Balamory facts for kids

Balamory is a Scottish educational live-action children's programme on BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies for pre-school children, about a fictional small island community off the west coast of Scotland, named Balamory. Four series were produced between 2002 and 2005 by BBC Scotland, with 254 episodes made (including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode). The programme was created by Brian Jameson.

Tobermory, Mull, the setting for the fictional town of Balamory

Edie McCredie's bus (LDV Convoy) in the Glasgow Museum of Transport

Characters

There are eight central characters in Balamory. Each character wears a distinctive colour of clothing and lives in a house of the same colour.

• Julie Wilson Nimmo as Miss Hoolie, the Balamory Nursery teacher. She is the main framing character and narrator for each episode. Her main colour is green and lives in a green house.
• Miles Jupp as Archie, an inventor who builds zany creations from household objects which are intended to be useful, but sometimes backfire. His main colour is pink and he lives in a pink castle.
• Buki Akib (series 1–2) and Kasia Haddad (Series 3–4) as Josie Jump, a fitness instructor at the primary school next door to Miss Hoolie's nursery school. She plays and coaches all types of gymnastics, sports, and dance and is also talented at storytelling through expressive movement and dance. Her main colour is yellow and lives in a yellow towered house.
• Juliet Cadzow as Edie McCredie, the Balamory Bus Driver. She has travelled all over the world and has a variety of photographs and souvenirs to talk about. She is also an expert driver and motor mechanic, and occasionally gets exasperated with other road users. Her main colour is blue and she lives in a blue garage/house.
• Andrew Agnew as PC Plum, a Policeman who aspires to be a master detective, but as Balamory is a crime-free village, he mostly spends most of his time watching wildlife. His main colour is white (despite his uniform being black) and he lives in a white police station.
• Rodd Christensen as Spencer, a painter. He is responsible for making Balamory as colourful as it is, and is also talented with music, especially as his painter's ladder is musical, each rung sounding a different note. He's also the only American living in Balamory. His main colour is orange and lives in an orange house.
• Mary Riggans as Suzie Sweet, the joint cafe and shop runner. As she's older than the other residents, she is a grandmotherly figure who loves to tell customers about the items in her shop. Her main colour is red and lives in a red village shop.
• Kim Tserkezie as Penny Pocket, the joint cafe and shop runner. She is a young woman who uses a wheelchair and has a talent for mathematics. Her main colour is light blue.

Songs

In every episode, a selection of songs are played, each depends on the character.

Beginning in Season 3, a new selection of songs was introduced, although the original songs were still used on occasion.

• What's the Story in Balamory?' - Title Theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Which Coloured House are we going to? - Transition theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Everybody Everyone - Miss Hoolie's Nursery theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Everyone's at Home Today - Miss Hoolie's Play Day theme (Series 1–2)
• Strike Up the Band - Miss Hoolie's Play Day theme (Series 3-4)
• I'm Archie the Inventor - Archie's theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Great Inventions, Groovy Solutions - Archie's theme (Series 3–4)
• Jump a Little Higher - Josie Jump's theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Cheer You Up - Josie Jump's theme (Series 3–4)
• When I Honk My Horn - Edie McCredie's theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Let Me Take You on a Journey - Edie McCredie's theme (Series 3–4)
• I'm PC Plum - PC Plum's theme (All 4 series) [All 4 Seasons]
• Follow the Clue - PC Plum's theme (Series 3–4)
• Climbing Up My Musical Ladder - Spencer's theme [All 4 Seasons]
• If You Need a Little Rhythm - Spencer's theme (Series 3–4)
• I'm Suzie Sweet, I'm Penny Pocket - Suzie and Penny's theme [All 4 Seasons]
• Suzie's Cookin' - Suzie's theme (Series 3–4)
• Sort It - Penny's theme (Season 3-4)

Episodes

A typical episode follows this general plan:

The opening credits show the town of "Balamory" with its brightly coloured houses. Miss Hoolie opens the nursery school, greets the nursery children, and talks about that day's weather. On a "play day" she visits Pocket & Sweet, the shop-cum-cafe.

One of the other characters (who will be the main character of that episode) tells Miss Hoolie about a problem. This character then sings "Which Coloured House Are We Going To?", asking the young viewers to guess which of the Balamory characters will be most helpful in solving the problem. The main character then proceeds to visit several other characters until the problem is solved. Miss Hoolie and the main character provide a summary of the story at each point, and a final recap at the end of the episode.

For example, in one episode Josie Jump has been asked to look after a neighbour's rabbit, but does not know what it needs. She is advised to visit PC Plum, who advises her to feed it vegetables. She then goes to the shop run by Pocket and Sweet to buy rabbit food, and finally brings the rabbit to Miss Hoolie's nursery for the children to feed and pat it.

Each episode of Balamory contains at least five songs:

• "What's the Story in Balamory?", the theme song
• Miss Hoolie's opening song, either "Everybody, Everyone" if the nursery school is open, or one of the two "play day" songs otherwise
• "Which Coloured House Are We Going To?", sung by the main character after presenting his or her problem
• Character-specific songs, sung by the characters visited by the main character

Episode guide

• Series One
• Series Two
• Series Three
• Series Four

Audience

The programme was aimed at preschoolers. 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 storyline revolves around simple problems designed to challenge pre-schoolers' minds.

Guest actors

A number of episodes feature guest actors in addition to the main characters and the nursery children. Terry Wogan made a guest appearance in one episode (The Game Show) as a television director. This episode also featured Greg Hemphill (Julie Wilson Nimmo's husband in real life) and John Altman, who plays Nick Cotton in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Celebrity chef Keith Floyd appeared in Suzie Sweet's song "Suzie's Cookin'".

Production

The show was first confirmed to be in production on February 11, 2002, under the title of Applecross.

Filming locations

Balamory was filmed mostly in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, with the exception of scenes at Archie's castle filmed in East Lothian, and other scenes such as the nursery and the Mainland City, which were filmed in Glasgow.

International airings

In the United States, the series aired on TLC and Discovery Kids, as part of the Ready, Set, Learn! block from 2005 until 2007.

Cancellation

On 30 April 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 year, all the cast (except for three of them) performed a farewell touring show called "Balamory Live: Strike up the Band", a follow up to the "Balamory Live: What's The Story" tour from 2004. The show continued to be repeated on CBeebies until July 2016. By then only the first two series, series 1 and 2 respectively, continued to be repeated as the last two series could not be repeated due to licensing issues from 2010 onwards.

By the time the programme was retired, many of the cast were also keen to move on. Miles Jupp, who played Archie, stated that his role caused problems with his comedy career, with parents assuming his routines were age-appropriate. Julie Wilson Nimmo, who played Miss Hoolie, complained that she could not take her children to the local play area without being "mobbed." Mary Riggans, who played Suzie Sweet, died in 2013, having suffered a stroke the year before.

Andrew Agnew, who played PC Plum went on to direct the children's TV show Me Too! which shared the same similarities in concept as Balamory. Although set in Scotland, it is primarily set in a city rather than a coastal town.

Awards

• Best Pre-school Live Action Series (nominated) at the 2003 BAFTA Children's Awards.
• Best Pre-school Live Action Series (won) at the 2004 BAFTA Children's Awards.
• Best Pre-school Live Action Series (nominated) at the 2005 BAFTA Children's Awards.

• Balamory at BBC Programmes