Andrew Davenport (born 10 June 1965) is an English writer, puppeteer, producer, composer, and actor, specialising in creating television, music, and books for young children. He is known as co-creator and writer of Teletubbies and writer, voice artist and puppeteer of "Tiny" on Tots TV. He is also the creator, writer, and composer of both In the Night Garden... and Moon and Me.
Davenport has been dubbed "the J. K. Rowling of the under fives"[1][8] and "the king of kid's TV"[10] following the extraordinary international success of Teletubbies and In the Night Garden.... His success with the preschool audience has been credited to "incredible instinct and a lot of painstaking research" and a "slightly terrifying insight into these unknowable little minds".[9]
Davenport references child developmental science in the creation of his shows[9][10][12] and has described his process as to "engage minds and feed imaginations with the unfailing power of characters and worlds forged with kindness and playfulness".[16]
Early life and education
Andrew Davenport was born in Folkestone, Kent and grew up in Bromley. He went to Hayes School where, at the age of 13, Davenport was inspired by Sir Jonathan Miller's TV series "The Body in Question" to be the first in his family to go to university, and to look for a subject that combined arts and sciences. Originally intent on a career as a speech therapist, he studied BSc Speech Sciences (vocational training for Speech Therapists) at University College London 1983–87.[12][19] Davenport was President of the UCL Drama Society in his final year, during which the society staged 32 productions in 30 term weeks.[12]
Experimental theatre and performance career (1988-1994)
Davenport wrote and performed in experimental theatre between 1988 and 1994, with performing partner Kate France, whom he met at UCL.[12] He frequently worked with conceptual performance artist Gary Stevens.[20][21][22][23][24] Stevens later (along with Tim Whitnall and Toyah Willcox) sang the theme song for Teletubbies.[24]
His dance performance in Mehdi Norowzian's short film Joy inspired the award-winning Guinness "Anticipation" advert, and became the subject of a landmark high court ruling in 1998.[9][25]
In 1991, Davenport joined Ragdoll Productions as a puppeteer and co-writer on the double BAFTA winning series Tots TV, (first broadcast in the UK in 1993) puppeteering and voicing the character of Tiny. He co-wrote the series[26] of 297 episodes with Tom's Puppeteer Robin Stevens. Anne Wood invited Davenport to join the company after seeing him perform in Gary Stevens' Animal at the CCA in Glasgow.[12] Davenport went on to play a lead role in turning Ragdoll into a globally recognised, specialist preschool producer.[7]
Brum (1994)
Davenport was writer and line producer on Series 2 of the series Brum, and appeared in two episodes as The Big Town Robber.[26]
Teletubbies (1997-2001)
While he was writing for Tots TV, Davenport discussed with Anne Wood the viability of a show for a younger audience that was based on developmental rather than educational rationale.[12] Davenport had been working on an idea for a set of characters based on spacemen, having noticed the toddler-like proportions and antics of astronauts in footage of the Moon landings.[27] He was invited by Anne Wood to further develop the characters in response to an invitation from the BBC to pitch a new preschool show. Wood's invitation gave Davenport opportunity to draw heavily on the studies and theories of child development and language acquisition he was introduced to at UCL.[12] The BBC stipulated that young children should appear in the show, so Davenport placed TVs in the Teletubbies' tummies to solve the scale difference between the 'monster'-size Teletubbies and young children.[27]
In an interview with UCL's Alumnus magazine, Davenport said "There was a tendency for makers of children's TV to come from a teaching background, and the accepted form often involved a presenter/teacher leading a group of puppets/children in learning things. It seemed to me to portray a situation alien to the culture of the younger preschool child. [They] learn by self-motivated experimentation, establishing connections and patterns - by gradually assimilating rules and adapting them to accommodate new experiences. Television seemed uniquely well-equipped to address these processes."[12]
Despite initial negative critical reception, and rigorous scrutiny by developmental experts, Teletubbies went on to be one of the most popular and iconic shows in history, pioneering programming for pre-school children, winning 17 industry awards and broadcast in over 120 countries,[10][1][7] being translated into 45 languages.[7]
Davenport co-created Teletubbies with Anne Wood, and wrote all[26] of the 365 x 25 minute episodes.
In 2002, Davenport wrote the BAFTA winning series Teletubbies Everywhere (52 x 10 minutes).[26] In September 2013, WildBrain acquired all rights to Teletubbies through its purchase of Ragdoll Worldwide, adding new characters and combining Davenport's original scripts with new writing.[28]
In the Night Garden (2007-2009)
In the early 2000s, Davenport noticed that his friends' children had difficulty settling at bedtime.[1] He created In the Night Garden... to give children a positive narrative around going to sleep.[9][10] Davenport created the series and the characters, wrote all 100 episodes and composed music for all episodes of the double BAFTA winning In the Night Garden... (100 x 30 minutes).[26][29][5][14][8]
Shine Group (2012-2014)
In 2012, Davenport joined Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group as head of a new pre-school content division.[7] In 2014, Davenport and Shine incorporated Davenport's specialist pre-school content company, Foundling Bird.[30]
Moon and Me (2019-present)
Based on his love of popular toy-house stories from the mid 20th century by Rumer Godden and Enid Blyton, Davenport decided to create his own contemporary toy-house story.[9][6] Davenport teamed up with the University of Sheffield to create a study of children's play, using a toy house equipped with cameras and microphones.[9][31][6][8] This study revealed young children's "small world play" interests,[6] including stairs, doorbells, and tea time. Davenport used the study to inform his development of Moon and Me, the story of a group of toy characters, brought to life by the
Moon shining on their toy house.[9][8]
Davenport rejects contemporary CGI effects and animation methods,[5] instead insisting on filming with real objects[9][18][6] using rod puppets, vast model sets, over 500 miniature props,[16] and stop motion animation to create the series entirely at toy-house scale, and in-camera.[17]
Davenport wrote all 50 episodes and composed all music for the series.[8]
Davenport's "absolute hero" and "big influence" is Oliver Postgate.[9][14] Davenport has paid tribute to Postgate at the 2007 JM Barrie Awards, in a BBC documentary "Oliver Postgate: A Life in Small Films" and on Channel 4 News.[34] At the beginning of every project, he re-watches DVDs of Postgate's programmes to connect himself to the mind of the child he was when he first saw them.[14]
Davenport's work has focused on children's natural instinct to play, and how specifically tailored content can engage that instinct effectively. He draws heavily on the studies and theories of child development and language acquisition he was introduced to in his Speech Science degree at UCL.[12] Davenport works from caravans and trailers on the sets of his show. He listens to directors and actors on set and as the crew become more proficient with the filming techniques, Davenport writes more intricate scenes.[5]
Davenport has been called "one of the most heard composers on the planet"[35] after composing all music and lyrics for In the Night Garden... and Moon and Me,[14][15][8] as well as writing the multi-platinum single Teletubbies Say "Eh-oh!" based on the series' theme song, which reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in December 1997 and remained in the Top 75 for 32 weeks, selling over a million copies.[36][37][38]
