List of In the Night Garden... characters

This is a list of all characters that appear in the children's television series In the Night Garden... .

Major

• The Narrator (played by Derek Jacobi ^[1] ) is a voice who can often be heard describing the day-to-day activities of the Night Garden as they happen. Though they never physically appear in the show, all the other inhabitants of the Night Garden are aware of them and will usually respond whenever they speak to them. They are featured in every episode. They tell the characters what to do (e.g. telling one to go to sleep; etc.) as well as singing along to a character's song when they're introduced into the episode.

• Igglepiggle (played by Nick Kellington) is a blue teddy bear-like creature with a bean-shaped head, a doll-like nose, a sideways red mohawk and average-sized legs. He always carries his red blanket and tends to fall flat on his back when surprised. He is the main character of the show but not featured in all episodes. He arrives in the Night Garden at the beginning of each episode and leaves the Night Garden at the end of each episode in a boat-like bed for himself, for which the blanket doubles and serves as a sail. ^[1] Igglepiggle does not speak, but he has a bell in his left foot, a squeaker in his tummy and a rattle in his left hand. His best friends in the garden are Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and the Tombliboos. He is the only character to walk on the Stepping Stone Path and in the Garden and the only character to ride in two carriages of the Ninky Nonk. He sleeps on his boat. Igglepiggle is not a full-time resident of the Garden but a visitor; the garden exists in Igglepiggle's dream. He first appeared in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces". His hello song is called "Hello Igglepiggle!" on the soundtrack album of the show, entitled “A Musical Journey”.

• Upsy Daisy (played by Rebecca Hyland) is a rag doll-like creature, with a brown skin colour, a chime in her tummy and brightly coloured clothes. She likes walking through the Garden and blowing kisses to the other characters or the audience. She often hugs and kisses other characters, particularly Igglepiggle. Her catchphrases are "Upsy Daisy" and the more emphatic "Daisy Doo!" and she additionally says, "Pip pip onk onk!", her way of saying goodbye. Her hair stands on end when excited or surprised and her skirt inflates to a tutu when she dances or pulls the ripcord on her waist. Upsy Daisy loves to sing, especially through her megaphone. Usually, when she kisses Igglepiggle, Igglepiggle kisses back. In Davenport's earliest sketch of the character, her face was more of a flower-like shape. She, along with Igglepiggle, was first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces" and pulls the ripcord on her waist in "Makka Pakka's Trumpet Makes A Funny Noise". Her hello song is called "Hello Upsy Daisy!" on the soundtrack album of the show, entitled “A Musical Journey”. Her hello song plays twice in "The Ninky Nonk Wants a Kiss".

• Makka Pakka (played by Justyn Towler) is a beige, small, cute, doll-like creature. He has three rounded protuberances on his head, ears and tail to represent stones that he uses to make piles. He lives in a rock cave and likes cleaning things, such as his collection of stacking stones and the other characters' faces. He often stacks freshly cleaned stones into piles resembling his head and body. He sleeps in and on a brightly coloured sleeping stone bag bed, often cuddling a stone as a toy. He travels around the garden with his trolley, the Og-Pog, which carries: his sponge, soap, red/orange trumpet and a bellows-like apparatus device called "the Uff-Uff" which he uses to dry items after cleaning them. His house is approached by a stone-walled ditch, as his home is half-buried in the ground. He says his name and the phrase "Mikka makka moo" when he is happy, as well as the names of the Og-Pog and the Uff-Uff and other phrases from his song such as "agga pang" (his soap and sponge), "hum dum" (his trumpet), and occasionally "Ing ang oo". Like Upsy Daisy and the Tombliboos, he also uses a phrase meaning "goodbye", represented in publications as "pip pip onk onk". He, Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces". As Makka Pakka is smaller than the other characters, he is filmed on another identical set (or garden) and where he appears with other characters, two scenes are shot in parallel and he is filmed far away, whilst the other costumed characters are filmed close up. His hello song plays twice in "Everybody All Aboard the Ninky Nonk" (and therefore everyone dances along). In the Arabic dub on YouTube, his name is "Nadif Nadif", literally meaning "clean clean". His main hello song is called "Hello Makka Pakka!" on the soundtrack album of the show, entitled “A Musical Journey”.

• The Tombliboos are a trio of three cute doll-like creatures who are all dressed in costumes with stripes and spots: red and green, brown and pink and pink and yellow. Their names phonetically reflect how a young child might count to 3 and the Tombliboos always appear in this order by saying their names. They live among the branches of a bush, playing on a series of platforms connected by stairs and chutes; the platforms occasionally tilt when the Tombliboos jump on them as seen in "The Tombliboos Clean Their Teeth". The Tombliboos enjoy playing the drums and the piano, and they also play with large building blocks. When the Tombliboos feel sad, they play ‘sad’ music on their piano. Their trousers (which fall down unexpectedly) are often seen hanging on the washing line outside their home and they usually take them down from the line and wear them before going out. They are sometimes seen brushing their teeth before bed. The Tombliboos enjoy kissing each other whilst cuddling and reciting their names. They also have a song about staying together, which consists of them singing "Tombliboo, Tombliboo, Unn, Ooo, Eee!" repeatedly. Unn, Ooo and Eee are often seen sleeping in striped beds that match their overalls. The Tombliboos, along with Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka, were first featured in the episode "Makka Pakka Washes Faces". Their hello song is called "It's The Tombliboos' House!" on the soundtrack album of the show, entitled “A Musical Journey”. Their hello song plays twice in "Trousers on the Ninky Nonk", probably because they had cheered up.

