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The Tweenies
Format	Children's
Starring	Coleen Daley Justin Fletcher Bob Golding Sally Priesig Emma Weaver Sinead Rushe Simon Grover Jenny Hutchinson Chris Beck Alan Riley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English; Welsh Spanish
No. of episodes	390
Production
Executive producer(s)	Judy Whitfield Clare Elstow
Producer(s)	Kay Benbow Robin Carr Iain Lauchlan Will Brenton
Running time	20 minutes approx.
Distributor	BBC
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Audio format	Stereo
First shown in	BBC
Original run	1999 –
External links
[The Tweenies Official website]
IMDb profile

The Tweenies is a television program aimed at young children, broadcast on the BBC. The programme is set in a nursery attended by the four Tweenies themselves: Milo, Jake, Bella and Fizz. They are supplemented by two adults, Max and Judy, and two dogs, Doodles and Izzles.

The original prototypes for the Tweenies characters were designed by Sally Preseig of Mimics Productions; they were later re-scaled into two sizes for the characters shown on the series. In addition, Sally also designed the character costumes and was co-constructor/developer for the Tweenies' full-size puppets. The costume fabric comes from the US and was imported and dyed into their present colours; it is about the same thickness as fleece jumpers. [1]

The Tweenies are a production of Tell-Tale Productions (now owned by Entertainment Rights) in association with the BBC. Animation for the show was produced by A Productions, an animation studio based in Bristol, U.K., with Ealing Animation providing some animation in a few early episodes. Computer animation for the series was provided by Clockwork Digital, with Ben Mars animating Mungo, the computer creature who appears in some later episodes. The show includes a "Tweenie Clock", with five circular lights arranged in a pentagonal shape with the lights denoting "news time" (orange), "messy time" (blue: art, sticking, painting), "song time" (yellow: generally nursery rhymes or children's classics), "telly time" (green; in some later episodes, this is also used when they use the computer) and "story time" (red). "Surprise Time" is a special time determined when all five lights glow. A button at the centre of the clock is pressed to select the activity that will be undertaken next.

It is currently being shown on CBeebies, the BBC's children's channel for young children.

Like a number of other CBeebies programmes, a live stage version of the show has toured in the UK. The newest tour, Enchanted Toyshop, toured the British Isles during 2007. Between 2003 and 2006, there was also a live version of The Tweenies shown regularly at Alton Towers in the Cred Street section aimed at younger children.

In 2000, Tweenies won two awards: Best Pre-School Educational Programme (Royal Television Society) and Best Live Action Pre-School Programme (BAFTA Awards).

The Tweenies were created by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan, a pair with a track record of being involoved in BBC children's programming. Iain Lauchlan was a presenter on 'Play School' 'Fingermouse' and 'Playdays' where he met Will Brenton, who was also a presenter, director and writer on 'Playdays'. Together they started producing two of the Playdays strands before forming their own Production company 'Tell-Tale productions, and most recently, Wish Films.

They also created 'The Fun Song Factory' 'Boo!' 'BB3B!' 'Jim Jam and Sunny' 'Basil Hair The Squirrel' & 'Entertainment Right's The Magical Live of Toys'.

Contents 1 Original cast 2 Tweenies Abroad 2.1 Current International Broadcasters 3 Dubbing casts 4 Videos/DVDs 5 Episodes 6 External links

The Tweenies are played and voiced by different people. The actors that provide the voices also operate the animatronic parts of their heads.

Actors

• Bella - Tamsin Heatley
• Fizz - Jenny Hutchinson/Angela Reynolds/Francesca Anderson(In that order)
• Milo - C H Beck/Matthew Lyons/Kate Ryan
• Jake - Samantha Dodd/Esther Collins
• Max and Judy - Simon Grover
• Doodles - Alan Riley
• Judy (outside) - Sinead Rushe
• Izzles - Fiona Watkins

Note: Max and Judy are rarely seen together on screen (exceptions being episode 288 - "No Words", and the Enchanted Toyshop DVD).

Voices

• Fizz and Izzles - Coleen Daley
• Jake and Doodles - Justin Fletcher
• Max and Milo - Bob Golding
• Bella - Sally Preisig (episodes 1-130)/Emma Weaver (episodes 131-390)
• Judy - Sinead Rushe (Matthew Lyons in some later episodes)

Some of these voice actors are recognisable as actors from other BBC series. For example, Justin Fletcher is "Justin" from Tikkabilla, and Sally Preisig is "Peggy Patch" from Playdays.

In mid-2003, The Tweenies was introduced to U.S. audiences via the cable channel Noggin, after briefly being shown on sister channel Nickelodeon. Similar to Bob the Builder, American-accented voices were used, and words specific to British English were changed (for example, "telly time" is renamed "video time" and "news time" is renamed "circle time"). However, by early 2004, due to pressure to introduce other new shows on the channel it was no longer shown daily and was only shown intermittently at a rather early 6 am EST. This greatly diminished its US viewership and on January 1, 2006 the show was permanently pulled from Noggin's line-up and thus is no longer shown in the United States; however, the Noggin web link is still active.

