Lorraine Kelly tells us why she was so excited to be asked to narrate Raa Raa The Noisy Lion, a new toddlers' show on CBeebies starting on Monday, May 9... Apparently it’s been a long-held ambition of yours to narrate a children’s TV show. Why’s that? "You know how years ago people like Ringo Starr would do Thomas The Tank Engine, or Neil Morrissey did Bob The Builder... it’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. I love doing voice work and I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like." What makes Raa Raa The Noisy Lion so different or special? "I think it’s the characters, I really do. A lot of kids will identify with Raa Raa because he’s a little bit naughty, but he always does the right thing in the end. Then there’s Topsy the giraffe who’s bookish, and Ooo Ooo the monkey who’s a bit daft and silly – and kids will see themselves in those characters or their friends. What I really like about Raa Raa is that it’s funny and also that kids will learn without realising they’re learning." Have you tested it on pre-schoolers? "Yes, and it went really well. The main thing is you want to be holding their attention. You don’t want them to be getting up and walking around, which they haven’t done. I think it’s just the right length. Any shorter or longer, I’m not so sure. Parents now are much more astute and demand more. Their expectations are higher. I just remember that I used to adore watching Tom & Jerry, but I didn’t learn anything from it – except maybe that you can really hurt yourself and bounce back two seconds later, which is obviously wrong!" Most parents end up gritting their teeth while watching kiddies’ TV. What were you forced to watch when your daughter Rosie (now 16) was a toddler? "Barney the Dinosaur - can you imagine! It was so sugary, you just felt you were being served spoonfuls of saccharine. But we were quite lucky because we also had things like Ant and Dec on a Saturday morning, and cartoons like Spongebob were just coming out. I love Spongebob – it can be enjoyed on two levels. It’s wonderful." In the old days we were all watching the same children’s TV. Everyone saw things like Blue Peter, but today’s kids won’t necessarily have that thing in common, will they? "No, because TV’s too fragmented. That’s why it’s important to get them when they’re tiny, because most kids now remember Teletubbies, and I’d like to think that in the future people will say, ‘I remember watching Raa Raa.'" Were you allowed to watch much kids TV back in the day? "My dad used to fix tellies, so we had a house full of them – most of them not repaired! I used to watch Andy Pandy, who lived in that basket with Looby Loo and Teddy, which was a bit odd. I loved the Woodentops, especially Spotty The Dog, and the Tufty Club. Tales of the Riverbank I didn’t really like because that was just live animals and someone talking over them. Oh, and Bill & Ben and the Flowerpot Men. What was all that about? We can read loads of things into that now! They were all dreadful really, and it was all done with terribly cut glass accents. Everybody was awfully nice, it was really funny." Did you ever work out if Andy Pandy was a boy or a girl? "A boy I think! Andy Pandy was a bit of a wuss and I couldn’t be bothered with Looby Loo. But I liked Teddy, he was a bit of a rebel, he wouldn’t go back in the basket in time. I identified with him." And of course, it was all in black and white... "Because of my dad’s job, we had one of the first colour tellies in the street. Everyone came round to watch. We got it for the 1969 moon landing, which was in black and white! I’ll always remember, the first programme to be broadcast in colour in Scotland was a Frank Sinatra concert. Everyone came round to watch it and then they all had their pictures taken in front of our colour telly!"
