Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep and her sheep

Teletubbies watching Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep is one of the 7 Magical Events and one of the most rarely seen. It features Little Bo Peep, a shepherdess with a very posh accent and her sheep with very thick Cockney accents.

The event was the last one made as the other six Magical Events were shown in the first 11 episodes of Teletubbies while this Magical Event wasn't shown until the 245th episode which aired when Teletubbies was at its halfway mark.

This is the longest Magic Event, and unlike other Magical Events, this one uses stop-motion animation instead of computer-generated animation.

Appearances

Episodes

UK Series (on BBC)

• Catherine's Toy Farm (first appearance)
• Colours - Yellow
• Hedgehogs
• Apple Pie
• Ducks
• Baby Elephant
• Puppies
• Girl in the Back Garden (final appearance)

US Series (on PBS)

• Long Horns

Home Media

DVD

• Look! (US) (extra)
• Visit the Farmyard with the Teletubbies (Asia) (Catherine's Toy Farm)
• The Girl in the Back Garden (Asia) (Episode of the same name)
• Safari Park (Asia) (Baby Elephant)
• Teletubbies 10: Happy Birthday! (Catherine's Toy Farm)
• Colours - Yellow and Brown (China) (Colours - Yellow)
• Colours (Australia) (Colours - Yellow)
• Animal Friends (Australia) (Ducks)
• Learning Colors (US) (Colours - Yellow)
• Big Hugs and Baby Animals! (US) (Baby Elephant)
• Teletubbies Classics: Paws & Play! (US) (Puppies)

Synopsis

The sketch starts with the Magic Windmill spinning. The Teletubbies then arrive silently at the Magic Event place in Teletubbyland while the windmill is still heard spinning. The Sun Baby starts to giggle.

This event is very different from other events as there is no sound indicating what is about to happen. Instead, the Teletubbies look around and see eight clouds in the sky, floating to the right while the "Teletubbies cloud tune" plays. There is then a quick close-up of the clouds. The Teletubbies giggle quietly as they follow the clouds. After another close-up of the clouds, the Teletubbies then sit down on a hill. A new piano tune plays and in another close-up, the clouds float by and suddenly, sheep sounds are heard and black heads and legs form in the clouds. The clouds then turn into sheep and one small cloud turns into a white lamb. The eight sheep float across the sky and then float and land on the ground, forming a line, with the biggest sheep at the top and the little lamb at the end. The excited Teletubbies then giggle and laugh after seeing the sheep land.

The sheep begin to explore Teletubbyland with the little lamb slowly following behind. Then a voice in the middle of nowhere says, "Oh, where, oh, where are my sheep?" Little Bo Peep comes floating down from the sky and lands in Teletubbyland. She says "Hello!" and starts to sing about how she's lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them. So she searches for her sheep around Teletubbyland. The sheep also sing too. The little lamb follows behind and starts blowing raspberries over the hills. The sheep hide behind some hills as Little Bo Peep looks around. After a while, the sheep come back to Little Bo Peep. Then she sings about how she's found her sheep. Little Bo Peep says 'Bye-Bye' and floats back up into the sky with the sheep and little lamb following behind. Once they've completely disappeared, the windmill stops spinning, the Sun Baby giggles, or the voice trumpet rises for Tubby Bye-Bye.

Song Lyrics

Little Bo Peep: I'm Little Bo Peep, I've lost my sheep. I don't know where to find them. I'll leave them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them.

Sheep: We are the sheep, we are the sheep. We are the sheep and here we are, now we are the sheep, we are the sheep. We are, we are the sheep.

Little Bo Peep: I'm Little Bo Peep, I've lost my sheep. I don't know where to find them.

Sheep: Leave them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them.

Little Bo Peep: I'm Little Bo Peep, and here are my sheep. I'm ever so glad I've found them. I left them alone and they came home, wagging their tails behind them.

Watch

Teletubbies Magical Event Little Bo Peep - Clip

Gallery

The clouds

The clouds became sheep

The lamb

Behind the scenes

Trivia

• All the episodes with that magical event are directed by Andrew Davenport.
• When Little Bo Peep and the sheep float down and back up into the sky, they are controlled by strings. When they move around Teletubbyland, stop motion is used.
• This sketch is rare to find in the US Version.
• The voice actors behind Little Bo Peep and the sheep are unknown. Since the credits at the end of the episodes do not feature any additional voices. But Little Bo Peep may have been voiced over by someone from the original cast. It may be possible that Little Bo Peep was voiced by the late Simon Shelton (but this may not be true) because if you listen closely it’s a man doing the voice.
• This is the only Magical Event to feature the Teletubbies' mid 1998-early 1999 costumes.
• There is a game based on this Magical Event.
• When the Teletubbies laugh after the sheep have landed in Teletubbyland, their laughing is re-used audio from The Tubby Custard Flood segment in Trickle Painting.
• In the foreign language dubs of the sketch. Little Bo Peep is either voiced by a man or a woman. However, unlike the Lion and Bear where the Bear has a straight-up man's voice in some dubs, if Little Bo Peep is voiced by a man, the voice actor puts on a feminine voice.
• Like The Lion and Bear, in most episodes, Little Bo Peep happens straight after the TV Event since the event is long.
• The scene of the Teletubbies looking at the clouds is the same scene of them looking around in the Lion and Bear.
• In Catherine's Toy Farm, Girl in the Back Garden, and the Teletubbies: Happy Birthday! DVD, the Tubby Bye-Bye voice trumpet rises straight after the magic event ends.
• In Puppies and Girl in the Back Garden, the Teletubbies giggle when they arrive at the Magical Event Hill. (It's the same giggle sounds from the Edited Sketch of the Lion and the Bear)
• Similar to some sketches like The Lion and Bear (original sketch), The Tap Dancing Teddy Bear, or The Magic House, the Teletubbies' bottoms don't make noise when they sit down on the hill. However, in Girl in the Back Garden, their bottoms do make noise.
• This is the only magic event that doesn't use CGI, though the Lion and Bear are not CGI, there are certain scenes where they are CGI (see The Lion and Bear page). The Singing Puppet Man is also not CGI as his favourite pink house is.
• In Puppies, the Magic Windmill stops spinning, but then the Teletubbies do the Round and Round Dance.
• Similar to The Magic House in Carnival, the Teletubbies giggle when they run off to see Little Bo Peep.
• Little Bo Peep has a less scary audience than other sketches. Instead, it has beautiful music playing including a piano when the Teletubbies are looking at the clouds and the song "I'm Little Bo Peep and I have lost my sheep" which is a Nursery Rhyme song.
• Like The Magic House, the event has no sound indication at the start.
• Baby Elephant, Puppies and the US Version of Long Horns are the only episodes to have a dance following this event.
• There is an official Little Bo Peep Flash Game which is still available online.

Goofs

• In the scene where Little Bo Peep finds her sheep hiding behind the hills, the Windmill is in the background leaned over and covered up. In addition, when the sheep come over the hills while they're singing, for one frame, you can faintly see a person on the left-hand side of the screen and in the previous closeup of Little Bo Peep, studio equipment can be seen in the upper right corner for a few frames.