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CBeebies Live! Fantasy Circus

Published Tuesday 2 January 2007 at 11:25 by Lisa Martland

Following on from its huge success in 2005, CBeebies Live! has returned to UK venues and is looking slicker than ever.

For the young audience which regularly tunes in to the BBC’s pre-school digital channel, this is a dream come true. Postman Pat, Bob the Builder and the Tweenies may simply be popular children’s characters to most, but they are the equivalent of pop stars in the toddler world.

Tweenies creators Iain Lauchlan and Will Brenton cleverly give the show a loose framework in which CBeebies stars have the opportunity to live out their dreams in a circus setting. Pingu has fun ice skating with impressive new presenter Kate Ryan, Postman Pat asks the eager crowd to help him create a rainbow painting and the Tweenies are a huge hit as they blast into outer space and perform among the stars.

Indeed director Lauchlan is totally in tune with his audience, never underestimating the children’s imaginative powers but at the same time staying well aware of how brief their attention span can be.

Keeping the fast-paced spectacle on track are Balamory’s Spencer (Rodd Christensen) and PC Plum (Andrew Agnew), with the latter making a jolly ringmaster. Justin Fletcher, one of CBeebies most popular performers, provides plenty of delightful clowning action, often as alter ego Mr Tumble.

Set/costume designer Sarah Burton and choreographer Allison Coyne also deserve credit for helping to make such a large scale touring production so accessible and even at times quite magical.

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