John Greswell is a composer responsible for much of the music for the fantastic Charlie & Lola. My Kids TV were fortunate enough to ask him a few questions about his music, the program and kids TV.

Not many people will know your name, but your work will be familiar to thousands of households up and down the country. How did you get involved with Charlie & Lola?
I used to be in a London band called Menlo Park. It was renowned for its chaotic and energetic live performances. A friend of mine (Soren Munk) was enlisted to compose the theme music for Charlie and Lola and he asked if I would be interested in writing the incidental music. Some of the Tiger Aspect people were aware of Menlo Park and were interested in the idea of having that kind of energy in the score. I pitched and got the job.

The style of music on Charlie & Lola is quite varied and is, in some ways, more grown-up than other children’s television music. Was this intentional? Where did you find inspiration for the music?
For series 2 & 3 the schedule was much tighter so I shared the writing with David Schweitzer. We both brought our own influences to the score, but one thing we always tried to do was to make the fantasy scenes as epic as possible – be it an Egyptian mouse funeral or a ride on a pterodactyl. This gave rise to a great variety of music styles, often referential and possibly therefore more grown up. I remember being briefed for a scene where Charlie and Lola are seen wandering in front of the pyramids with the sun setting behind them. The director wanted the essence of Lawrence of Arabia – a reference almost certainly missed by the pre school audience – but none the less a perfect little Charlie and Lola moment, with their fantasy world larger than life. That was the blueprint really – quirky, warm and downbeat for the domestic reality scenes and larger than life for the fantasy scenes.

Do you think children’s television has improved in the last 20 years, or do you think it suffers from too many imports and repeats?
I was born overseas and exposed to very little TV as a child so I am not in a great position to answer this question. One observation I have made however is that there can be a negative flipside to the ease and flexibility of modern technology used to create TV and music. The process is lightening quick these days compared with 20 years ago, and this ease of motion from initial design to finished product can, in the wrong hands, leave an anonymous sheen that you’ve seen a million times. I think it’s important to get a sense of the human – both brilliant and fallible – behind any creative work. As for repeats and imports, well maybe it’s something to do with merchandise deals!

What other shows have you worked on, and do you prefer working on adult or children’s television?
I haven’t worked on any other TV apart from adverts. I have worked on a few small films. Be it adult or children’s TV I am drawn towards non conventional score writing where the music is not quite what you’d expect. Badalamenti (Twin Peaks), Morricone (the spaghetti westerns) and Anton Karas (Third Man) are examples of how a totally unique atmosphere can be created by the score, and I really admire that approach.

What music do you like to listen to when not working?
When I’m not working I tend to avoid music. But looking at my Top 25 Most Played list in iTunes it tells me I like Rományi Rotá (a gypsy band from Hungary), A Swingin’ Safari (60’s safari easy listening), Anouar Brahem (Arab classical and folk), Pluto Shervington (70’s reggae) and Nazareth (early 70’s Scottish hard rock).

Finally, what Kids TV show theme do you like the most?
Again I’m not really up on TV themes but I like The Simpsons, Muppet Show, Grange Hill, The A Team and Magic Roudabout.

Thank you John for taking the time to talk to us. Charlie & Lola Series 3 is available on DVD now.

Rob Bassett is a great example of how to break into the children’s entertainment industry.  His self-published books, Fluffy Little Kitten, have become popular among children and adults alike and are about to be broadcast on CBeebies radio – let’s hope we see the move to TV soon!  We asked Rob a few questions about Fluffy Little Kitten:

Tell us a bit about yourself and Fluffy Little Kitten

I’m a salesman – currently selling posters in railway stations (advertising posters – not the sort you put on your bedroom wall). I’m 35, married and live in London. No kids of my own, but have a cat and a rabbit.

I started writing Fluffy Little Kitten (FLK) stories around 2002 – I wrote them whenever I had a sick day, so they’re Lemsip-fuelled children’s books. Initially they were very basic, and supposed to be a satire on children’s books. I popped a few discs onto eBay with the FLK “stories” burnt onto them, and was very pleasantly surprised by the reaction. It turned out that because I’d studied lots of picture books to get the parody right, I was unconsciously ticking a lot of boxes as far as young readers were concerned.

