Hushabye Lullabye: the science behind the sleep

Welcome to the super soft and cosy musical world of 

Hushabye Lullabye and the calming magical landscape of Planet Dream.

In Series 1, the ever-curious Dillie Dally embarks on a journey of ten Hushabye Lullabye dreams exploring the abstract sensory experiences that tiny children love - rhythm, shapes and colours, the characters both familiar and new, voyaging into the super soft landscape of Planet Dream, and contemplating all the new experiences of life as they go, in a quiet end of day kind of way.

Hushabye Lullabye invites our contemporary CBeebies audience to enjoy the power and benefits within the tradition of listening to and singing lullabies together. 

The Science and the Art Through the positive effects of music – in particular lullabies - Hushabye Lullabye encourages calm, relaxation, singing and together time between little ones and their family creating the emotional atmosphere and environment necessary for a peaceful bedtime for our CBeebies audience.  Singing together – a core value of the brand - creates a stronger bond between parent and child by releasing Oxytocin 'The Love or Cuddle Hormone' enabling synchronicity by placing parent and child in the same emotional space.Through the lyrical lullaby melodies, infants receive greater emotional content and are exposed to repetitive language promoting language and cognitive development.

Familiarity Singing and listening to lullabies has been shown to decrease levels of stress and anxiety in both children and parents. The familiar, cosy, soft enveloping textures of Planet Dream reflect the haven of snuggly bed and blankets – of home, family and the grownups that cuddle and keep them warm making everything all right. The original lullabies and vocal familiarity within each unique episode encourages singing together, enabling bonding and attachment to take place in a soothing environment nurturing connection between little ones and their parents/caregivers.

Learning as we snooze. As the day draws to an end, thoughts drift back to the encounters of the busy wakeful day. Hushabye Lullabye uses the powerful effects of music and rhythm to draw little ones into the place between wake and sleep, a safe and magical space where a child can explore all of the things that captured their imagination within the every day.

• Singing Lullabies is an ancient and instinctual art, Hushabye Lullabye has been created to ensure this tradition continues to a contemporary CBeebies audience of new 'millennial' parents 

• These positive benefits of singing and music are accessible to CBeebies audiences via the television series, access to the music from the series, and grown ups page explaining the science 

• Listening to and singing lullabies creates the emotional atmosphere and environment necessary for a peaceful bedtime 

• This is at the centre of Hushabye Lullabye and the concept and presentation has been created very specifically with the science in mind considering the use and presentation of song/lyrics/composition/rhythm/movement/characters/landscape/setting/tone to create this emotional atmosphere and environment for a CBeebies audience 

• When lyrics are added to the Lullaby melody, infants receive greater emotional content and are exposed to repetitive language promoting language development

• Singing together creates a stronger bond between parent and child by releasing Oxytocin 'The Love or Cuddle Hormone' and creating synchronicity which places parent and child in the same emotional space (This can happen singing together during the show or after together before bedtime)

• Babies can recognise lullabies that were sung to them in utero, creating a familiar sound/song to use at bedtime once they arrive into the world - Our audience is from Utero - 4 

• Lullabies - Stimulate language and cognitive development and decrease levels of stress and anxiety

Hushabye Lullabye: Creative Team

Hushabye Lullabye is a super soft quirky 10 x 3 minute animation series full of music, lullabies and cuddles.Full of Exploration and Discovery, Hushabye Lullabye invites the audience to experience a sense of calm before quiet time and sleep with the cuddly alien Dilly Dally and the Hushabye Rocket as they embark on a relaxing musical journey to Planet Dream. 

Creator/Director/Writer/Designer of show/characters

Sacha Kyle is an award winning TV/Theatre Creator, Writer and Director & LSX/Jacobs Foundation International Children’s Fellow.  Most recently she directed BAFTA nominated drama Molly & Mack for CBeebies and was nominated for the Victor Adebodun Director award at the Edinburgh Television Festival.  www.sachakyle.com

Composer & Sound Design Giles Lamb  - Award winning composer  https://gileslamb.com

Vocalist Emma Gillespie – Emma Gillespie (born in Edinburgh, Scotland), better known by her stage name Emma's Imagination, is a Scottish singer. She first came to prominence after winning the Sky 1 TV talent contest Must Be the Music. 

Animation Once Were Farmers – http://oncewerefarmers.com

Executive Producer CBeebies: Julia Bond. Executive Producer Mara Kids: Simon Parsons.   Production Company:Mara Kids

Hushabye Lullabye PRESS RELEASE

 MaraKids brings the power of modern lullabies to quiet time, nap time and bedtime.

Introducing the super soft and cosy musical world of HUSHABYE LULLABYE and the calming magical landscape of PLANET DREAM in a soothing and comforting new animation series for very young children  coming to CBeebies BBC iPlayer

---

Glasgow, 5th February 2020:  

HUSHABYE LULLABYE is a new pre-school animation series, which is super soft and comforting, with new original lullabies providing a sense of calm before quiet time, nap time and sleep.  The first series of 10 x 3 mins episodes will launch on CBeebies BBC iPlayer and will be available as a box set.  

Hushabye Lullabye brings the power and benefits of the tradition of listening to and singing lullabies together as the series encourages calm, relaxation, singing and together-time between little ones and their family creating an emotive atmosphere that is peaceful, soothing and comforting. 

In each episode the loveable and ever-curious little alien Dillie Dally climbs aboard the Hushabye Rocket on an interactive and relaxing musical journey of exploration and discovery to Planet Dream, a wonderfully soft and cosy place that reflects the haven of a snuggly bed and blankets and a feeling of being kept warm and safe.

