Bada-bing bada-boom



Bing
Episode 19: "Lost" (5 minutes)
UK: Acamar Films
CBeebies, Monday 30 October, 13:15

Here's something sweet, but a little surreal.

Bing (no relation to the rubbish imitation-Google website) is a cute little toddler bunny, who hangs around with a living stuffed toy called Flop, who acts as his Jiminy Cricket. Confusingly, he also has a non-living stuffed toy, called Hoppity Voosh.

In this episode, Bing is playing in the park, and goes through a series of little activities, such as watching the ducks and riding the roundabout. However, he stands in some dog poo, and gets upset. Flop takes him to the nursery to get cleaned up, but in all the drama, Bing leaves Hoppity Voosh on a bench. He then has to try to remember his steps so that he can retrieve his fluffy friend.

Ok, it's not exactly Memento. But the simple narrative is structured well enough that little ones will probably be very pleased that they can remember where the missing toy is before Bing can. It's also structured around events and dramas that the viewers can relate to: I imagine that they will have all been to the park at some point, have stood in dog poo, and lost something. What seems minor to us can be a huge distress to them.

Life skills

The episode also encourages problem-solving. Flop could have easily told Bing where the teddy is, but instead he encourages him to recall the series of events. When Bing can't remember, Flop hands him a pine cone and encourages him to act out what he did with the teddy. It's a nice little way of telling the viewers that with a little support they can be independent and work things out for themselves.

At the end of the episode, Bing appears on screen to re-tell the story in his own words. He explicitly mentions that he was scared that he would never see Hoppity Voosh again, and was happy when he found him. This helps the viewers to develop their empathy skills, and I imagine it might encourage them to re-tell stories in their own words (which is an item on the Key Stage 1 curriculum).

Where are Mum and Dad?

As with Arthur, there is an implied message in this series of co-operating with people who look different from us, as the children are all different animal species. It's notable to me that the main character is a black rabbit, and I wonder whether children would associate him with dark-skinned people.

One major issue I have, however, is that there are no adults. There are a few small knitted characters who speak in adult voices (most notably flop), but I interpret these more as Bing pretending that his toys are alive. There is no sign of parents at all. If he was at home or in the nursery, that would be one thing -- we could infer that there was an adult somewhere nearby. But when a character who is supposed to be a three-year-old is playing in the park on his own, that's not a good message.

This niggle aside though, it is an adorable, well-made series.

Available to watch online until 6 November 2017.

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