New Series of Justin's House 25 August 2012

Last weekend we were invited to watch Justin's House live at Media City, Salford. Part of the BBC's summer in the City season, we were treated to live action from Justin Fletcher and Robert the Robot (and Little Monster too). We also saw a brand new episode from series two of Justin's House. 'Little Monster's Birthday'.

The new 23 episode series starts next Saturday, 25th August 2012. The new series is similar to the first, with the notable omission of Dee Livery. I hope there are plenty of female guests to redress the balance.

My children didn't know what to make of Justin's House when they first saw it last year, there were tears, but they soon came round and squeal with delight every time Justin gets a custard pie in the face.

We loved the songs at the end, Justin sang his hit 'Hands Up' as well as children's classics 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' and 'Jelly on a Plate'.  This is Presley (above) joining in with a game of musical statues.

The only thing we didn't like was the catering. It was geared towards grown-ups. I bought the boys a cupcake each because they were ravenous, but they were fancy cupcakes and my children didn't like the mallow fillings or the nut ganache - they fell apart as you ate them. At £2 a pop this was a huge disappointment all round. Well, obviously the cakes weren't completely wasted (ahem).

Apart from that, we had a wonderful time. Before the show we were able to watch Tom Daley at the Olympics on the big screen.

CBeebies had invited us for a buffet lunch where the producers wanted to know our thoughts on CBeebies programmes. Presley and Cash made a serious dent in the fish cakes and huges slices of pizza. It was lovely to catch up with my Northern blogging friends and make some new friends too.

We also got to meet Robert the Robot and Justin Fletcher. They both engaged with the children and posed for  photographs. When my two went up to Justin he made them roar with laughter by trying and failing to shake their hands. They were over the moon to meet their CBeebies favourites.

Afterwards we enjoyed looking around Media City.

Look out for new content on the Justin's House page of the Cbeebies website, this will be available next weekend to coincide with the launch of the new series.

If you would like to be in the audience for any future recordings of Justin's House I'm afraid tickets are not generally available. The audiences for Justin's House are made up from schools, nurseries and children's organisations in the local Salford area. If you live within a 20km radius of Salford Quays, and represent one of the groups mentioned above, then you can enter the next ticket ballot. The details are here and the FAQ's are here. Also keep an eye on the CBeebies Grown-Ups pages.

EDIT: The ballot is now open (applications will be accepted until 30 September 2012)

If you're disappointed not to fulfil the criteria for Justin's House, Justin (& Friends) is touring next year and tickets are on sale now.


Disclosure: We were guests of CBeebies and were given lunch, that's all.
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New Series of Justin's House 25 August 2012

Justin Fletcher Made My Son Cry

Yes, you read correctly.

The lovely Justin Fletcher - Mr CBeebies himself - made three year old Cash cry yesterday.

So how did this happen? Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

The boys were ill over the weekend. They had some virus or other. They were feverish, with sore throats and colds. Also, Cash vomited all over me and then all over his bed. Nice.

When this happens (after I've put the washing machine on) we make nests of towels on the sofa and switch on CBeebies. We have many programmes recorded on our PVR, mainly Bob the Builder, ZingZillas and the boys' new favourite, Iconicles. Four year old Presley in particular is mesmerised by it. He stands in front of the television as if it's his own Iconiscreen and seems to know every word to every episode. When the boys run in to wake us up every morning, they pretend they are Splish and Splash. Every squirrel they see is now called Skitter. Even Maisy's friend Cyril has been renamed.

I did an experiment two years ago.  I switched off the television and left it off for two months, only turning it back on when the boys were ill one day and I wanted to distract them. Even now it never goes on before 4pm. Then they can chose what they want to watch while I cook the tea.

Yesterday we had exhausted our cache of Iconicles episodes. I really couldn't face another, so we watched the CBeebies channel live.

The new programme, Justin's House, was on. After five minutes of watching Justin and his friends larking about Cash burst into tears. He looked terrified and said 'I don't want to watch this'. So that was that.

Were were invited to watch Justin's House being recorded.  It's filmed in front of an audience of children. On the show they all look like they're enjoying themselves, none of them are shrieking. I don't know what it was that upset Cash. I'm glad we couldn't make it to Salford now. Sorry, Justin. We still love Something Special.

We also like the new look CBeebies Grown-ups website, there is even a blog. I hope the BBC don't mind me using the photo of Justin's House. From the reaction of the parents on Twitter over the weekend, I think we were the only family that didn't love the new show.

I'll be sad when the boys grow out of CBeebies and I'll miss watching them laugh their heads off at the 'Spud the Hotel Manager' episode of Bob the Builder. I've almost perfected my Spud impression too.


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Justin Fletcher Made My Son Cry