Culture:
The Ministry of Mr Tumble
The ailing children’s TV sector
has been single-handedly
revived by one man, who
drives adults crazy, but is a
hero among the under-5s.
Martin Saunders on the rise
and rise of Justin Fletcher.
It’s going to be one thing or the other.
You’ll either have no idea who Justin
Fletcher is, or you’ll know exactly
who Justin Fletcher is. There’s no
in-between. If there are children of a
certain age in your family, you’ll fall
into the second group; if not, you’ll
be wondering why we’ve devoted two
pages of Christianity magazine to a
chubby clown. No, I don’t mean me.
Either way, Fletcher is an
undisputed phenomenon of British
kids’ TV. His rise has been as
meteoric as it has been unexpected,
and has seen him pick up an MBE
along the way. Like a sort of Diego
Maradona of preschool
entertainment, he leaves grown men
conflicted by feelings of horror and
awe; while his style might be irritating
to adults, it is adored by the under-5s.
Justin Fletcher has a nation of little
people under his spell.
All this may seem of limited
interest. Unless of course you, like
Fletcher, happen to be part of an
institution which is struggling to
capture the imagination of the
generation it seeks to serve.
Then it might become very
interesting.
After an unspectacular early
career in voice-overs and kids
presenting, Fletcher has since
scored three big kids’ TV hits in a
row. The first, Something Special
was self-produced and pitched to the
BBC as a resource for schools. The
programme, featuring Fletcher’s most
famous creation, Mr Tumble, teaches
Makaton sign language, and was both
aimed at – and heavily featured –
children with special needs. The
original idea was that it would be
screened early in the morning, along
with other educational shows. Instead
the BBC took the visionary step of
screening it as part of the regular
CBeebies schedule. It became an instant
hit with preschoolers of all abilities.
My own children have both loved
the programme during their preschool
years. They have picked up a little
sign language along the way, but far
more significantly, disability has been
normalised for them. They
understand that some children are
‘normal but different’, because they
have been presented with this world
view in a show that airs alongside
Postman Pat.
When it comes to our ministry to
children, how do we approach
those among us who are similarly
‘normal but different’? Does your
church tend toward the special
provision approach (with a
necessary degree of separation), or
are you aiming for more
comprehensive inclusion? This
isn’t intended to be a glib
question. I am inspired by how
Fletcher and CBeebies have
successfully integrated special
needs into mainstream
programming. Could we learn
something here?
Mr Tumble lives on, but
Fletcher has ambitiously
broadened his reach. His next
project – Gigglebiz – was a
comedy sketch show for the same
preschool audience. Such a
concept had never been attempted
before; a complex construction of
recurring characters, short-form
storytelling and quick-fire gags.
Again, the BBC should be credited
for trusting Fletcher’s judgement,
flying as it was in the face of the
industry’s prevailing wisdom.
Again they were rewarded as the
show became a hit.
Once more, parents were hit
hard. Annoyingly, my principles
force me to watch television with
my children, rather than using it
as a babysitter. When I ask my
brood what they’d like to watch,
the answer is usually the same:
‘Gigglebiz!’ (or latterly, ‘Justin’s
House!’, on which, more later).
This probably explains why I’ve
had the chance to think this
through in such forensic detail.
Yet among the silly characters and
the general annoyingness, you
cannot fail as a parent to be
impressed by the way Fletcher
treats your children. Implicit in
everything he produces is a deep,
countercultural respect for their
capacity for intelligence. Most of
the ‘kids’ industry just wants to
sell them stuff; I remember from
my own childhood the hundreds
of shows based on action figures
(or was it the other way around?).
The jokes, characters and
format of Gigglebiz, are (mainly)
far from lowest common
denominator – they’re pitched at
an aspirational level. The result?
Children love the show, and work
to understand the more
complicated aspects, rather than
passively consuming
unstimulating mush.
Does that challenge your
approach to children and young
people? Is your church engaging
the young on the same passive,
consumeristic terms most of their
culture does? Or are you actively
considering how to challenge,
stretch and stimulate them? Are
you treating them with such
respect that you might consider
them not just as groups to be
cared for, but as participants to
help shape what you do?
Fletcher’s hat-trick goal is an
inescapably self-indulgent
reinvention of the weekend
morning kids’ shows not seen
since the 1990s. Essentially a
twice-weekly pantomime, Justin’s
House puts Justin (and a couple
of subservient characters) in front
of a studio audience of his
screaming little fans. So central is
it to CBeebies’ schedule that
characters and presenters from the
channel’s other programmes make
guest appearances. Another smash
hit with the audience – and
another opportunity for grumpy
dads, who wish they had
Fletcher’s charisma, to critique it
– has crowned him king of
preschool television.
Even in this familiar format,
there’s a lesson – because Fletcher
has managed to resurrect an
institution that most thought was
on its last legs. Against the odds,
and in a Sky+ world where
scheduling has become
increasingly redundant, he’s got
children making an appointment
to view because they simply can’t
wait any longer. Could we dream
the same for our Sunday school
groups? Perhaps we need to ask
God for some of Mr Tumble’s
prophetic vision...
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