We had a chat with Chuggington director and head writer, Sarah Ball, about what to expect from series 5 of your train-obsessed tot's favourite show.
What can parents and little ones expect from the new series?
We’ve introduced lots of new fun characters and a really impressive location - the Chuggington Docks - which we’ve always referred to in the series, but never actually seen before! The place is huge with a gorge leading down to it and the unloading area has the biggest crane we’ve ever built. This series explores the infrastructure of Chuggington and the working lives of the trains in more detail. That’s a lot more hauling, lifting and loading while, of course, still following the training and adventures of Wilson, Brewster and Koko.
The core values of Chuggington remain the same and although the stories are first and foremost entertaining, we always make sure there is an underlying life lesson for the kids watching which might be about team work, being a good friend, sharing, following instructions and so on.
Sarah, can you tell us a little about yourself and explain your role on Chuggington?
I’ve been working on Chuggington as the director and head writer since day one - which is coming up for nine years now! We’ve made 128 episodes and 50 mini episodes and I oversee the creative part of getting the story off paper and onto the TV screen.
Chuggington is computer generated so I do all my work on a computer and can pretty much work anywhere there is an internet connection. I’m usually juggling episodes at different stages; for some episodes I’ll be working on the scripts or voice-directing the actors. Other episodes will already be at storyboarding stage or in production and going through animation, and another batch might be in post-production being edited together, adding the sound effects and music and finishing them ready to deliver to the broadcaster. It’s a lot to keep your head around!
We know that some of the Trainees are voiced by child actors – how does that affect the production?
Generally it takes a little longer to record a script with children. You have to give the children lots of breaks and make sure they don’t get too wired on biscuits and orange juice during that time!
When you work with children, a licence has to be applied for from the local council and an inspector will sometimes show up at the studio unannounced to make sure everything is being done properly. One day when an inspector was observing us, I was working with a young boy who loved to read the dictionary. He came out of the booth for his break, sat down on the sofa next to her and asked, “Do you know there are three different words for rectum?” It was hilarious - you just never know what a child is going to come out with!
It was heartbreaking when, after 92 episodes, we had to replace some of the original children, including Brewster and Wilson because their voice had broken. I’d watched these children grow up and was so proud of them. It’s not just the voice that changes; it’s also the loss of innocence that comes with maturity. As children get older, they don’t respond the same way to things and also think more about their performance. They correct the mistakes that can make a performance so adorable and become worried about sounding silly.
We worked hard to find new voices that were able to make the characters their own, but still had enough of a resemblance vocally to the original characters for it to be a fairly seamless transition.
We know that you’ve become a mum while working on Chuggington – has becoming a parent changed the way you think about the series?
Mostly I’m now better able to see things from their point of view. Having first-hand experience of just how much a child develops during the ages of three to five years has been invaluable to my writing. My children have definitely inspired story ideas for the programme!
Interestingly the production team that makes Chuggington is largely made up of mums, which I think would surprise a lot of people. It’s produced, directed, and edited by women.
Why do you think little ones love trains so much?
I think children are fascinated by the size and power of trains and the variety of types and colors they come in. Preschool-aged boys and girls both love them - their appeal transcends gender. Chuggington would probably be labelled as a boy-centric show, but actually our audience is fairly evenly split. I’m also proud that Koko is a strong female role model, but is still extremely popular with boys.
Any favourite moments or lines to watch for in the new series?
There are some fun scenes with the new characters Hauler Harry and Hauler Hamish who work at the docks. Hamish is played by Richard Ridings who is also the voice of Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig. Our voice cast has expanded and we have an amazing array of talent - we’re up to something like thirty people in the cast now. Each voice has to be carefully considered for how it will sit alongside the existing cast. It’s a tough job to make sure that each voice is distinctive enough. I’m extremely proud of our voice cast. We’re lucky enough to work with some incredible talent – Joe Simms (Fletch) is in Broadchurch, David Gyasi who plays Mtambo was recently in the Hollywood blockbuster Intersteller and Sacha Dhawan (Eddie) was in Last Tango in Halifax.
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