Overview

The programme features colourful characters with unusual names: Upsy Daisy, Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka, the Pontipines, the Wottingers, the Haahoos and three Tombliboos who live in a garden. As well as trees and tropical birds (Tittifers), the garden features a large cast of other creatures for a programme aimed at toddlers. The characters mostly speak short, repetitive phrases in an invented language. The repetition of sound associated with the characters builds up familiarity amongst the target audience. The garden is a colourful, brightly-decorated environment reminiscent of a dream world. Co-creator Anne Wood said^[2]:

"We wanted to explore the difference between being asleep and being awake from a child's point of view: the difference between closing your eyes and pretending to be asleep and closing your eyes and sleeping,"

Each episode starts with a child in bed (a different child appears in each episode), while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the "Magic Roundabout" style gazebo that sits at the centre of the Night Garden. This story is a summary of the plot of the episode. Sometimes the characters all sing and dance together under the gazebo.

Because Igglepiggle is a visitor to the garden, he does not go to sleep, and his goodbye sequence ("Igglepiggle's not in bed!" — "Squeak!" — "Don't worry, Igglepiggle, it's time to go.") rounds off the programme. The Night Garden retreats into the night sky and we see him asleep on his little boat as the programme's closing titles roll. As Piggle is clearly asleep at the beginning and end of the programme it might be inferred that the entire narrative was his dream. Oddly, he takes down the sail of his boat at the beginning in order to travel, a rather Zen like gesture.

Unlike most television programmes aimed at toddlers, In The Night Garden is not primarily intended to be educational. Instead, it is intended to help children relax, and achieve calming relationships with parents. Co-creator Anne Wood stated "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions – but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed... so this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up!" ^[3]