Smile TV Channel

SmileWas a British Sunday morning children's programme created by production company Darrall Macqueen Ltd for CBBC. It first aired in 2002 and was originally shown on the CBBC Channel. It was moved to BBC Two to make way for . Although Dick and Dom finished in 2006, Smile never moved back to the CBBC Channel. The final programme was broadcast on 26 August 2007, from 7:30 until 10:00 on BBC Two.

Show overview[edit]

Primarily a children's magazine programme featuring celebrity guests, Smile also encouraged audience participation through competitions and games. It won an Indie Award for its interactivity, going on later to win two Children's BAFTAs.

A number of cartoons and other programme acquisitions were transmitted during Smile on a rotational basis. Principally these included: Arthur, Batfink, BB3B, Even Stevens, Jakers, Legend of the Dragon and The Likeaballs.

When the show first aired in 2002, it was likened to Saturday morning TV on a Sunday, except without a studio audience. It had celebrity guests, interviews, performances, games and 'built in' CBBC shows and cartoons. It had a very different feel with Fearne, Reggie and DJ Devstar. Once they left, however, the show's style changed and was aimed at the younger end of the CBBC audience. Eventually it became rather formulaic. As a result, the programme became more game oriented. To enable the show to evolve, further changes were made. In the revamp, Rochelle Wiseman was lost.

Between 2006 and 2007, Smile began to target the younger audience CBBC wanted to get, and with Barney and Kirsten as the two remaining presenters the show took on a battle of the sexes format. The celebrity guests and some items were dropped, although the cartoons remained, but the main significant change was that children were invited onto the set to take part.

Presenters[edit]

The original presenters were Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates and Devin Griffin (credited as DJ Devstar). In 2003, Devin left to concentrate on his radio career. Soon after, Fearne and Reggie left in 2004 and were replaced by Barney Harwood and Rochelle Wiseman, former S Club 8 singer and a current member of the girl group The Saturdays. In 2005 Kirsten O'Brien joined the team. On 26 March 2006, Rochelle Wiseman left the Smile team of presenters.

The presenters have always been joined by a puppet known as Nev (Neville), who lives with Barney. Nev is a small, blue bear with patches in places and is missing part of his ear (due to the cat under his bed - Bandit - trying to eat him). Originally, the voice of Nev was prerecorded, and his limited vocabulary played in as appropriate, which was why the puppeteer Ross Mullan was recruited to provide the voice live. As a consequence, Nev's voice in the studio sounded distinctly different from that in the many phone-in games used on the programme.

Nev loves socks, jam, Duckie, Barney and Kirsten, calling Kirsten "Krusty" (probably because he can't say "Kirsten"). The little bear often has trouble with pronunciation of certain words, he cannot sing but he can rap well. Nev likes dressing up and sleeping in, the former he usually gets to do during the programme, the latter he cannot do easily on Sundays because of the programme. His dislikes include baths and scary stories. When scared or intimidated, little Nev has been known to growl, just like a real bear would.

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