''Baby Jake'' is a British-Irish children's television programme originally broadcast in the UK. It first aired on 4 July 2011. Baby Jake is also available on

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

for over a year and on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Production

The programme cost £1.85 million pounds to produce, and was funded by the

Irish Film Board Not to be confused with Northern Ireland Screen. Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, formerly known as Bord Scannán na hÉireann or the Irish Film Board, is Republic of Ireland, Ireland's state development agency for the Irish film, television an ...

and

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

Darrall Macqueen Darrall Macqueen Ltd is an independent children's television production company based in London, England. It was formed in 2000 by Billy Macqueen and Maddy Darrall. History Darrall Macqueen's first production was a converged TV/web event we ...

originated the series and produced the animated elements of the programme through

JAM Media JAM Media is an Irish animation studio based in Dublin, Ireland with production facilities in Belfast, UK. They are best known for creating the children's television series Roy (TV series) for CBBC, and Becca's Bunch for Nick Jr. History J ...

. JAM Media are an Irish animation studio who also made ''Tilly and Friends''. Maddy Darrall was quoted by the ''Metro'' as gaining inspiration for the show from watching her 7-year-old nephew understanding her 1-year-old son. The series is animated by JAM Media in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, and the lead writer is Dave Ingham (''

Charlie and Lola Charlie and Lola Sonner are fictional children created by the English writer and illustrator Lauren Child in 2000. They were introduced in a series of picture books and later adapted as animated television characters. Lola is an energetic and ...

'', '' The Koala Brothers'').

Plot

The show features Jake, a 9-month-old baby. Jake is the youngest of ten children all living in a

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

with their parents, all with their first names starting with the first ten letters of the alphabet. Each episode features Jake embarking on an adventure with a host of magic characters that include Nibbles the

Rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

, Sydney the

Monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

, Pengy Quinn the

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, Captain Spacey and the

Hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian ...

nauts, Toot Toot the

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

and Bill the Red Bus. These characters are always doing something related to the adventure that Baby Jake is on. The show features a child narrator and all ten children are depicted in real life, although Baby Jake is given a multi-angle photographic face on an animated body. Jake's babbling is translated by his 5 year old brother Isaac. Isaac was voiced by a real life 5-year-old boy, in a move described by the

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

as “a risk” since the majority of successful children's television narrated by adults. The roles of Jake and Isaac are portrayed by real life brothers Adamo and Franco Bertacchi Morroni respectively, with Kaizer Akthar providing the voice of Isaac.

Characters

Baby Jake (portrayed by Adamo Bertacchi Morroni and vocal effects provided by Franco Bertacchi Morroni). He's the show's main character. He is a playful baby who imagines many different adventures. Isaac (portrayed by Franco Bertacchi Morroni and voiced by Kaizer Akhtar) is Baby Jake's older brother who narrates magic adventure stories. Nibbles is a

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

who lives in the

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

and is one of Baby Jake's magical friends. Sydney is a

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

who lives in the

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

and is one of Baby Jake's magical friends. Captain Spacey and the Hamsternauts are

hamsters Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian ...

dressed up as

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

who live in outer space and are one of Baby Jake's magic friends. Pengy Quinn is a

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

who lives in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

and is one of Baby Jake's magic friends. Toot Toot is a magic

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

that Baby Jake rides in. Bill The Red Bus is a magic

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

that Baby Jake rides in. It only appears in “A Picnic Feast“.

Location

The windmill featured in the series is Sibsey Trader Mill just outside the village of

Sibsey Sibsey is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated at the junction of the A16 and B1184 roads, north from Boston. Sibsey Northlands is to the north of the village. The P ...

near

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

. In the programme, it is shown as a large family home with additional floors, rooms and windows rather than a working mill, although it shows full working sails. Wheat harvesting in fields in and around the mill at the time had to be delayed to allow filming to take place back in the late summer of 2010 so that they had the correct ripened wheat colours. File:Sibsey, Trader Mill.jpg Caption: Sibsey Trader Mill in

was the location used in the filming of the opening and closing sequences of “Baby Jake”.

Series

Series one of ''Baby Jake'' ran in the UK each weekday from July to August 2011 and consisted of 26 episodes in total. Series two began on 10 September 2012 also consisting of 26 episodes. Series two was the last series commissioned. There has been no request for a further series since. The series has also been shown on

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

Reception

The show was relatively popular at launch compared to other BBC Children's TV programmes, occupying all top five positions on the BBC CBeebies

iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

for a week. In 2013 the show received a UK Broadcast Award. Its rating on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

was 5.4/10.

Episodes

Series 1 (2011)

Series 2 (2012)

References

External links

* {{BBC programme 2011 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings 2010s British children's television series 2010s preschool education television series BBC children's television shows British preschool education television series BBC high definition shows British English-language television shows CBeebies Television series about children