West Sussex husband and wife team in kid's TV favourite
HIT CBeebies show Grandpa In My Pocket has embarked on its second series in a delightful portrait of family life with a difference.
Starring real-life husband and wife James Bolam and Susan Jameson, who live near Petworth, as Grandpa and Great Aunt Loretta respectively, the show is sure to gain huge numbers of new fans - and attract new actors too.
"Everybody of an age to have grandchildren is just queuing up to be it in because of the kudos with their grandchildren!" laughs Susan.
"It's aimed at the little ones, but the older children love it as well.
"They have just finished repeating the first series which we did the summer before last, and then last summer we did the second series of 26 episodes, about 12 minutes each."
The brainchild of Mellie Buse and JanPage, the show was nominated for a Children's BAFTA last year.
"Jim is playing grandpa who is rather quite a sedentary grandpa that doesn't do much, but when he puts on his magic shrinking cap that only he and his grandson know about, he can do the most amazing things. He shrinks to about 14 cm high and all kinds of extraordinary things happen - a little bit of magic.
"He wreaks a little bit of havoc but there is always a good reason, someone being horrible or something. He can tease them or drive them away.
"I am playing his ghastly sister, Great Aunt Loretta who has red spiky sticking-up hair with a very bizarre taste in clothes, 25 or 26 different colours in layers all over her.
"She will butter people up if she thinks there is something in it for her, and she falls in love with anybody that has got a uniform.
"It's great, great fun. It's heightened reality, but it is very important that it is truthful.
"They are quite a tight family and there are all sorts of other fun characters that come into it."
As the BBC puts it "Grandpa In My Pocket explores the hugely important relationship between grandchildren and grandparents by turning it on its head" - quite true, says Sue.
"Grandpa is quite a lot of the time dependent upon Jason to rescue him. He will put grandpa in his pocket and save him."
Underpinning it are good family values, but never in a preachy way: "It's a very subtle way of saying that old people have an awful lot to offer youngsters and vice versa. Youngsters can have a wonderful effect on people that are older."
And for Sue, it's a chance to work with Jim, alongside whom she also stars on TV in New Tricks: "Grandpa In My Pocket is great, great fun. In this, I am beastly to him all the time!"
The second 26-part series began on February 15 on Cbeebies. It's on four days a week – Monday to Thursday at 5.20pm until March 19.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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