Fluffy Gardens! A wonderful place where happy little animals go about their daily lives. A place where friends help friends and every day brings fun, play and more than a little silliness.
A place where you can meet Paolo the very clever Cat, Mavis the careful Pony, Tooty the sporty Elephant, Lenny the lazy Octopus, Lola the rather silly Mosquito, the cute Small Green Thing and many, many more fluffy friends.
A warm, gentle yet playful show for preschoolers, Fluffy Gardens aims to put smiles on the faces of children everywhere. And, along the way, enrich their lives with positive messages and very little life lessons.
Always charming. Always delightful. Always brought to you with a smile.
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THE SHOW
With 80 episodes plus the most Christmassy of Christmas Specials, there are now 10 hours of Fluffy Gardens to enjoy. The show has been sold to over 100 countries. Over 100! Okay so some of them I hadn’t heard of before but I’m sure they’re still brilliant countries. If the show isn’t shown in your country, why not?! Write to your local broadcasters and let them know they ought to sort it out.
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In the UK, Fluffy Gardens can be seen every weekend on ITV as well as Cartoonito on cable and satellite. Across the world, it can be seen as Fabulópolis, Fofópolis, Le Jardin Enchanté, Bussiga Byn and more. Fabulópolis is currently airing on Discovery Kids across Latin America, where I know the show has a great following. Hope you’re enjoying it!
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Fluffy Gardens began life as a set of doodles. Nothing more. I remember sitting with them, not being quite sure what to do with them.
I was a very sensitive child. Most children are, even if they can’t quite understand that or verbalise it. So I wanted something that a parent would feel safe with, even with a very sensitive child. And yet children’s television seemed so much more overwhelming than it was when I was a child.
I think it may have been the Telebubbies that finally helped me set my ultimate aim for Fluffy Gardens -
Gentle.
Fun, yes. Playful, yes. But gentle. An oasis in the craziness of children’s television.
That’s all I wanted at first. Then I wrote Paolo the Cat. It was a story about a very clever cat, but he didn’t want anyone to know he was clever. He wanted to be just a regular cat. I finished it with Paolo realising that it’s a great thing to be clever.
It’s okay to be who you are. Not just okay. It’s great.
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From there, I wrote about a Pony who learned that it’s fun to let herself go every once in a while, a Panda who learned to share, an Elephant who learned that helping his friends is a great thing to do, a Mosquito who wins a hat contest for not doing what’s expected but for being exactly who she is.
I didn’t even intend it at first but I realised was doing two things that would become very important to me -
Firstly, I was telling the child I once was, and every other child like me, that everything is going to be okay. It’s great to be who you are. You are wonderful. You are special. You really are.
And secondly, I was passing to the children I would soon have (my two beautiful daughters), and every other child like them, some things I’d like to share with them as an adult, as a parent. Be excellent to one another. Contribute. Be strong together.
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I very much hope that, with that, I managed to create a show that works with parents. I know most of you are giving your children all these messages in one form or another, or your own takes on them. Fluffy Gardens doesn’t aim to replace you (won’t get into it now but that’s a criticism I’d level at certainly one show, if not many). It aims to reinforce everything you are teaching your child. Work with you.
I hope it does that.
If not, if it fails in that aim, I can only hope that at the very least it makes your children smile. If that’s all it does, I’ll take that.
I want to thank every parent who has watched Fluffy Gardens with their children, or been happy to let them sit upside-down, hanging off the sofa while watching it. Not just Fluffy Gardens – Fabulopolis. Fofolopis. Le Jardin Enchanté. Bussiga Byn. Thank you, for giving me the chance to put smiles on their faces.
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They are wonderful. They are special. They really are.
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