 Hushabye Lullabye uses the powerful effects of original lyrical melodic lullabies in each episode with music and rhythm to draw little ones into the place between wake and sleep, a safe and magical space that is soothing and nurturing.  

·     Lullabies are often used for their soothing nature and the therapeutic effects of lullabies can have a strong impact on calming anxieties and nurturing bonds.

·     Singing lullabies is an ancient and instinctual art and Hushabye Lullabye has been created to ensure this tradition continues for today’s CBeebies audience.  

This charming series of short animations is a Scottish collaboration that has been created, written and directed by Glasgow-based Sacha Kyle, an established television and theatre director; together with animators Once Were Farmers of Stirling and MaraKids delivering the series with executive producer Simon Parsons.  Composer is award-winning Giles Lamb, the Scottish vocalist is Emma Gillespie and 3D animation is by Will Adams.
Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Julia Bond.

“Hushabye Lullabye has been created to incorporate the powerful benefits of lullabies in a way which is both loving and playful, and I am passionate about bringing the tradition of lullabies to contemporary early years’ audiences,”said Sacha Kyle, Creator/Writer of Hushabye Lullabye

 Maramedia, co-founded by Nigel Pope and Jackie Savery, has had a string of natural history documentary successes and was joined by former head of BBC Scotland children’s production – Simon Parsons to expand their children’s output with exciting new innovative children’s programming for its MaraKids brand.

“We are delighted to be embarking on our first pre-school children’s animation series, an exciting addition to MaraKids following the launch of previous series “Gudrun the Viking Princess” for CBeebies”, addedNigel Pope, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Maramedia.

Commissioning Editor for CBeebies, Julia Bond said, “The magical and enchanting world of Hushabye Lullabye brings lullabies, and the connections created by them, to our young audience and the grown-ups in their lives, we’re delighted to bring Hushabye Lullabye to CBeebies”.

"It has been a pleasure and a challenge to create the beautiful, tactile world of Hushabye Lullabye for CBeebies.  Having pushed our team creatively and technically it's wonderful to see all the hard work pay off in what we hope will be a standout show for the CBeebies." said Will Adams, Art Director, Once Were Farmers.

Hushabye Lullabye

10 x 3mins episodes available on CBeebies BBC iPlayer and as a Box Set now

Maramedia's 2019 Christmas blog

2019 has been a whirlwind of craziness and our fantastic team at Maramedia have been busier than ever producing many hours of wildlife and childrens programmes.

We broadcast our 10 part “Born to Be Wild” series on both BBC Scotland and BBC 2. The series showcased the amazing work of the dedicated staff at the SSPCAs wildlife hospital and the incredible journeys of individual animals as they made their journeys back to the wild!

Our blue chip wildlife specials “Wild Shetland” and “Wild Way of the Vikings” also broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC2 in the UK and internationally on PBS Nature, ORF and Nat Geo with award nominations at Jackson Hole and other festivals. We have greatly enjoyed working closely with the people of Shetland, Iceland and Norway - countries which also feature in our next big project!

In production we were thrilled to be filming with a new commission and partnership between Blue Ant Media, Smithsonian, Love Nature, Arte France, BBC Scotland and the Screen Scotland broadcast content fund. We launched the commission to great interest at this year’s Sunnyside festival! This 3 hour blue chip series will follow the amazing drama of the species that inhabit the north and is due for delivery next year 2020. The series has allowed us to work with some brilliant scientists in some stunning locations across the Nordic world.

In fact the series illustrates the importance to us of partnerships both in broadcast and with scientists and nature conservation teams and the way we must work together to safeguard the future of our natural world.

We thank all our broadcast partners and funders and distributors who we have worked with. We were also thrilled to announce another partnership with our friends in Europe which we launched at MIP in March with Skylander in a joint venture alongside our ongoing relationships with ITVG and ORF-E.

Closer to home we have also been proud to work closely with many wildlife charities highlighting their work and are thrilled to have produced an important campaign film for Scottish wildlife and countryside link highlighting Scotlands amazing and important wildlife and how little nature conservation funding it receives.

And finally it’s the next generation who most importantly care for the planet and its wildlife and we are pleased that our children’s programming slate through our Marakids brand has really blossomed this year. Our Gudrun series 1 and 2 are now being sold around the world and we have been excited to branch out in partnership with some new creatives to launch a quality animation series Hushaby Lullaby coming 2020. We are also thrilled to be starting work on another new production for 2020 featuring Michael Bond’s cheeky guinea pig character – Olga da Polga!

We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has worked with us this last year and wish you all the best of seasons greetings and a very happy new year! We look forward to working with you next year.

The team at Maramedia

Maramedia secures the rights to bring Michael Bond’s loveable guinea pig character to the screen!

Glasgow: 9th October 2019

Maramedia is very excited to have the opportunity to expand their Marakids brand by acquiring the rights to develop the amusing Olga da Polga children’s series by the wonderful Michael Bond, author of the classic character, Paddington Bear.

© Vitalinka Shutterstock

Olga da Polga is a loveable and highly imaginative guinea pig who loves boasting about her wild adventures to her animal friends who find that life with Olga is certainly not dull!

Jackie Savery, co-founder and Creative Director of Maramedia says, “We are thrilled for Marakids to take on this new children’s project to bring Michael Bond’s lively and humorous stories of Olga da Polga to life on the screen.”

More details of this brand new project to follow soon….