Cbeebies Live! National Indoor Arena, Birmingham

From the archive, first published Monday 27th Mar 2006.

AFTER two days of festive films and frequent dips into a jumbo-sized Dairy Box, I was desperate to get out of the house - even if it did involve being surrounded by hundreds of excited pre-schoolers.

Hosts Justin Fletcher and Sarah-Jane Honeywell (from TV's Tikkabilla) bounced on to the stage to loud cheers - and the frantic waving of fibre optic wands - and hardly stopped for the next hour and a bit.

You didn't need to draft screenwriter supreme Andrew Davies in for this show.

It was basically a procession of one Cbeebies character after another saying hello, chatting a bit, singing or dancing then toddling off.

All the big names turned out, including Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, the Tweenies and Pingu.

Doing three shows a day trapped inside a heavy costume and having to walk around in large orange flippers seemed the perfect way to burn off all that seasonal tucker - sign me up for next year, please!

The show's finale consisted of a talent contest with Andy Pandy acting as voting monitor.

And - surprise, surprise - everyone got nine, though I felt that supergroup Beige (following in the footsteps of Simply Red, Blue and Pink) just edged it.

The length - two halves of 40 minutes - was just right for little ones and there were smiles all round by the finale.

TP

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