El jardín de los sueños

Our 2 year old niece recently started watching this program on BBC 2 and is loving every minute of it. There are not many children's programs that allow a child to sit and watch in complete silence for half an hour and be completely engrossed in it.

Derek Jacobi is a wonderful narrator and has a perfect gentle voice for a program like this.

The characters and the models are very well done and a lot of time and creativity has been put into thinking about creating unique characters and locations unlike any other children's program. The seamless transition of CG and real world sets are very well done and makes it a joy for even adults to watch and enjoy.

I can recommend this children's program for any child 1 to 3 years old and it is gentle and calm in every way a children's program should be.

Who said children need to be educated 100% of the time? This show is just 100% entertainment for children, which is fine. They love it, I love it, it's great. Kids don't need to be taught something every minute of every day. What's wrong with the wonder and fantasy that this brilliant show brings? Let the children be children and enjoy the adventures. On a different note, if there's one thing I don't like about the show, it's the repetition. Too much of the same thing too often (the Ponti-Pines for example). Still, apart from that, the fantasy setting works extremely well, making me wonder where it's shot: must be someplace very beautiful, that's for sure!

This is a very strange show from an adult perspective, but after watching the entire first series, you actually start to like the characters and see far more depth than at first glance. However if you are aged 1-3, you will love this programme from the opening credits. The nursery rhyme theme tune and beautiful animation makes you actually take notice from the get-go.

The programme deals with a magical garden, that can only be visited at night, once you are asleep. There are several characters, but Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka are the one you see most often. All of them have their own song that they sing when they appear on the screen, making them even more endearing to the younger viewer.

There is no real message or moral to each episode, just a lovely adventure for the viewer, young and old, to enjoy each time you visit the Night Garden.

I love this show and so does my 2 and a half year old daughter. I would recommend to anyone with tiny children.

I absolutely love 'In The Night Garden'. The Characters of Iggle-Piggle, Makka-Pakka, Upsy Dasiy, The Tomilboos, The Pontipine Family (The rearly seen Wotingers who live next door to the Pontipines, The Ninky-Nonk, The Pinky-Ponk, The Harwhos and the Titifers. All these wonderful characters you can't help but love them. Set in a magical garden that only comes to life at night when your between a state of being awake and asleep. It really is a fantastic program for children but also wonderful for adults to watch with there kids. Now i myself have no children but I have always loved children's' programs (i've always been a big kid at heart). In The Night Garden is a wonderful program I absolutely love it and watch it ever single night on the Cbeebies channel I think it's much better and more entertaining then any adult program on tv. It's such a sweet, cute and beautifully made program. I like each of the characters songs and the things the have such as Iggle-Piggle's Blanket, Upsy Daisy's Bed that she sometimes pulls along, Makka-Pakka's trike called his 'Og-Pog', The funny Tomilboos Unn,Ohh and EE with there trousers hanging outside there tree-house home on there washing line. The way each of the characters interact with each other is always lovely to watch. I love the simple adventures, the songs and the stories all set in a forever sunny garden and it's all tied together with the great Derek Jacobi's narration (I don't think nobody could of narrated it better then him). It really is a gorgeous program and such a joy to watch every single evening. I'm surprised 'In The Night Garden' has never won any tv awards because it so deserves to. I certainly am a big fun of 'In The Night Garden', It's created by a chap by the name of Andrew Davenport who gave the world the equally wonderful 'Teletubbies'. Andrew's latest offering for the pre-school crowd is yet another wonderful and amazing program called 'Moon and Me' which only started on Cbeebies just a couple of days go.

Like any caring family member, I'm concerned about what my niece watches and what lessons she is learning especially at such a young age. I outright refuse to allow my Sister (her mum) to put anything on I consider wasteful and generally trash (cough spongebob cough).

I'm going to out right admit that at first I hated the Idea of ITNG until I actually saw the effect the show has on my niece. She is literally Mesemerized by the show, and sitting with her watching it I can see why.

The whole point of this show is not to be witty, educational or have some deeper meaning to it; it's simply there so parent/child, family/child can watch the show together for half an hour of calming TV before bedtime. All in all I believe my niece loves it so much because its really the time she gets to relax and enjoy being a kid.

I'm sorry, but If you are forcing your child to watch educational shows or learn something every minute of the day, you are awful, awful parents. You can't cram knowledge into your kids and expect them to retain everything. Is that how you learnt as a child? Relentless, unforgiving absorption of knowledge? Like hell you did.

The calm, quiet breaks and relaxing nature of ITNG are the periods that lets kids process the information they have learnt without burdening them with more things to try learn and understand. Stop forcing your own social inadequacies on your kids, and just sit back and enjoy some good old magical adventure with some colourful and enjoyable characters to watch. It's fun, you can sing along and generally enjoy being with your family without having to think about anything. And played about an hour before bedtime makes the task so much easier. I'd much rather put my niece to bed after watching half an hour of this peaceful, calming, magical TV show than force another round of learning to count/read/dance/understand the importance of the race-class divide in modern America (aka Sesame Street).

I will concede the education aspects are lacking (hence 8 stars). So here's a solution: don't have it be the Only show your kids get to watch. But don't dismiss it either simply on face value, because I can tell you; you'd be missing out otherwise.