Carrie and David's Popshop facts for kids

Carrie and David's Popshop is a fun musical television series made for kids, which first aired on CBeebies in 2008. The show is hosted by famous vocal coaches Carrie Grant and David Grant. They are joined by their adorable pet dog, Riff, who is a puppet brought to life by Dave Chapman. The series was created by BBC Scotland. While new episodes stopped in 2008, the show was repeated many times, even making a special appearance for CBeebies' birthday in 2012!

What is Carrie and David's Popshop About?

In each episode, Carrie and David start by acting out a funny situation related to music. This usually ends with them giving the viewer (that's you!) a special object. Then, they sing a lively warm-up song to get everyone ready for the music!

Next, a child or a group of children comes into the Popshop. They ask Carrie and David for a song for a special reason. Maybe they want a song to help them skip going to bed, or to get their dad to dance! Carrie and David then get a brilliant idea, saying, "We're getting the feeling!" They sing a song asking what type of music the customer wants their new song to be. After that, the customer leaves, excited to get their "pod" (which we'll explain soon!).

Unlike many other shows on CBeebies, Carrie and David always wear the same clothes in every episode.

How Songs Are Made in the Popshop

After the customer leaves, Carrie and David's dog, Riff, gets busy! He "prepares the zone" by singing a song about setting up all the music equipment. Carrie and David then work together to make their idea even better. They come up with the words (lyrics) for the song and decide which instruments to use. This is often when the special object they gave the viewer earlier comes in handy!

Once the song is ready, Carrie and David perform it. Riff records their amazing performance onto a "pod." Riff then hands the pod to the viewer, who gives it to the original customer. When the customer opens the pod, sparkling stars fly out, and they get to watch the video of their brand new song! They then dance and sing along.

Many of the children who appeared in the show played different roles in other episodes, like brothers, sisters, or other family members. This helped the show use fewer actors for its first series. Most of the actors were from Scotland and were chosen after auditions across the country.

The show was produced by Nigel P Harris for BBC Scotland. The person in charge of all the music was Andrew McCrorie-Shand. He also created music for other famous children's shows like Tots TV and Teletubbies.

Songs You'll Hear

All the songs in Carrie and David's Popshop were written by Carrie and David Grant themselves! In a typical episode, you'll hear a few different songs:

• The main theme song for the show.
• A warm-up song, like "Bounce, Bounce," "Warm Up Your Voice," or "Music Voices."
• "Is It This Or Is It That?" – a song to help choose the music style.
• Riff's song, which is all about his job in the Popshop.
• The special song created just for the customer!

Episodes

There were 30 episodes in the first series of Carrie and David's Popshop. Each episode featured a new customer and a brand new song made just for them! Here are some examples of the episode titles and the customers they helped:

• I Love to Sing: Customer: Sophie
• I'm a Winner: Customer: Leah
• Don't Wanna Go to Bed: Customers: Eloise & Emily
• Rain: Customer: Shannon
• The Dream Team: Customer: Max
• I've Lost My Smile: Customer: Adam
• Scary Music: Customers: Zak & Lewis
• I Like Being Me: Customer: Ben
• Sorry: Customer: Chloe
• School is Cool: Customer: Liam
• Make Some Noise: Customer: Dylan

Carrie and David's Popshop at BBC Programmes