Balamory
Genre	Children's
Picture format	16:9 Widescreen
Audio format	Stereo
Running time	20 minutes approx.
Producer(s)	Brian Jameson
Starring	Julie Wilson Nimmo Miles Jupp Kasia Haddad Buki Akib Juliet Cadzow Andrew Agnew Rodd Christiansen Mary Riggans Kim Tserkezie
Narrated by	Andrew Agnew
Country of origin	United Kingdom; Scotland
Language(s)	English
Original channel	BBC One, BBC Two, Cbeebies
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Balamory is a Scottish live action television series on British television (BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies) for preschool children based around the small (fictional) island community of Balamory in Scotland. It was produced between 2002 and 2005, with 254 episodes (Including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode) made. Image File history File links Balamorylogo. ... The inner box (green) is the format used in most pre-1952 movies and pre-widescreen television. ... Julie Wilson Nimmo is a Scottish actress. ... Miles Jupp is a British actor and comedian. ... Andrew Agnew is a British actor. ... Kim Tserkezie, born 30 July 1973 in Newcastle upon Tyne, is a British actress. ... Andrew Agnew is a British actor. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC and Europes first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour (from 1967), envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming. ... CBeebies is a British television channel produced by the BBC and aimed at children under 6. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... In film and video, live action refers to works that are acted out by flesh-and-blood actors, as opposed to animation. ... BBC One (or BBC1 as it was formerly styled) is the primary channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC and Europes first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour (from 1967), envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming. ... CBeebies is a British television channel produced by the BBC and aimed at children under 6. ... A nursery school is a school for the education of very young children (generally five years of age and younger). ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The series was created by Brian Jameson, and is mostly filmed in the Scottish port town of Tobermory in Mull, with the exceptions of scenes in the nursery which are filmed at a television studio in Glasgow, and Archie's castle (which is in fact at Fenton Tower in North Berwick). Tobermory, Mull Tobermory is the capital of and the only burgh on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. ... Tobermory with 700 people, the largest settlement on Mull, is home to the only whisky distillery on the island. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... Kingston is a small hamlet near North Berwick in East Lothian, Scotland. ... North Berwick is a small Scottish seaside town in East Lothian, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, about 25 miles east of Edinburgh. ...

The series can now be seen in the United States on the Discovery Kids channel. It was also shown for a brief time on TLC. Discovery Kids Channel is a digital cable television channel, owned by Discovery Communications (see Discovery Channel) with programming for education of children. ... TLC is a cable TV network in the US and Canada, that carries a variety of informational and reality-based programming. ...

Main characters

Other than Suzie Sweet and Penny Pocket, who share a building, each main character has their own house in the town, and each house has a distinctive colour (which is the same as the clothes they wear; except for 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.

Julie Wilson Nimmo is a Scottish actress. ... Miles Jupp is a British actor and comedian. ... Andrew Agnew is a British actor. ... For the band, see The Police. ... Coffeehouse in Damascus A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant. ... Kim Tserkezie, born 30 July 1973 in Newcastle upon Tyne, is a British actress. ...

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 play with it. Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music which originated in the British and French colonial islands of the Caribbean at about the start of the 20th century. ...

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. In literature and film, a flashback (also called analepsis) takes the narrative back in time from the point the story has reached, to recount events that happened before and give the back-story. ...

Each episode of Balamory contains at least four songs;

• Opening song (What's The Story In Balamory?)
• Miss Hoolie 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?
• One or more character songs

Audience

As sometimes occurs with programmes aimed at pre-schoolers, Balamory has also attracted a somewhat more aged viewership in the form of university students and other "grown-ups" keen to spot innuendo (perceived or otherwise) and story-lines more commonplace in adult soap operas. (Indeed, the shows creator had intended it as a "soap opera for children" ^[1].) Another classic example of this phenomenon is Teletubbies. The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... Teletubbies is a BBC childrens television series, particularly aimed at babies and preschool children, produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. ...

