Timmy Time
Timmy Time is a British stop-motion animated children's television series made for the BBC by Aardman Animations. It started broadcasting in the United Kingdom on CBeebies on 6 April 2009.[1] The show is a spin-off from the Shaun the Sheep animation, which is in turn a spin off of the Wallace and Gromit film, A Close Shave (1995).[1]
| Timmy Time | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Children's animation |
| Created by | Jackie Cockle |
| Based on | Shaun the Sheep by Richard Starzak Wallace & Gromit and A Close Shave by Nick Park |
| Voices of | Kate Harbour Justin Fletcher Louis Jones |
| Narrated by | Dennis Ploughborough (2009-2015; 2020-present) Harley Bird and Kathleen Herles (2019-2020; 2020-present) (cold openings only) |
| Opening theme | It's Timmy |
| Ending theme | It's Timmy (second verse) |
| Composer(s) | Mike Stobbie |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 80 (Episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Miles Bullough David Sproxton Peter Lord Nick Park |
| Producer(s) | Redstone Tutorial |
| Production location(s) | Filmed in Bristol |
| Running time | 10 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Aardman Studios |
| Distributor | Aardman Animations |
| Release | |
| Original network | Pop |
| Picture format | PAL (1080i) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 6 April 2009 – 13 July 2012 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | A Close Shave Shaun the Sheep |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The first two series ran for 26 episodes. In the United Kingdom, the show's most recent run began in September 2011 on CBeebies. In Australia, season one commenced in May 2009 on ABC1 and season three started in May 2011 on ABC 4 Kids.[2][3] The show also broadcast reruns on Disney Junior from its launch in 2012, but the show was discontinued in May 2014.
In 2018, Aardman joined forces with the British Council to create "Learning Time with Timmy", a learning experience to encourage children aged 2–6 around the world to learn the English language, along with a YouTube-exclusive series and 3 apps.
Premise and format
In this series, Timmy and his friends[4] have to learn to share, make friends and accept their mistakes.[5] They are supervised by two teachers, Harriet the Heron and Osbourne the Owl. The show is aimed at pre-school-aged children, which the company described as "a natural next step for Aardman".[1]
The show is made up of ten-minute episodes, which do not feature much dialogue, much like Shaun the Sheep, Wallace and Gromit and A Close Shave. Shaun, his friends, Bitzer and the Farmer did not appear.[1] A filming of one episode was featured on the Discovery Channel's How It's Made.
Episodes
| Series | Episodes | Airdate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 26 | 6 April 2009 | 13 July 2009 | |
| 2 | 26 | 17 May 2010 | 21 June 2010 | |
| 3 | 28 | 14 March 2011 | 13 July 2012 | |
Characters
- Timmy is a male black and white lamb who is the titular character and enjoys being in the spotlight. He is three years old in sheep years and later turns four in the episode Timmy's Birthday. In many of the episodes he gets into trouble; however, he learns from his mistakes, and often tries to help the other characters out when he can. Timmy's noise is baaa. He is best friends with Yabba, and is very close to Finlay. He also appears in Shaun the Sheep.
- Harriet is a female pink heron who speaks through caws and clicks. She is one of the two teachers. Harriet's noise is squawk.
- Osbourne is a male purple owl who is the other teacher of the class. Osbourne's noise is hoot-hoot.
- Yabba is a female yellow duckling who is very similar to Timmy in personality and is best friends with her. Yabba's noise is quack.
- Paxton is a male pink piglet who is characterised by his appetite for apples and his weight. He wears a blue sweater and is never seen without it. Paxton's noise is oink.
- Mittens is a female orange kitten who is like other kittens: she hates getting her fur dirty (or wet) and is rather sensitive. Mittens's noise is mee-ew-ew. In some episodes, she seems to have feelings for Timmy. She always loves playing with picnics.
- Ruffy is a male brown puppy who is energetic but can be, sometimes, mentaly slow, and he is good friend, too. Ruffy's noise is rowf.
- Apricot is a female brown hedgehog who is very quiet and skittish. When startled or frightened by someone or something she rolls up into a ball. Apricot's noise is hicoooo, though she rarely speaks.
- Stripey is a male black and white badger cub who is a bit sleepy and slow as badgers are nocturnal. Stripey's noise is eh-eh.
- Kid is a male black and white goat who has a large appetite like Paxton, and chews anything in sight. If the thing he is chewing is taken from him he does not mind; he just moves on to something else. Kid's noise is meh.
- Otus is a male purple owlet who enjoys helping and looks up to Osbourne. He can be typically found reading and is very sensitive, sometimes copying Osbourne. Otus is commonly confused to be female due to his feminine voice tone and pink and purple feathers. Otus's noise is too-hoo.
- Finlay is a male red fox kit who is excitable and full of energy. Finlay's noise is yip-yap.
- Bumpy is a male green caterpillar who is not part of the class but has many background appearances in the show. Bumpy makes a soft purring noise.
- Timmy's Mum is a female black and white sheep who is also not part of the class, but does appear in the opening sequence, "Timmy's Christmas Surprise" and the end credits. She is the only known parent in the show and also appears in Shaun The Sheep.
References
- Loveday, Samantha. "Timmy Tales". licensing.biz. Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
- "ABC1 Programming Airdate: Timmy Time (E1 S1)". ABC Television Publicity. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- "ABC4Kids Programming Airdate: Timmy Time (E1 S3)". ABC Television Publicity. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- "Timmy Time BBC Series". Screenhead.com. Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
- "Timmy Time". BBC - CBeebies. Archived from the original on 21 January 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Timmy Time. |
