In the Fright Garden…
BBC kid’s show, ‘In the Night Garden…‘, might be popular with its target audience, the 1-4 age group, but I wonder how many of them have, like us, detected a darker side to the garden and all its friendly characters?
The Hahoos
The Hahoos, for example, are brightly coloured and have benign facial expressions, but their sheer size is intimidating. And when they jump up and down, the effect is like a mini-earthquake. This may explain why Garden characters never venture beyond the Hahoo boundary. Only once have viewers been allowed a glimpse of what lies beyond: when the Night Garden’s in-house airship, the Pinky Ponk, rose high above the trees in a bid to escape the Hahoos’ immense gravitational pull and 24/7 surveillance. Up there in the Garden’s forest canopy lives a beautiful flower that would, I suspect, have been prized by Victorian-era specimen hunters.
Perhaps the Hahoos are only there to protect this rare flower. But why?
Does this magical flower yield interesting alkaline compounds that would, like certain exotic mushrooms, lead one to ecstatic realms even more surreal than the Night Garden?
Or does it simply make a reet tasty infusion when its petals are steeped in boiling water?
One day we might find out. It could be that the scary Hahoo bouncers are all that stand between us and the advance of scientific knowledge.
The Tittifers
The Tittifers also have their sinister side. You only have to hear the brooding bass notes that always herald the arrival of the toucan, for the image of his razor sharp black bill and piercing eyes to come flooding into your mind. If our experience is anything to go by, you won’t be able to sleep properly for days afterwards.
The Ball
This has to be the scariest of all. Not only does The Ball seem to have a life of its own; it also causes havoc whenever it appears. Most recently it knocked over all of Makka Pakka’s tidy stones. And then it came back and knocked over Makka Pakka himself. The big question though, is whether the Night Garden ball is related to the Ball in Patrick McGoohan’s cult series, ‘The Prisoner’? And if so, does this mean Igglepiggle is Number Six? After all, he is always seen trying to run away at the end of every episode. And he is invariably caught and brought back the next day.
Incidentally, if Igglepiggle is Number Six, does this mean Derek Jacobi is Number One?
And was that mucky patch Igglepiggle fell into in the first series a Number Two? (Yep, that’s what we thought.)
Be seeing you…
MOVIE NEWS: Hollywood beckons for Makka Pakka
Makka Pakka would be the perfect choice to take Harvey Keitel’s part as the Cleaner if there’s ever a remake of Pulp Fiction. He’s got all the kit — soap, sponge, compact drier and, most important of all, a getaway vehicle; even if the springs do sound a bit dodgy.
FOR SALE: Two dozen Tittifer eggs.
Excellent boiled or poached. Best before end Sept 2007. Leave comment to purchase. Buyer collects.