Sorry about all the parenting entries, but I’ve been meaning to say this one for a while! 🙂

One of the thing Ben really likes watching is Storymakers on CBeebies. The basic premise is that when the library closes for the night, these two creatures and a literary magician appear to make stories using all our imagination and their special storymaker computer. Hang on – there’s bound to be a website… yup, Storymakers on the BBC website. The target audience is broadly pre-school – other programs are Bob the Builder, Teletubbies, Balamory, Tweenies, and so on. Anyway, there are various characters who appear in the Storymakers’ stories, but everyone’s favourite is Blue Cow, who wonders about things, and gets on the bus to find out about them.

The thing I like about Blue Cow, apart from the fact the whole concept and execution is very funny, is that there’s sometimes little grown-up asides, and I’ve not yet worked out if they’re intentional or not. I think they must be, but they don’t happen very often. The two most recent instances are when Blue Cow wanted to find out what her own voice sounded like, so she went to Echo Beach. I know I’m showing my age, but that can’t have been an accident, surely? The only example is not quite so good, but basically set up a “Why did the chicken cross the road?” joke – not exactly grown-up, but a bit above the target age for the program, I would have thought.

Anyway, it’s a freeview channel, and Storymakers is on between 6 and 6.15pm everyday.