Meees facts for kids
Meees is a fun Welsh-language children's television show from Wales. The name Meees means Baaas in Welsh, just like the sound a sheep makes! The show is all about a family of multicultural opera-singing sheep. Performers wear amazing sheep costumes to bring the characters to life. You can watch Meees on S4C, which is like the Welsh version of Channel 4. So far, 52 episodes have been made, split into two series. Each episode is about 15 minutes long.
Meet the Sheep Family! (Characters)
The sheep family in Meees runs their very own recycling plant right from their home, which is called Acropolis Cottage.
The head of the family is Costaaas, a male sheep from Greece. He is married to Baaalwen, a black Welsh ewe. Baaalwen is played by the talented Tamsin Heatley. The story says they met in a Milanese choir!
Costaaas and Baaalwen live with their daughter, Meeegan. Meeegan is married to Meeelvyn. They have two twins named Jaaason and Meeedea. These names come from famous Greek stories about Jason and Medea, who are also characters in operas.
All the characters in Meees have names that include "eee" or "aaa" sounds. This is a clever way to remind you of the sounds sheep make!
Later in the show, you'll meet Aurora, who is Baaalwen's older sister. She has a nephew named Oscar. Baaalwen and Costaaas also live with Meeegan's older sister, Alice, her husband Louis, and their three children: Terrence, Carol, and David.
Show History and Awards
The Meees show first started broadcasting in 2005. That same year, it won a special award called a Bafta Cymru for Best New Media TV or Film Related. This was a big achievement for the show!
In April 2006, a major news network called Al Jazeera bought the rights to show Meees. Al Jazeera is an Arabic news channel. It's said that Sheikha Mozah, the wife of the leader of Qatar, really loved the show. In Arabic, Meees is known as 'آل ماااع'.
There are also plans to create an English version of the show. Part of this new version is being written by Stan Cullimore, who used to be a guitarist for the band The Housemartins.
Meees also started broadcasting in Latin America on April 17, 2007, on a channel called Discovery Kids. The characters have different voices in the Latin American versions:
- Costaaas is voiced by Andrés Bustamante (named Andrés).
- Baaalwen is voiced by María Santander (named Angélica).
- Meeeegan is voiced by Liliana Barba (named Sofía).
- Meeelvyn is voiced by Humberto Vélez (named César).
- Jaaason is voiced by Irving Corona (named Luis).
- Meeedea is voiced by Verania Ortiz (named Teresita).
In the fifteenth episode, Rocío Garcel voices Baaalwen's older sister Aurora. Gael García Bernal voices Oscar, Costaaas and Baaalwen's youngest son. Laura Torres voices Meeegan's older sister Alice (Alicia). Xavier Lopez "Chabelo" voices Meeegan's brother-in-law Louis (Luis). Diego Ángeles voices Terrence (Javier). Verania Ortiz (who also voices Meeedea) voices Carol (María). And Ángel García voices David.
Who Made Meees? (Staff)
Many talented people worked together to create Meees:
- Directors: Helen Sheppard, Sian Reid, John Walker
- Music: Paddy Kingsland
- Voices: Tamsin Heatley, Wayne Forester, Joanna Ruiz, Ian Sexon (for season 2), Nick Mercer
- Costume Characters: Jenny Hutchinson, Sian Reid, Colin Purves, Samantha Dodd, Holli Hoffman, Garath Jones
- Producer: Nia Ceidiog, from Cynhyrchiadau Ceidiog Creations
