Overview
The programme features a large cast of colourful characters with unusual names who live in an area of sparsely wooded grassland scattered with large daisies and brightly coloured balls of flowers. The characters mostly speak short, repetitive phrases. The garden is a sunny, colourful environment. Producer Anne Wood said:
| “ | We wanted to explore the difference between being asleep and being awake from a child's point of view: the difference between closing your eyes and pretending to be asleep and closing your eyes and sleeping. | ” |
Each episode starts with a different child in bed, while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the "Magic Roundabout" style gazebo that sits at the centre of the Night Garden. This story is a summary of the plot of the episode. Sometimes the characters all sing and dance together under the gazebo.
Igglepiggle does not go to sleep, and his goodbye sequence ("Igglepiggle's not in bed!" ... "Squeak!" ... "Don't worry, Igglepiggle! It's time to go") rounds off the programme. The Night Garden retreats into the night sky and Igglepiggle is seen asleep on his boat as the closing titles roll.
In the Night Garden... is intended to help children relax and achieve calming relationships with parents. Wood states: "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions; but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed... so this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up."
In 2007 and 2008, the show won the Children's BAFTA for "Pre-school live action," as well as being nominated in 2009.
Read more about this topic: In The Night Garden