Our household tunes into The Cloudbabies fairly often. When I say often, I suppose I really mean that The Cloudbabies has almost reached perpetual motion status. It is on ALL THE TIME. We use You Tube for this. Yes TV is bad for you - there is a huge school of thought that tells parents to prevent their children from watching any TV, or at least, reducing it to minute amounts. I think the school of thought has a point but TV is convenient, some of it is educational and Amber likes it. She partly likes it because she is used to it but still. Anyway, I digress a tad. So The Cloudbabies is, in my opinion, magical stuff. The characters are thus:
Four sort of babies called Baba Pink, Baba Blue, Baba Yellow and Baba Green - two are boys and two are girls
One younger sort of baby called Bobo White who appears to be male and wears nothing but nappy except on cold days
The sun
The moon
Rainbow
Fuffa cloud
Little star
Sky donk
The sky horsies
All the above live in the sky. The Cloudbabies ie Baba Pink, Baba Blue, Baba Yellow and Baba Green look after the sky and Bobo White. All have allocated jobs such as dust the moon, fluff up Fuffa Cloud, care for plants, pick rain pears, polish the sun, paint the rainbow and so on. Bobo White tends to cause trouble. Fuffa Cloud plays tricks on everyone. Rainbow is dramatic and seemingly uber gay. Sun and Moon occupy fatherly motherly roles yet are cared for by the Cloudbabies - in a strange parent child role reversal manner. Numerous adventures ensue in each 10 minute episode. The narrator introduces the programme and sums it up, usually with a little joke, at the end.
Despite my rather banal description - the programme really is magical. It is bright and colourful. Baby type creatures fly around on horses. They have a paint well rather than B & Q. Clouds talk and are pink. A thunderstorm is a musical concert conducted by a super camp rainbow. The Cloudbabies eat transparent fruit called rain pears. The Sun is hot but he doesnt burn anyone when they touch him. The Cloudy House looks like a mini castle crossed with a cupcake. Rainbow doesnt exist through any kind of prism process, he is painted daily with paint from the paint well (Nb he is obsessed with exercise and has huge hands). The Cloudbabies can create a mock sunset by painting the sky with mulit-coloured paint. Sun, moon and rainbow can all talk. Sun has a West Country accent. Anyway you get the idea. My daughter adores the programme. I think she may love Bobo more than she loves me. In fact Im sure of it. Generally the first thing she says to me when she wakes is 'Bobo', usually followed by 'drink'. These are commands. Mummy - I want the watch The Cloudbabies and I want a drink.
Subtext - there is a subtext in each episode. Well there appears to be. For example, when Rainbow, who is extremely hard to please, states that Sky Donk is soooo hard to please. Off-hand, I can't think of further examples, but they are there. There are educational elements, it isnt TV without a purpose - there is emphasis on language development, colours, relationships, routines, sleepy time and so on.
Anyway, essentially, I love the programme. This is just as well because I am immersed in it. I do, of course, turn the TV off sometimes. Amber and I play together. We read books well mostly I read and she tries to bite me or the books. We also watch programmes about letters, numbers, colours and shapes. Other things happen in our house, some of these are not child-led. But The Cloudbabies happens a lot and to be honest, I'm pretty happy about it.
As an aside, I also love Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Person of Interest, Bad Education, Homeland and to a lesser (not to mention embarrassing) extent Made in Chelsea.
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