The Story Makers

Now all i can see is the "cat" from red dwarf and mind is putting the quotes into it. now just laughing at kids show.

This has everything. Great cast, a plot that isn't beyond the mind of a 4 to 5 year old (or younger). I make a point of watching this with my 5 year old as often as possible. Yes the animation is rubbish, but thats not the point. Its supposed to tell kids a simplistic story in an easy to understand and entertaining way. the different presenters always make it enjoyable. its made to a budget. it is educational. its good fun. watch it with your kids. Cbeebies's is a great channel for early learning. the range of programmes is excellent. the BBC should be congratulated for putting this much money into children's programming. it goes to show that a licence fee for public service broadcasting is well worth every penny.

The Story Makers is for pre-school chldren and is based around a library that comes alive at midnight, in a fest of colours and sounds centered around the story machine which is a magic computer.

Jelly and Jackson are highly lovable puppet charectors that are complimented by one of the "Wordsworth" members. Series one had Danny John Jules as Milton Wordsworth, but since he wasn't available for series 2, four new "Wordsworths" were introduced into the mix, all taking their turn in the library with the puppets. Seies 3 saw the return of Danny as Milton, and now the team of Byron, Shelley, Rosetti, Webster and Milton seem to work well.

Lots of story based charectors to work with, Blue Cow being the mainstay, and voiced by Nic Mercer, who also voices Jackson.

Very colourful, very watchable plus the theme is good too - watch The Story Makers if you get the chance.

Why didn't they have shows like that when I was a pre-school boy!

The Story Makers always starts off with the kids and helpers leaving a small local library for the night. Once the lights are off, and the clock strikes midnight, then our heroes appear. There's Jelly and Jackson, two hapless, bug-eyed Muppet Show rejects, who are amazed to rediscover exactly the same things that they were amazed by the previous show. And then there's the 'human' presenter, different from show to show, and almost always someone you wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a lavatory. With names taken from Britain's finest poets, we meet large, motherly type who treats the puppets as her lost children, a jolly young girl who you feel might be a cage dancer in a club somewhere had she not got work from the BBC, a too-smooth Shaft-wannabe, and the Carribean's answer to Mr Bean. Only Danny John-Jules stands out as being at all credible, but this is only because he's playing The Cat from Red Dwarf without the teeth in.

Every story they make is bland, uninspiring, and poorly animated, the worst example of which is Blue Cow, who needs to be seen to be disbelieved.

And my 2 year old loves it, so please, please, spare a thought for me. There are people in the world worse off than you, you know....

The only redeeming feature of this show is occasional appearance of Shelley Wordsworth played by Lauretta Nkwocha, who is definitely eye candy for guys. Of late she has not been making an appearance. I fear this is because she moved to holby city or some other show.

The thing that bugs me about this program is: That at 6pm after the library has closed the clock is seen to advance from 6pm to midnight, fair enough. But at the end of the show the protagonists see the sun start to rise, but then the clock is shown to move from midnight to 9am. So my questions are a) The program lasts 15 minutes approx so why doesn't the clock move from 00:15 to 9am at the end of show? b) If it's still midnight how come the sun is rising? Are they based in the arctic circle during the summer solstice or what ?