Nev
The presenters have always been joined by a puppet known as Nev (Neville), who lives with Barney. Nev is a small, blue bear with patches in places and is missing part of his ear (due to the cat under his bed - Bandit - trying to eat him). Originally, the voice of Nev was prerecorded, and his limited vocabulary played in as appropriate, which was why the puppeteer Ross Mullan was recruited to provide the voice live. As a consequence, Nev's voice in the studio sounded distinctly different from that in the many phone-in games used on the programme.
Nev loves socks, jam, Duckie, Barney and Kirsten, calling Kirsten "Krusty" (probably because he can't say "Kirsten"). The little bear often has trouble with pronunciation of certain words, he cannot sing but he can rap well. Nev likes dressing up and sleeping in, the former he usually gets to do during the programme, the latter he cannot do easily on Sundays because of the programme. His dislikes include baths and scary stories. When scared or intimidated, little Nev has been known to growl, just like a real bear would.
A 26-part sitcom starring Barney and Nev, Bear Behaving Badly commenced transmission on BBC One and the CBBC Channel on 3 September 2007.
The series was brought back for a second lot of 26 episodes in late 2008.
The BBC then announced that they had recommisioned it for a third series due to air in early 2010.
Within time, Bear Behaving Badly became one of CBBC's most popular programmes.
Read more about this topic: Smile (TV Series)