What's the Story? (Balamory)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Balamory
Date:	20/07/08 (35 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun for kids

Disadvantages: Short shelf life

My children both used to really enjoy Balamory and would watch it on the cbeebies channel. My youngest is now 4 ½ and has grown out of watching it though so for me the programme had a shelf life of around 1 ½ years, from ages 1 ½ to about 3. I am sure there are other children that enjoy it past this age but for me that was it limits.

It is a nice children's programme that you can settle into with your children as the characters are all the same every week. They all live in Balamory in coloured houses along the seafront. They are all a little crazy in my opinion but aren't all children's characters. They are however played by real people instead of cartoons or puppets which is nice.

Every episode has something going on that ends up involving all the characters, like a Sports Day arranged by Josie Jump, but obviously something will go wrong and require the help of maybe PC Plum or Archie the Inventor. It is easy for adults to guess what will happen but my kids enjoyed the suspense and final outcomes when they watched it.

It does have a good theme tune and it's one that is easy to remember and sing along to and all the characters have their own songs as well, so that whenever they are brought on screen to do something they sing and dance their own little theme tune.

It also covers different races and disabilities, with black and white people as well as a wheelchair user and this obviously helps children to be more accepting of others when they see different people to themselves on screen.

Overall it was a fun kid's programme that never got too boring or annoying and I was happy to watch it with the kids but it did have a short shelf life for us.

Summary: RECOMMENDED