If only the director could see their Narrator Three now. The snub marked the beginning of Baynton’s steady rise to Brit-com stardom, from comic turns like the innocent but inane Deano in Gavin and Stacey (2008-2010), to creating and starring in several dearly beloved sitcoms, the most recent being BBC One’s Ghosts (2019-).
Amongst the best-loved sketches were the songs, known for educating kids with the most effective educational tool known to man: earworms.
Here’s our pick of the 10 best songs across the show’s run so far. Think Top of the Pops, but historical: Most Esteemed of the Bards, if you will.
The new episode – ‘Terrifying Tower of London’ – was filmed on-location at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It follows Rattus Rattus as the beloved rodent teams up with AJ Clark, one of the Tower’s Beefeaters, officially known as Yeoman Warders. The two navigate every twist and turn of the Tower’s long history, from its being built by William the Conqueror all the way to the present day.
What have we done?” bemoans the decapitated head of Sir Humphrey Bone, after the nation’s favourite spectres make a defining decision in the final episode of Ghosts, which goes out as a Christmas special on BBC One. “We did the right thing,” Julian Fawcett, the trouserless MP ghost, says confidently.
Both hour-long episodes form an adaptation of the detective novelist’s 1960s book of the same name. Miss Pinkerton, played by Penelope Wilton (Doctor Who), is found dead on her way to report a murder to Scotland Yard. Luke Fitzwilliam, played by David Jonsson (Rye Lane), decides to head to Wychwood under Ashe, where Pinkerton claimed the killer was at work.
He didn’t set out to teach millions of children that Incans used urine as shampoo, or that Pythagoras died whilst evading a field of beans. Greg Jenner’s original plan was to go down the academic pipeline of PHD to Professor of History.
But a series of knock-on effects meant that he would have to find another route. After a trying time with his mental health, Jenner missed out on a double first as an undergrad, which meant that he had to take out a loan for his masters and left him unable to finance his PHD.
The half hour episode will follow the friendly ghosts of Button House in their efforts to repay Alison's (Charlotte Ritchie) generosity with a Christmas present.
With Alison due to return in a matter of hours, the ghosts are in a race against the clock. Especially when her and Mike's (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) journey hits a bump in the road and they are forced to reassess their Christmas Day plans.
Meanwhile, Kitty (Lolly Adefope) gets her moment in the limelight when she gets a much-needed pep talk from a surprising source.
Children are the canaries in the mine, picking things up first,” observed Greg Childs, director of the Children’s Media Foundation, as he introduced an RTS debate on how children’s TV and content movers and shakers are adapting to the fact that young people have migrated online.
An optimistic tone was established from the start by Alice Webb, the outgoing head of BBC Children’s and Education, who asserted: “Yes, the kids are absolutely fine. They have more choice than they ever had. They are exercising choice and are after things that interest them.
CBBC’s Horrible Histories was the subject of RTS London’s latest production focus in early November – with a team of creatives from producers Lion Television explaining how they put together the award-winning show.
