Get Squiggling is a British children's television series created and produced by Jo Killingley at Dot To Dot Productions, directed by Adrian Hedley, and broadcast on CBeebies and BBC Two in the UK.
Format The programme begins with a theme song. The lead character is Squiglet, a monster who speaks directly to the audience. The programme itself teaches preschool-aged children how to draw, as well as basic colours and shapes. The audience is encouraged to use drawing as a method of triggering imagination and as a means to progress the story. Each episode begins with him against a plain white background, which is gradually filled by the characters that he draws, like animals, objects, and landscapes, using his squiggle sticks and Squiggle Pad. There are seven different lines (loopy, round, straight, curved, bumpy, wavy and zig-zag) that Squiglet uses to draw. The main character is then animated by Squiglet saying the magic words, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Let's make our squiggles come alive!" and they join the story. All other content in the show is animated based on his drawings. If the main character encounters a problem, Squiglet draws an object to help them solve the problem. If a problem cannot be solved, the Squiggle Pad gives them a clue to the problem with a short, live-action video. While most episodes end with a song related to the episode, summing up the preceding story, some episodes starting with "Spaceman" end with an epilogue that what happened to the episode, summing up the same preceding story as before. Each episode ends with Squiglet saying "Thanks for all your squiggles, it's time to go now but come back to get squiggling soon. Keep on squiggling." and everybody says "Bye." before the end credits start to roll over.
Cast
John Hasler as all male characters.
Teresa Gallagher as all female characters.
Janet James as Squiglet.
Development The series originated from a simple squiggle Jo Killingley drew while on a beach in Cornwall, which inspired the concept of a preschool programme centred on drawing and imagination. The project was commissioned by CBeebies controller Michael Carrington in November 2006 and was developed under the working title Scribble It before being renamed Get Squiggling!.
The series was produced in association with animation studio Blue Zoo, combining live-action with animation. Episodes were storyboarded before filming, with the character Squiglet performed against a green screen and composited into animated environments during post-production. The production team carried out extensive tests on costume design and filming techniques to ensure the felt-covered character could be integrated convincingly into the animated world.
Educational consultant Brian Neish worked with the production team to develop the programme's drawing-based learning objectives. Each episode focused on a different type of line, such as straight, curved, loopy or zigzag, encouraging preschool viewers to practise basic drawing skills as the story unfolded. During filming at Enfys Studios in Cardiff, director Adrian Hedley devised practical methods to help body suit artist Samantha Dodd interact with animated characters that would be added later in post-production.
One of the programme's principal technical challenges was creating the illusion of drawings appearing in real time. Blue Zoo achieved this by filming oversized crayons tracing pre-drawn pencil lines on tracing paper before digitally animating the artwork. Principal photography concluded in May 2007, with post-production continuing until the series premiered on CBeebies on 11 February 2008. Episodes
Series 1 (2008)
Episode Title Aired 1 "Snowman" 11 February 20082 "Pirate" 12 February 20083 "Caterpillar" 13 February 20084 "Hippo" 14 February 20085 "Spider" 15 February 20086 "Hedgehog" 18 February 20087 "Three Little Pigs" 19 February 20088 "Spaceman" 20 February 20089 "Lamb" 21 February 200810 "Knight" 22 February 200811 "Photographer" 25 February 200812 "Cowboy" 26 February 200813 "Bloodhound" 27 February 200814 "Monster" 28 February 200815 "Fairy" 29 February 200816 "Elephant" 3 March 200817 "Scarecrow" 4 March 200818 "Tortoise & Hare" 5 March 200819 "Giant" 6 March 200820 "Crab" 7 March 200821 "Robot" 10 March 200822 "Frog Prince" 11 March 200823 "Hyena" 12 March 200824 "Bee" 13 March 200825 "Penguin" 14 March 2008
Series 2 (2010)
Episode Title Aired1 "Monkey" 14 June 20102 "Cinderella" 15 June 20103 "Troll" 16 June 20104 "Mouse" 17 June 20105 "Old Mother Hubbard" 18 June 20106 "Cow" 21 June 20107 "Dinosaur" 22 June 20108 "Cat" 23 June 20109 "Gnome" 24 June 201010 "Magician" 25 June 201011 "Bat" 28 June 201012 "Squirrel" 29 June 201013 "Polar Bear" 30 June 201014 "Wizard" 1 July 201015 "Chef" 2 July 201016 "Ostrich" 19 July 201017 "Rhino" 20 July 201018 "Humpty Dumpty" 21 July 201019 "Old King Cole" 22 July 201020 "Koala" 23 July 201021 "Goldilocks" 26 July 201022 "Jack and the Beanstalk" 27 July 201023 "Magpie" 28 July 201024 "Rapunzel" 29 July 201025 "Kangaroo" 30 July 2010
Get Squiggling Letters On 7 February 2013 CBeebies commissioned a 26-episode spin-off to the series that focused on the letters of the alphabet. As with the original, Beyond Distribution handled worldwide distribution to the spin-off.
Home media releases BBC Worldwide (2 Entertain) originally intended to release DVDs of the series in the United Kingdom, as hinted through a promo video featuring footage from the show, but the distributor never did any.
Abbey Home Media released a DVD in February 2011 called "Animal Magic", which includes many animal-related episodes, with six from the second series and three from the first series.
References