for the Isle of Mull, including Tobermory - Filming location of Balamory
• Balamory at the Internet Movie Database
• Balamory at TV.com