The whole family loves Balamory, nice to see a television show were the children are not influenced by anything other than being happy. The emphasise on colours has been a huge impact on our son Curtis. He remembers the house colours and points them out each time. My husband and I sing along with the our two little boys and I am sure our neighbours can hear us some days singing. Everyone has an opinion but I am unsure people want to read/listen to small minded people who do not like this show.

One can't find any faults with the show it is just great, can't see why people don't like it, it is not for adults to watch it is a kiddy show so they are looking at it on the adults side.

Please just keep that show going, it is really good when my grandson wakes up in the morning the first thing he asks is Balamorey on still. It is really a good show compared to some of the junk that comes on from other countries, we live in Canada.

I will not let my son watch this rubbish. I find it to be extremely politically correct, not one to watch if you're a realist and live on the ground rather than in the clouds.

Balamory started in Autumn 2002. First shown on cbeebies channel on digital TV it was a while before the normal channels saw it!

The adverts were off a boat going round an island. It intrigued me enough to watch the first episode! E was about 2 year 8 months at the time and I was heavily pregnant with Murray.

The theme Music is quite a catchy up beat tune which tends to get stuck in your head. It asks the question "What's the story in Balamory? Wouldn't you like to know?" Then we are introduced to the characters one by one through the song and they give us a wave. Then we meet Nursery teacher Miss Hoolie! She is in charge of the Balamory Nursery. She tends to be the first port of call in Balamory with someone always popping in for a chat and they always seem to have a problem. Miss Hoolie is usually able to help them out by sending them on to someone else who may be able to help!

The characters are:

Miss Hoolie - Nursery Teacher Lives in Green house
PC Plum - Local Policeman lives in White house
Edie McCredie - Bus Driver lives in Blue house
Susie Sweet - Shopkeeper and cafe lives in red house
Penny Pocket - Other shop keeper and cafe with susie and is there
Josie Jump - Athletic one who lives in yellow house
Archie the Inventor - Lives in pink house and wears a kilt
Spencer the Painter - Lives in Orange house and rides a bike with a wee trailer on it

You can recognise each character easily as they are dressed in the same colour clothes as their house. Except Penny Pocket who is dressed in Blue and is in a wheel chair. Spencer also tends to wear white painting overalls!


Each episode is 20 minutes long. We start of in the Nursery where Miss Hoolie takes her coat off and asks your name. She does the weather chart, so this has your child answering Miss Hoolie on what the weather is like in Balamory. The children then arrive and there is a little song which goes with it! Sometimes the programme starts in the Caf when it is a holiday or weekend. A different song is sung to the children arriving in this situation.

Miss Hoolie usually has something to show us like a trick or something which she has found or she tells us what is going to be happening. Then some music starts playing. I find that Eilidh now recognises the tune for each person and can usually tell me who is about to arrive. One of the other characters arrives and they always have a problem and they come to Miss Hoolie to get her to sort it all out. She normally manages to help them and then the Colour song is sung. The character sings about which Colour House are they going to and this encourages the child to guess. For example they want to go to Edie McCredie's house then Eilidh will shout out Blue or Orange for Spencer.

Balamory is full of bright colours and as each character meets another they move their hands in the shape of a rainbow and bright coloured balloons appear in that shape. This is where the character goes back over the story so far, which is helping a child to remember what has happened.

They can meet various characters before their problem is solved and usually they have a fun bit where they go visiting someone who may have had a new baby or they go swimming. The problems which the characters have tend to relate to what children may suffer, like not being able to swim or having a new baby!

I find it a good programme as it does have the child thinking and if they go to nursery or playgroup, then they can relate to what is going on in the nursery too. I often find Eilidh can tell me things before the character works it out for themselves. It has catchy songs so is encouraging memory and I do find that they do things like dancing or exercises which means that Eilidh wants to get up and copy what is going on.

The programme also has a good mixture of different people and races and lots of people from different parts of the UK and other parts of the world, although not any from other parts of Europe. Also Penny is in a wheelchair so this is introducing disability to the child too! Lots of children have no experience of people having disabilities and so this is a good way of introducing it. Eilidh has never mentioned the fact that Penny is in a wheelchair which shows that it doesn't bother her.

You can also buy 2 DVD/Video's now. They each have 3 episodes. The DVD's have an extra episode and also some features such as games or singing the songs on a karaoke. These are available in most shops which sell DVD/Video's!

Some people have criticised this programme, but in reality I find it very educational and is very easy for children to relate to. Murray loves Balamory and can sing the BAL-A-MOR-EE part of the song very clearly and he loves watching it for 20 mins. It is the only programme he has the concentration for. It is also excellent that it is a Scottish based show too as for a while Eilidh had an english accent thanks to the tweenies and tikkabilla. It's nice to see a Scottish based programme although a friend who lives in England said that her daughter struggled to understand the Scottish actors at first, even though they have a broad accent they are quite posh!

It is also possible to go to www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies and at the top of the website is a picture of Miss Hoolie. Click on her and you go to Balamory's Website which has lots of games, colouring in sheets, songs and stories.

Apart from the DVD's and Video's I haven't seen anay merchandise about for them, but a local cake shop did make Eilidh a Josie Jump Birthday Cake! I printed the picture off the website and took it in.

We have also seen the Cast live at the Christmas Celebrations in Edinburgh and they were great! The children just loved them and had a ball with their favourite characters being there.

So if you have not seen Balamory get to the Cbeebies Channel Monday to friday at 9am, 1pm and 5pm and various times at the weekend to see them! Otherwise try the BBC1 and 2 channel listing to see if it is on then! If you haven't checked it out with children, well you haven't lived ;-)