The sales and feedback continued to go well and I got so much encouragement that I decided to try for a publishing deal. I “straightened” the books out  (ditched the references to Sylvia Plath, edited the story where the spotty kittens had two dads and the yellow kittens dad was in prison, etc.) and pitched them around the literary agents. I had no success whatever – it’s very hard to get an agent to take you on as a picture book author “off the street” – they tend to commission stuff or use actual artists, and FLK is the limit of my drawing skills. He is the best figurative representation of a cat that I can do!

Like the sensible man I am, I ignored all professional advice and raised £5,000 in chunks of £75 from friends and collegues and self published. Although I’m not stocked in the multiples I’ve sold a thousand or so books, but most importantly I attracted the attention of CBeebies who commissioned 6 stories to be broadcast on their website and radio station. These are recorded now, and should be on air later this year. The fourth book is being printed in more retailer-friendly form (TIP: if you self publish, print with a spine, not just a staple) and with the BBC endorsement I’m hoping for the books to get much wider exposure in bookshops.

Do you think there should be more children’s programming for radio?

Definitely. But specifically I think there should be more stations dedicated exclusively to kids. I’d like it if you didn’t have to worry about “Dads Army” or “The Archers” coming on – not that there’s anything wrong with “Dads Army!”. I’m led to believe that the scheduling of “Go For It” on Radio 4 meant that 40 year old men were the largest listening group! One of the issues you have is that if you look at the 2-4 year old age segment you don’t have a lot of words to play with. FLK stories are actually much longer than standard kids books because they’re specifically designed not to drive parents insane. Zoe Williams in the Guardian said that “Fluffy Little Kitten Falls Over” is one of the few childrens books that doesn’t make her feel sick!

There are a lot of children’s TV programs bought in from abroad, especially the US and Canada. Do you think we should be producing more home grown Kids TV?

I can only speak from my experience as a child and I loved the foreign stuff – TV was all about escapism for me so shows set in foreign countries or with the high production values the Americans can afford were great. Don’t forget we bombard the world with our Kids TV as well, so we can’t really complain. I also think that there’s a niche for all types of programs and that british humour can always co-exist with the most gung-ho flash-bang US programmes.

What do you think are the best UK Kids TV shows at the moment?

I don’t get to watch too much kids TV these days so it’s hard to say…does Doctor Who count? Sadly when I do watch kids tv it’s usually american cartoons.

Do you think that there are too many adverts on Kids TV channels?

Nope – kids are far more savvy than they’re given credit for and it’s good for them to learn about advertising. It’s not like they can go bananas with a credit card, and if they’re being encouraged to want inappropriate things then at least it brings it out into the open and a discussion can be had. Plus no adverts means no money to make the shows.

Are there any plans to bring Fluffy Little Kitten to TV?

I’ve been told that the best thing to do is wait for the BBC broadcasts on radio and then attempt to sell the rights then. FLK will certainly be easy to film! I’ve tried out a few things with slide shows, audio and animation, some of which are on the FLK website or YouTube.

Are you writing any new books, Fluffy Little Kitten or otherwise?

I am always writing something. The problem is publishing them, not writing them. There are 13 finished FLK stories already. Book four is being printed as we speak – it’s called “Fluffy’s Brother” and is all about Fluffy’s annoying younger brother. If I can keep the BBC work going, it provides just enough money to publish a new book a year, and existing sales of the books should raise enough for another one a year. Because FLK has “taken off” I’ve halted all my other projects – I had a slightly older kids’ book planned called “The Otter Margin” about a series of doodle-style otters who live in the margins of books and steal words during the night. A friend has come up with an idea for The M6 Troll, which I’m very keen on and I’ve always got “Angry Little Puppy” up my sleeve – a small dog that thinks he can bark his problems away! Oh, and of course I have ten thousand words written of two “proper novels” – one about a man who fakes travelling around the world but stays in Tooting, and the other a sort of Dan Brown spoof about a global Nazi/Homeopathy conspiracy. I also have a completed liberetto for “YMCA the Musical” which I don’t know what to do with and a screenplay for “Space Invaders the Movie” On top of this, I have a huge amount of photography for a deep fat fryer cookbook – deep fried lettuce etc

Finally, what were your favourite TV shows from your childhood?