Minor

• The Pontipines (red) and The Wottingers (blue) are ten tiny wooden figurine doll-like families (a mother and a father plus four boys and four girls). They have high-pitched voices and live in a semi-detached house at the foot of a tree. The Pontipines appear in most episodes, while the Wottingers' appearances are rare, although they are featured more in Series 2. Mr. Pontipine wears a self-adhesive fake moustache which, in the case of one episode, has an unorthodox tendency of flying off and attaching itself to places around the garden. Mrs. Pontipine carries a pair of binoculars to keep an eye on their children. The Pontipines' song is "10 Pontipines".
• The Haahoos are five latex pillow or balloon-like creatures who roam about the garden at a leisurely pace. The purple Haahoo is shaped like a jellybean or stemless pear decorated with yellow flowers. The blue Haahoo has cyan spots with red outlines, and it is shaped like the letter X. The orange Haahoo is shaped like a flower, with multi-coloured petals. The yellow Haahoo with red, orange and blue spots is shaped like a star. The red and blue/checkered Haahoo is ball-shaped, with checkered red and blue/white diamonds. The Haahoos appear in the main body of an episode as 10ft inflatables, but behind the gazebo during general dance sequences as CGI replicas. They are also seen going to sleep, closing their eyes and deflating slightly. They make boinging and squishing noises when moving. The Haahoos are held by wires to keep them standing upright.
• The Tittifers ^[1] are a bunch of animated tropical birds with unique songs. There are four small blue tittifers (rufous-crowned laughingthrushes), three larger pink ones (hoopoes), two big green ones (white-cheeked turacos) and one Channel-billed toucan. One or two groups sing in-between segments; they all sing together at the end of the episode, to signal it's time to go to sleep.
• The Ninky Nonk is a trackless train with five differently sized and shaped carriages. Its size is non-Euclidean: exterior shots of the moving Ninky Nonk show a toy-sized train, quite small compared to the main characters and scenery, while interiors and static exterior shots are done on sets or with life-sized models so that the characters can easily fit inside. When it is moving, the seat-belted passengers jerk sharply in their seats. Bells and green lights warn everyone inside when the Ninky Nonk is ready to leave or when it is stopping. The Ninky Nonk can stop on hills and can stop in a straight line. It also stops outside the character's houses sometimes (mostly for the Pontipines and Tombliboos). It is also able to drive up and down trees and upside-down along branches (albeit mostly for the Pontipines and Wottingers) and also round and round the branches on occasion. The engine is banana-shaped with a green flashing light on top and is followed by a green spheroidal carriage used by the Tombliboos and Makka Pakka, a tiny house-like carriage used by the Pontipines and Wottingers, a blue rectangular carriage used by Upsy Daisy and Igglepiggle when he is travelling with Upsy Daisy, and a tall, rounded single-seater carriage used by Igglepiggle when he is travelling alone. All the carriages have lights on top that flash in sequence when the Ninky Nonk is stationary.
• The Pinky Ponk is a zeppelin which glides gracefully in the air, providing wonderful aerial views of the garden for all those on board. It is coloured a bright turquoise and is decorated with an abundance of pink, orange and yellow speckles on each side. The "cockpit" contains multiple small tables with Pinky Ponk juice for each character to drink on their journey and are surrounded by small stones acting as stools. at the front is a huge window for them to look out of and enjoy the spectacular views of the Night Garden. On the top is a tiny deck especially for the Pontipines, who access the Pinky Ponk through a tiny door and go up a lift to enter that deck. The bigger characters enter through a similarly sized door so they could get in too. On the outside are 4 rows of orange-speckled wings and tiny purple propellers to make the body afloat. The back of the vehicle houses a ginormous pink propeller in front of a back deck where the passengers can get some fresh air. At the front is a transparent magenta light that is triggered when the Pinky Ponk is about to take off, land, or "ponk", The Tombliboos were the first characters to travel on the Pinky Ponk in the episode “The Tombliboos’ Waving Game“.
• The Zonk is a new character who introduced in the ZinkyZonk Specials, who sends the other characters off to the magical world of the ZonkeyZoney where they can relax in peace. Unlike the other characters who are a combination of different animation styles, Zonk is animated in CGI animation.

References

• Television portal

1. Lyle, Peter (9 July 2007). "My name's Peter and I'm addicted to In The Night Garden". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 July 2024.