There is an unspoken sexual tension between Miss Hoolie and PC Plum, something played upon in several episodes; for example, the pair share a kiss during a wedding. Further innuendo is implicit in the "friendship" between PC Plum and Archie The Inventor, who wears a kilt and pink jumper and lives in a pink castle. The two hold hands in one episode; in another, Archie makes an arguably loaded comment, possibly referring to Plum's sexuality ("Ah yes, he's in Venice visiting his..." (with raised eyebrows) "...'Policeman Chum'."). Another episode involving a pantomime horse leads Archie to say (to Edie McCredie) "You go in the front and I will take up the rear". In one episode, PC Plum is very excited because "Constable George", a Canadian Mountie, is visiting. The Mountie says "I can't wait to mount up and take a ride around your territory", before the two of them head off for a patrol of Balamory on a tandem, PC Plum in front. Sexual tension is a plot device employed in movies and books wherein two or more of the characters sexually long for one another, but the consummation of their desires is postponed or never occurs. ...

In PC Plum's Theme Tune, He states that "If you call on me, we can make a cup of tea, I'll tell you all about the bees, and birds, and mice" The "Birds and Bees" is a popular euphemism for teaching kids about sex.

Miss Hoolie seems to endorse the work ethic when she says "..and everybody (in Balamory - all of whom are good and likeable) here is busy going to work and school". And when Archie's inventions or Spencer's artwork are commissioned by the characters they are well appreciated but when they come up with something on their own the response is less enthusiastic and almost dismissive but eventually a makeshift and unintended application is found to make the character happy.

Some older viewers also like to believe that it is implied that Edie McCredie is a post-operative transexual. Her theme song is entitled "When You Honk My Horn" (with the older viewers in this case taking 'horn' as a euphemism for penis).

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 in Balamory

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.

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

• What's The Story In Balamory?
• Coloured House Song (several slightly different versions, depending on who is singing it)
• Dashboard Confessional

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

Trivia

• Balamory is frequently parodied on the programme Dead Ringers. Sketches include CSI: Balamory, the declaring of Balamory North in the 2005 UK General Election and the depressing 'real' drama, Balamöry.
• In the Christmas Eve 2005 episode of Little Britain, Andy Pipkin ignores Lou Todd while watching Balamory and singing along with the theme tune.
• 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".
• The show has quite a few similarities to The Singing Kettle. They are both Scottish. The Singing Kettle asks which coloured kettle they open, whereas in Balamory they ask which coloured house they are going to. In one episode of Balamory, Miss Hoolie had a problem with a singing kettle.
• 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.

Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC2. ... CSI: Miami is a spinoff of the popular CBS network series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. ... The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 and won by the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair. ... The Christmas Eve (1904-05), watercolor painting by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919) Christmas Eve, the evening of December 24th, the preceding day or vigil before Christmas Day, is treated to a greater or a lesser extent in most Christian societies as part of the Christmas season. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Little Britain is a highly successful character-based BBC radio and television sketch show written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. ... Lou Todd and Andy Pipkin are fictional characters from the cult BBC TV and radio show Little Britain, played by David Walliams and Matt Lucas respectively. ... Lou Todd and Andy Pipkin are fictional characters from the cult BBC TV and radio show Little Britain, played by David Walliams and Matt Lucas respectively. ... Tooth and Claw is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 22 April 2006. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sci-fi is an abbreviation for science fiction. ... Doctor hoe is a long-running nudistBritish science fiction television programmar (and 1996 television movie) produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known as The Doctor, who explores time and space with his companions, fighting evil. ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Tenth Doctor is the name given to the tenth and current incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... The Singing Kettle is a folk music group who is well known for performing traditional childrens songs with a distinctly Scottish flair. ... Sir Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, (known as Terry Wogan) was born on August 3, 1938. ...

Episode guide

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

This article contains episode information and plot summaries from the television show Balamory. ... This article contains episode information and plot summaries from the television show Balamory. ...

References

1. ↑  The Sunday Herald talks to the Balamory cast and production team

animated by Cosgrove Hall Films - animated stories from the book,poems,play theatre and novel Cosgrove Hall Films is an animation studio based in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester that is a major producer of childrens television programmes. ... Stories may refer to: Stories (album), a greatest hits compilation album by Randy Stonehill Stories (band), a short-lived art rock band of the early 1970s, best known for the song Brother Louie ... A chained book in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University A book is a collection of paper, parchment or other material with text, pictures, or both written on them, bound together along one edge, usually within covers. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ...

External links

• CBeebies - Balamory at bbc.co.uk
• Details of live show tour in UK 2005
• Tips on travelling to Tobermory, where Balamory is filmed