Balamory

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. more...

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It was produced between 2002 and 2005, with 254 episodes (Including a DVD-exclusive Christmas episode) made.

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).

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.

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.

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 to 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.

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 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

In addition to its intended pre-school audience, Balamory has 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" .) 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".

Read more at Wikipedia.org