Tweenies: Ready To Play and Song Time on DVD

• Cert:
• Cat.no: BBCDVD 1018
• Running time: 100 minutes
• Year: 2000
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 34 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
• Widescreen: 1.77:1 (16:9)
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £16.99
• Extras : Scene index, “Surprise Me” random play
  

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  Director:

  Kay Benbow, Will Brenton & Robin Carr

Series Producer:

Written by:

Music:

Tweeniesis a children’s show on BBC TV for pre-schoolers aged three to five. Liketheir other popular show, Teletubbies, this too features four charactersdressed in bright colours to appeal to such an age market.

In Ready to Play, the four ‘presenters’, Milo, Bella, Fizz and Jake,the programme is broken up into separate segments such as Messy Time,Story Time and Telly Time, in which they get help from old man Max tobuild some musical instruments and Fizz trains them all to perform in a veryfunny ballet.

Song Time does exactly what it says on the tin: 23 songs, some new andsome traditional, come from the mouths of the four such as Music Man,Wheels on the Bus and Incy Wincy Spider.

Presented in an anamorphic 16:9 ratio, the picture quality is absolutelystunning, there’s no two ways about it. If you’ve ever seen the show on TVyou’ll know that each one is packed with a cacophony of colours that willeasily hold the attention of a child in the intended age range.The average bitrate is 5.67Mb/s or 5.66Mb/s, depending on which programmeyou watch.

When it comes to sound, the Tweenies aren’t ones to be quiet. They talk tothe camera – such as when it comes to introducing themselves – and kids willhappily sing a long to the tunes in Song Time.

Ready To Play has 10 instead of 8 as they are topped and tailed with theopening and closing credits. However, the one labelled chapter 8 (which isreally chapter 9), “Tweenie Clock: Song Time”, is actually a second helping ofStory Time.

Song Time contains 24, not 23, chapters as it misses out the closingcredits and this last chapter is also thrown into the “Surprise Me” randomplay feature so if you get those when expecting a random song, now you knowwhy. However, this only works for the first song chosen. After that it willplay the rest in order until the end of the programme.

Languages & Subtitles :All the dialogue is in English and has subtitles in English (for the deaf andhard of hearing). Menu :The main menu is animated, as it states on the back of the box, but for somereason there’s no sound which would be best to entertain the children as muchas the rest will.

Overall, while it won’t quite grab an adult’s attention, if your kids are afan of the Tweenies and you have a DVD playerthis is a very worthwhile purchase. You’ll know that their favourite videosget worn out by playing them endlessly and a DVD is a much more robust formaton which to keep their collection.

As for which DVDs I’d like to see from the BBC in future. They include :Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form),The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and, dependingon whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash, Eldorado…

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