Genre Toddlers, Pre-school Written by Katie Simmons | Created by Barry Quinn Opening theme Theme Tune | |
Directed by Steve Smith, Mark Taylor Voices of Simon Greenall, Kate Fleetwood. | ||
The Numtums is a children's television show about a group of ten small creatures called Numtums, each with a number from one to ten on their tummy. BBC, ZDF, France Télévisions and TF1 aired in 2013-2015, and is designed as an interactive programme to help a young audience learn about numbers.
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The first series was a simple introduction to numbers for toddlers, second and subsequent series are story-based and aimed at older children.
First series
The first series was animated by Beakus, a London animation studio set up in 2010 and run by the programme director Steve Smith. This series was aimed at toddlers.
Second and later series
A second CG animated series was created for CBeebies by Bristol-based A Productions in 2014. This version was aimed at older children and is notable for giving the characters names and voices.
For the second series, producer Barry Quinn chose to use an Australian theme: the Numtums are based on numbats (hence the Numtums' fondness for eating termites), and alongside Super Numtum, side characters include Billy, a 'rock and roll' echidna, Larry, a lyrebird, Fluffy McTuffy, Super Numtum's new enemy and a koala with plans for world domination along with Frilly Lizzy, her new sidekick and a smart, timid, silent and somewhat stoic frilled lizard and Dennis, Finley and Trixie, their other sidekicks and three small rubber ducks. The Numtum characters' names are based on Australian place names. Along with Super Numtum now getting his own show, while Gladdy (4), Flinders (6), Hobart (9) and Nimbin (10) are the four oldest numtums, Bendy Go (1), Dar Dar (2), Champer (3), Humpty Do (7), Little Sandy (5) and Coogee (8) are the six youngest Numtums, known as the Numpups. They eat Termite Treats in their café the Tasty Termite and live in Gumnut Gorge. Even though they come from Australia, each of the characters, except Gladdy, Little Sandy, Hobart, Nimbin, Super Numtum, Frilly Lizzy, Dennis, Finley, Trixie and Larry all are particularly British.
The Numtums' names and numbers are:
- Bendy Go
- Dar Dar
- Champer
- Gladdy
- Little Sandy
- Flinders
- Humpty Do
- Coogee
- Hobart
- Nimbin
Series 1 (2012)
Note: Episodes 21-25 are compilations with scenes from previous episodes.