My all-time favorite kids TV show is Press Gang, in which Dexter Fletcher butchers an american accent. I now own all the DVDs and for a brief period in the 90s when I worked for the NME, I “stalked” Paul Reynolds (who played Colin) at a series of magazine parties and music events. It is still incredibly high quality and makes me yearn for the pre-mobile phone days.

Thanks Rob.

You can buy Fluffy Little Kitten books from Amazon UK and don’t forget to tune into CBeebies radio on Wednesday 14th October at 6:15am

Next week we’ll have an exclusive Fluffy Little Competition – join our Facebook fan page to hear more.

Wizbit is to return as an animated series, and Mr Daniels has been kind enough to fill us in on some of the details…
I remember watching Wizbit when I was younger and loved the interesting characters, the world they lived in and the puzzles in the program. How did Wizbit come about?
Barry Murray (formerly Mungo Jerry’s record producer – Ed) was trying to find a way of linking tracks on an LP of magic tricks and had the idea of a ‘man’ coming from out of space to do the intros. I had read a story about people who were so tiny their voice frequency was different to ours, much faster and higher. I created the sound of Wizbit (a Bit of a Wizard).

The series is now coming back in animated form.  What was the thinking behind the change from live action to cartoon?
The original live action series really did cost a fortune. We even built the town of Puzzleopolis. Using the latest animation techniques allows us much more scope at a fraction of the price.

Were there any changes you had to make to Puzzleopolis and its inhabitants?
No, if anything more characters will appear and we may even be going back to the planet of WOW (World Of Wizards).

Is there a release date yet or news of which channel/network it will be on?
No, we have had great difficulty getting a channel to ‘bite’. One channel wants the stories to be simpler (I don’t think children are so stupid that they can’t follow the original plotlines) so we have been working on satisfying that demand and another statement thought that Wizbit was too close to a children’s magic school programme – despite Wizbit NEVER teaching a magic trick and being pure fantasy. Justine, the publisher/producer, is working SO hard at creating a product that will satisfy all requirements.

There are also a series of Wizbit books being published – did you have any involvement in these?  Is there any more merchandising in the pipeline?  A Wizbit computer game would be great!
The first four ‘easy reader’ books about Wizbit, for the very young, are already on the market and Borders, for example, are devoting their stores to ‘magic days’ throughout the coming months. Justine is already in negotiation about other ranges of books, toys, DVDs and so on. My involvement? I sit like a kind of overseeing guru, proofreading and editing, suggesting, nagging…..
 
TV magic in it’s purest form, such as the shows you used to make, is a rare treat nowadays.  Do you see a time when it will make a comeback?  Do you think “psychological magicians” like David Blaine and Derren Brown are entertaining?
Of course it will come back because it has been around since the beginning of history. It still exists in the top cabaret and show rooms of the world and on TV everything goes round and round.  I am not too keen on David Blaine ‘cos I have yet to see him do an unedited show, so I don’t know if he can really do a magic show.  Derren is much more straightforward and is the latest in a long line of TV ‘mentalists.
 
I don’t know if you get to see any Kids TV nowadays – if so, do you think it is too full of imported programs, or do you think these are necessary as a form of cross-cultural education?
I think that for too long the children have been brainwashed that pop music is the be all and end all of entertainment, and it isn’t. It is, however, something that promoters can make a lot of money out of and so… they promote it! A lot of children’s entertainment is also too childish and I know the kids in my family have avoided a lot of that kind of stuff. Kids aren’t stupid, they aren’t daft, and they don’t want to watch adults acting that way. It would also be nice to watch presenters who weren’t shouting all the time.

Finally, is the famous theme tune coming back for the new series?
No. Sadly we could not get the rights to it, so we can’t broadcast it.  I do think you will like the new tune though.

Click here to but the new Wizbit books or click here to go to the new Wizbit website.