The Fun Song Factory

Fun Song Factory
Logo for the 2004 series
Genre	Children's Pre-School
Created by	Ged Allen
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	92 (7 live)
Production
Producer(s)	Tell-Tale Productions
Running time	20 mins
Production company(s)	Tell-Tale Productions ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV Network (CITV/GMTV)
Picture format	4:3 (1994-2000) 16:9 (2004-2006)
First shown in	United Kingdom
Original release	1994 – 2006
External links
Website

Fun Song Factory is a British preschool children's show on CITV aimed at youngsters. It was one of the first songs-based shows to be filmed in front of a live audience of children (following on from BBC Scotland/Scottish Television's The Singing Kettle) and is similar to Australian shows such as 'The Wiggles' and 'Hi-5'.

It was originally created in 1994 by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan, part of the Playdays production team, who later went on to create and produce The Tweenies, Boo!, BB3B, and Jim Jam and Sunny.

The first production was a sell through video filmed at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, presented by Iain Lauchlan, Sarah Davison and Dave Benson Phillips. The video was a great success, and led to a second being filmed at Chicken Shed in North London, this time presented by Iain, Dave and Michelle Durler.

All in all seven videos were shot, selling 750,000 copies in the UK before the series was commissioned by GMTV in 1998. The TV show was originally presented by Justin Fletcher, Katy Stephens, Karl Woolley, Alex Lovell and Dave Benson Phillips alongside a costumed character named Rozzie. This show was nominated for a BAFTA in 1998.

in 2004 CITV commissioned an updated version of the show featuring an all new cast. The cast members in this version all had acting names rather than using their real names. The cast for This new version was Aston Merrygold of JLS as Cookie, Laura Hamilton as Melody, Chris Till as OJ, Kerry Newell as Cal and Polly Parsons as Paige. They were joined by Ozzy from the previous series, and a puppet named Harry. The episodes were also shorter than in the 1998 version, as they lasted 10 minutes rather than 20.