In The Night Garden - Characters

Characters

Igglepiggle (played by Nick Chee Ping Kellington) is a blue doll with a sideways red mohican (or coxcomb). He always carries his red blanket with him and tends to fall flat on his back when surprised. He is the main character of the show. He arrives at the beginning and leaves the Night Garden at the end of each episode in a boat, for which the blanket doubles as a sail. IgglePiggle does not speak, but has a bell in his left foot, a squeak in his middle, and a rattle in his left hand. His best friends in the garden are Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka. He is the only character not to sleep in the Night Garden (with one exception when he fell asleep on Upsy Daisy's bed), because he needs to find his boat; he is also the only character to walk on the garden path. He was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces".

Upsy Daisy (played by Rebecca Hyland) is similar to a rag doll, with a brown complexion and brightly coloured clothes. She has her own special bed, and can move around the garden; sometimes Upsy Daisy has to catch her bed when it decides to run away. She likes skipping through the Garden and blowing kisses to the other characters or to the audience. She often hugs and kisses other characters, particularly Igglepiggle. Her catchphrases are "Upsy Daisy" and the more emphatic "Daisy Doo!", and she also says "Pip Pip Onk Onk!". Her hair stands on end when excited or surprised, and her skirt inflates to a tutu when she dances or pulls the ripcord on her waist. Upsy Daisy has an orange megaphone on a stand and enjoys singing through it, much to the annoyance of the other residents. She was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces".

Makka Pakka (played by Cameron O'Donovan) is a creamy colour, and is smaller and more round-bodied than any of the other costumed characters. He has three rounded protuberances on his head to represent stones that he uses to make into piles. He lives in a cave and likes cleaning things, such as his collection of stacking stones, and sometimes the other characters. Makka Pakka often stacks freshly cleaned stones into piles resembling his head and body. He sleeps on a stone bed, often cuddling a stone. He travels around the garden pushing his trolley, the Og-Pog; this carries his sponge, soap, orange trumpet, and a bellows-like apparatus called Uff-Uff which he uses to dry items after cleaning them. His house is approached by a stone-walled ditch, as his home is half buried in the ground. He says his own name and the phrase "Mikka makka moo" when he is happy, as well as the names of the Og-Pog and the Uff-Uff, and other phrases from his song such as "agga pang" (his soap and sponge), "hum dum" (his trumpet), and "ing ang oo". Like Upsy Daisy and the Tombliboos, he also uses a phrase meaning "goodbye", represented in publications as "pip pip onk onk". He was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces". As Makka Pakka is smaller than the other characters, he is filmed on another identical set (or garden), and where he appears with other characters, two scenes are shot in parallel.

The Tombliboos - Unn (Andy Wareham), Ooo (Holly Denoon/Isaac Blake), and Eee (Elisa Laghi) - are dressed in costumes with stripes and spots: red and green (Unn), brown and pink (Ooo), and pink and yellow (Eee). Their names reflect phonetically how a young child might say the numbers one, two and three, and the Tombliboos always appear in this order by saying their names. They live among the branches of a bush, on a series of platforms connected by stairs and chutes. The Tombliboos enjoy playing the drums and keyboard, although not with any particular musical prowess, and they also play with large stacking cubes. Their trousers (which fall down unexpectedly) are often seen hanging on the washing line outside their home, and they usually take them down from the line and put them on before going on an adventure. They are sometimes seen brushing their teeth before bed. Tombliboos enjoy kissing each other whilst cuddling and reciting their name Tombliboo. They also have a song about staying together, which consists of them singing "Tombliboo, Tombliboo, Unn, Ooo, Eee!" over and over again. Tombliboo Eee is female and is shorter and smaller than Ooo and Unn. The Tombliboos were first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game".

All the above characters are played by actors in costumes.

The Pontipines (red) and The Wottingers (blue) are two families of ten tiny creatures (a mother and a father, plus four boys and four girls) similar to peg dolls. They live in adjacent houses at the foot of a tree. The Pontipines appear in most episodes, while appearances by the Wottingers are rare. The Pontipines all dress in a very similar fashion to each other, as do the Wottingers. Each family sleeps in one room, their beds next to each other in rows. The Pontipines enter their home by flying down the chimney or going through the front door. They have no feet. The Pontipines enter the Pinky Ponk through a different door from all the other characters, and stay on a separate deck. The Pontipines and the Wottingers are animated using stop motion animation. They constantly chatter, making "mi-mi-mi" sounds in a high pitch. Mr Pontipine's moustache occasionally flies off his face and settles on Mrs Pontipine. Mrs Pontipine carries a pair of binoculars around her neck at all times, which she uses to look for her children when they get lost. The Wottingers are similar in design to the Pontipines, though not identical; they can be glimpsed in the general dance sequences, but are not seen going to bed. The Pontipines were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces" and the Wottingers first appeared in the episode "The Pontipine Children in the Tombliboo Trousers".

The Haahoos are five very large inflatable pillow-like creatures of various shapes and colours with eyes and smiling mouths. They move slowly around the garden with deep springy sounds ("boing, boing"). The Haahoos appear behind the gazebo during general dance sequences, and are also seen going to sleep, closing their eyes and deflating slightly. They come in the shape of a flower, an x, a star, a circle and a figure of 8. They were first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game".

The Tittifers are live-action tropical birds with their own unique songs. There are four small blue Tittifers (Long-tailed Finches), three larger pink ones (Hoopoes), two big green ones (White-cheeked Turacos) and one multicoloured toucan with a huge purple beak. They sing usually between segments, and when they sing together, near the end, it is time to sleep. They were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces".

The Ninky Nonk is a train of five differently sized and shaped carriages. Its size is paradoxical: exterior shots of the moving Ninky Nonk show a toy-sized train, quite small compared to the main characters and scenery, while interiors and static exterior shots are done on sets or with life-sized models so that the main characters can easily fit inside. When it stops or starts, the seat-belted passengers jerk sharply in their seats. A range of bells and klaxons warn everyone inside. The Ninky Nonk can drive up and down trees and upside-down along branches. Like the other characters, it goes to sleep. The engine is banana-shaped, and is followed by a green spheroidal carriage used by Makka Pakka and the Tombliboos, a tiny house-like carriage used by the Pontipines (and sometimes the Wottingers), a blue rectangular carriage with a flashing light used by Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle, and a tall rounded single-seater carriage used by Igglepiggle when travelling alone. It was first featured in the episode "Everybody, All Aboard the Ninky Nonk".

The Pinky Ponk is an airship, speckled with many slowly waving fins and several small propellers that can spin fast, plus a large propeller at the rear that always turns very gently. The characters often use it to travel around the forest, and during their journey are able to drink "Pinky Ponk juice" which is dispensed in "sippi cups". As well as whirrings and clankings, and a sporadic honking sound from the "Ponk light" at the front, the Pinky Ponk makes flatulent noises. Like the Ninky Nonk, the Pinky Ponk is of paradoxical size: exterior shots are chroma keyed model shots showing a model smaller than the main characters, while interior ones shots produced on a set into which they can fit. It has two doors, one for the costumed characters and the other for the tiny characters. One table has three seats (for the Tombliboos), another has two seats (for Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy), and the third has one seat (for Makka Pakka). The Pontipines take a table with 10 seats in the small room, and sometimes the Wottingers will take the table a level lower than the Pontipines. It was first featured in the episode "The Tombliboos' Waving Game".