In Canada, the show has aired in both English and French on BBC Kids and Radio-Canada, respectively. Radio-Canada dropped regular broadcasts of the series in mid-August 2005, but aired 2 holiday episodes on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve 2005. In April 2006, Radio-Canada brought the series back on Sunday mornings as part of its La petite minute pre-school program block for the spring-summer 2006 season. In early June 2006, the network added weekday airings as well; however, the weekday shows were dropped later that month, returning to the line-up in mid-July. On August 31, 2006, the network aired 2 Tweenies episodes that day, one in its usual 6am (Eastern) time slot and a second episode at 7am. The Monday-Friday showings were ended on September 4, 2006, leaving the Thursday 7am broadcast as the only weekday program. As of September 16, 2006, the weekend broadcast was moved to Saturdays at 6am EST. The Saturday broadcast repeated the Thursday episode, delayed 2 weeks (with a few exceptions). During the 2006 holiday period, the Saturday programme was pre-empted for 2 weeks due to special holiday progamming, but picked up at the usual point when it returned. The episode Christmas Morning was broadcast December 21, 2006 and was replayed on Christmas Day 2006 with the regular rotation returning the following week. The Thursday and Saturday broadcasts ended on April 5 and 7, 2007 respectively. The network will be airing Christmas Morning during the 2007 holiday period: on Friday, December 21st at 6:01am EST; Sunday, December 23rd and again on Sunday, December 30th at 6am EST.

In addition, the show has been dubbed into German, Welsh, Estonian, Arabic, Russian, Indonesian, and Slovak, among others. The Spanish version of the series appears in 2 versions: a Madrid-dubbed version for Spain and a dubbed-in-Chile version for Latin America.

• Zimbabwe - Star Kidz, Playhouse Disney, Kidz.Net, Nickelodeon,
• Canada - BBC Kids
• Ireland - RTÉ2
• United Arab Emirates- E-junior, City 7 TV
• Netherlands- Nederland 3 (Z@ppelin children's TV block)
• Belgium- Ketnet
• France- TF1
• Europe/Middle East/Africa: BBC Prime
• Malaysia/Brunei/Indonesia: Astro TVIQ
• Hungary- Duna Televízió
• Estonia- ETV
• Singapore/India- CBeebies

US dub

• Bella - Alyson Court
• Fizz - Stephanie Rothenburg
• Jake- Dieter Jansen (source:IMDB)

French dub

• Bella- Sylvie Jacob
• Fizz - Fily Keita
• Jake - Guillaume Lebon
• Judy and Izzles - Marie-Martine
• Max and Doodles - Bernard Tiphaine
• Milo - Yann Le Madic

Spanish, Latin America dub Where two names are listed, first name is dialogue and second is vocals *

• Bella - Amaya Forch Barry
• Doodles - Jaime Lillo
• Fizz - Gianina Tolloni/Margarita M.
• Jake - Rosario Dawson/Andrea Perez
• Judy - Sara Pantoja
• Max - Omar
• Milo - Pablo Ausensi/Oscar Urrejola

Spanish, Spain dub

• Bella - Maria del Mar Jorcano
• Fizz - Pilar Martin
• Jake - Sara Vivas
• Judy - Yolanda Perez Segoviano
• Max and Doodles - Juan Luis Rovira
• Milo - Margarita Ponce

Welsh dub

• Judy - Jennifer Vaughan
• Max and Doodles - John Ogwen

Dutch dub

• Bella- Brigitte Nijman (season 1), Lizemijn Libgott (remainder)
• Doodles- Reinder van der Naald
• Fizz- Anneke Beukman
• Jake- Dieter Jansen
• Judy- Karin von As
• Max- Rik Hoogendoorn (season 1), Bartho Braat (remainder)
• Milo- Dennis Kivit

• Ready to Play (1999)
• Song Time! (1999)
• Ready to Play/Song Time! (combined DVD, 2000)
• Merry Tweenie Christmas (2000)
• Party Games, Laughs & Giggles (2000)
• Song Time is Fab-a-Rooney (2001)
• Songtime is Fab-a-Rooney/Song Time 2 (combined DVD, 2001)
• Enchanted Toyshop (2001)
• Song Time 2 (2001)
• Songs & Surprises (2001)
• Tweenies Live! (2001)
• Animal Friends (2001)
• Animal Friends/Party Games, Laughs & Giggles (combined DVD, 2002)
• Colours are Magic (2002)
• It's Messy Time (2002)
• Everybody Panto (2002)
• Doodles' New Friend (2002)
• Tweenies Live!: The Christmas Present (2002)
• Night-Time Magic (2002)
• Party Games, Laughs & Giggles (2002; special edition for Marks & Spencer with added footage)
• Music is Pop-a-Rooney! (2003)
• Let's Play (2003)
• Party Games, Laughs & Giggles/Let's Play (combined DVD, 2003)
• Jungle Adventure (2004)
• Let's All Make Music (2004)
• Fizz! (2005)
• It's Christmas (2005; combined DVD of Enchanted Toyshop and Everybody Panto)
• Song Time: The Ultimate Collection (2006; combined DVD of Song Time!/Song Time 2/Songtime is Fab-a-Rooney and Songs & Surprises)
• Ultimate Christmas Collection (2006; combined DVD of Enchanted Toyshop, Merry Tweenie Christmas, Tweenies Live: The Christmas Present, and Everybody Panto, with special Christmas material added)

Many of the videos/DVDs on the list have also been dubbed into other languages as well.

Main article: List of Tweenies episodes

• [2] CBeebies - Tweenies at bbc.co.uk