Simple, but effective, the show manages to tick both boxes \u2013 giving children a cute and educational story before bed time, and offering parents a little catch-up with some of their favourite TV stars, who each bring something a little different to the show.<\/p>\n
In a clip from Tom Hiddleston\u2019s CBeebies Bedtime Stories<\/a>, the Loki star signed off his reading of Supertato by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet by saying: \u201cWow, that little pea caused a lot of mayhem! But luckily, Supertato was there to save the day! And now it\u2019s time for you to go to sleep. Perhaps you\u2019ll dream of mischievous villains, or brave superheroes tonight. Good night little peas.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds ended his reading of 1960s picture book, Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, with the statement: \u201cSometimes even the wildest creatures need to settle down with the people they love and go to sleep. Goodnight, Wild Things.\u201d<\/p>\n So, what exactly goes into making CBeebies Bedtime Stories? And how much input do the stars actually have \u2013 does Reynolds just go around calling everyone \u201cWild Things\u201d or was this a part of the script?<\/p>\n RadioTimes.com<\/a> spoke to executive producer John Harkins, who took us behind the scenes of CBeebies Bedtime Stories and what goes into getting the recipe right.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what he told us.<\/p>\n With an A-list line-up of readers, you might wonder who gets to decide on the celebrity storytellers. Well viewers will be happy to hear they have a lot more say than they may have thought, with many suggestions for readers coming directly from the audience.<\/p>\n Harkins explains: \u201cWe have a great social media team that works for us and CBeebies, and they often put it to the audience, like, \u2018Who would you like to see read Bedtime Stories?\u2019 The list that comes back is quite illuminating and we like to listen to our audience. They have recommended some readers we will be approaching in the coming weeks\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Harkins says they like to pick celebrities who are working on events at that point in the year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to get a really broad spread of different people or different faces to read different stories or have a theme that represents or reflects the time of year or certain events that are happening. So we try to really go for the broadest range of readers in the broadest range of stories,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the Olympics, we spotted an Olympic runner a while back and we planned that way back, but we tend to keep an open mind and just keep looking for people really.\u201d<\/p>\n We might see some of the biggest names reading on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, but Harkins tells us each celebrity turns into a different version of themselves when they step inside the BBC studios.<\/p>\n He says: \u201cThe formula for Bedtime Stories is the unexpected, yet well-known people reading amazing stories that are beautifully illustrated. So, sometimes I wonder what this person will be like reading a bedtime story, and almost every time we\u2019re surprised by what they do. You\u2019ve got people like Tom Hardy, who\u2019s this sort of Hollywood blockbuster, A-list actor, but once he\u2019s in the CBeebies world he becomes CBeebies Tom Hardy, so it\u2019s great to see those people in our world, too!\u201d<\/p>\n Although CBeebies Bedtime Stories airs every single day, there are actually only a handful of new readers each year.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Bedtime Stories, we have a very small, perfectly formed team \u2013 we have two producers, a researcher and the executive producer, and we produce around about 15 to 20 new stories every year. Although it\u2019s on 365 days a year at 6:50pm, we tend to produce about 20 new ones [or] new readers each year. Each reader will do a couple of stories for us,\u201d Harkins reveals.<\/p>\n Some of the stories might be traditional fairytales, but that doesn\u2019t mean the celebrities can\u2019t switch it up a little bit and add their own little spark to the stories \u2013 and they sure do, with Tom Hiddleston joking during his read of Supertato: \u201cI should be so Loki<\/a>\u201d in reference to his Marvel character.<\/p>\n However, the producers do write an intro and outro for each story.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery story, our producers tend to write a little intro and an outro to the story that reflects the theme of the book and the theme of the story. The story itself has been written and illustrated by the author and the illustrator,\u201d Harkins explains.<\/p>\n \u201cBut sometimes, the readers will bring their own little nuances or little special little moments, and that\u2019s what makes Bedtime Stories a real treat when our readers add that extra little spark. Again, it\u2019s a really nice surprise. We tend to write the intros and outros for for the readers, but as soon as they give a little extra little sparkle, that\u2019s when it\u2019s magic.\u201d<\/p> Harkins reveals that most stories are read in \u201creal time\u201d and they very rarely have to re-shoot stories.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just read it in real time,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir time is really precious, so we don\u2019t get huge amounts of time to spend with any of our brilliant readers. They\u2019re all amazingly professional, which just makes things a lot simpler, but sometimes they just read from the book and occasionally they know those stories so well, they don\u2019t even need to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n After this, an edit takes place where the producers add sound effects.<\/p>\n Harkins continues: \u201cIt\u2019s a very powerful and really simple format, so actually it doesn\u2019t need a lot of production. It\u2019s just very simplistic, yet effective, It\u2019s a well-known person reading the beautiful story and that\u2019s all you need.\u201d<\/p>\n John hopes to keep going with the children\u2019s series, and the key is getting the right readers to tell the right stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we try to do with Bedtime Stories is always look for new readers or new scenes,\u201d he says. \u201cYes we\u2019ve got Tom Hardy and we\u2019ve had some really big names, but also we\u2019ve had some really important and effective readers to tell stories that we love to talk about, too.<\/p>\n \u201cSo Floella Benjamin and Gregory Porter did an amazing piece where he actually sang a story, and we had Will Young read. So it\u2019s also a really special moment for us when we can really tell some different stories to different people, and look for new ways of being able to deliver that.\u201d<\/p>\n CBeebies Bedtime Stories airs daily.<\/strong> If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out more of our Entertainment<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n RadioTimes.com speaks to Bedtime Stories executive producer John Harkins about the popular children’s show. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":2328,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/07\/exclusive-cbeebies-bedtime-stories-producer-reveals-7-behind-the-scenes-facts-from-tvs-sweetest-show.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"RadioTimes.com speaks to Bedtime Stories executive producer John Harkins about the popular children's show.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/2327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Celebrity readers are often chosen by fans<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Readers are selected based on times and events in the year<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""CBeebies\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/Tom-Hardy-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories-433cf08.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"Tom-Hardy-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories\"\\"")
<\/div>The celebrities become a CBeebies version of themselves<\/strong><\/h2>\n
There\u2019s only 15 to 20 new readers a year<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""CBeebies\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/Ryan-Reynolds-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories-1568c0d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Ryan-Reynolds-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories\"\\"")
<\/div>Readers add their own \u201cspark\u201d to stories<\/strong><\/h2>\n
It doesn\u2019t take that long to film<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""CBeebies\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/07\/Will-Young-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories-1647e0d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Will-Young-CBeebies-Bedtime-Stories\"\\"")
<\/div>The future is bright for Bedtime Stories<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"