New pre-school Cbeebies show ‘Melody’ will inspire disable (& not) children with classical music, stories and colourful animation

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Published on Tuesday, 26 November 2013 15:06

Last Updated on 25 November 2013

Monica Costa

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The Royal National Institute of Blind People’s (RNIB) Pears Centre for
Specialist Learning has teamed up with a TV production company to create
a new series for the BBC’s CBeebies channel.

“Melody”, a partially sighted girl with an incredible imagination, is
designed to introduce pre-school children to a variety of classical
music through stories and colourful animation.

In each episode the lead
character, Melody, discovers a piece of classical music and, as she does
so, imagines stories and characters conjured up by the mood of the music
– everything from trumpeting elephants to shoe-making elves.

Staff who work with the children at RNIB Pears Centre have been working
with producers from Wish Films and LAAH Productions throughout the
development process to help them understand and reflect the needs of
children who are blind or partially sighted, including those with
additional disabilities.

Their support included a piece of research to find out which animation
styles are easier for blind or partially sighted young people to follow.

RNIB’s Music Adviser also offered guidance to the show’s creator around
the special attention that many young children with serious sight loss
have for both listening to music and making their own sounds.

The resulting programme is a lively and colourful live action and
animated show that incorporates classical and contemporary music to help
stimulate the senses of children with sight loss and other disabilities.

Andy Moran, Executive Headteacher at RNIB Pears Centre said: “It is
really exciting that a children’s TV programme is helping to raise
awareness of what it might be like to be a child who is partially
sighted. I’m delighted that we’ve had this unique opportunity to be
involved with “Melody” and support the show’s development from early
ideas and research right through to scripts, props and animation for
each episode. We are all looking forward to “Melody” airing on
CBeebies.”

‘Melody’ airs on CBeebies from Monday, 2 December 2013, and runs for 20
episodes.