Get Ready To Check In At The Furchester Hotel!

My TV planner is all set to record tomorrow - Friday 26th September at 5pm.

On CBeebies!

We love it when anything new starts in this house but especially this.

This is very exciting!

MC is beside herself because she says she "knows the characters".

You see, back in May this year, we were both invited to CBeebies HQ in Manchester to get an exclusive preview of a new children's show which is a collaboration between CBeebies and the Sesame Workshop.

It was a brilliant afternoon.

Photo: BBC

The Furchester Hotel is a brand new series following the lives of a family of a cheeky monsters who own and run an 'almost' world-class hotel - Funella Furchester, her husband, Furgus Fuzz and their daughter Phoebe Furchester-Fuzz. Phoebe's cousin, Elmo (I know!), comes to stay at the hotel for an extended visit and the Cookie Monster (squeal!) gets the job as a waiter and room service attendant.

Each week the family encounters small problems that they need to solve so the series is designed with helping to develop problem-solving for three to six year olds. With their family motto of 'A Furchester never gives up!' the series will promote this skill each week with the monsters going out of their way to meet the needs of their hotel guests.

When we arrived at CBeebies HQ we were greeted by Elmo and Cookie Monster characters and were invited to colour pictures and have fun in a photo booth before heading upstairs for refreshments and a look at an unfinished episode which all the kids absolutely loved.

Not only did we get to see the sneak peek, we also got to meet the characters and their puppeteers!

I was unaware that this was going to happen (I thought the character meet was the big characters downstairs) and, I do have to admit, having a lump in my throat when they all walked into the room and all the kids (and adults!) squealed with delight.

It was amazing seeing the puppeteers working the characters and voices and it was fabulous to watch the children interacting with the characters themselves despite being able to see the puppeteers.

MC is a fan of Elmo so, as soon as she saw him, she made her way straight over to him and got the first hug in (please excuse the portrait recording).



We also got to go down to the studio between filming and walk onto the set itself. We couldn't take photos of the set itself but you can get an idea of just how amazing The Furchester Hotel is on this BBC news video. Who wouldn't want to check in here?

Photo: BBC

I was totally in awe at how huge and impressive the set was and the great work that goes into making each episode. I really do think that CBeebies and the Sesame Workshop have created something brilliant for both children and adults to enjoy and I, for one, cannot wait until tomorrow!

MC and I were invited to CBeebies HQ and were

given light refreshments, a tour of the studio, an 

episode airing and character meet.

I was not asked to write this post and all photos, 

videos and words (unless otherwise stated) are my own.