Bottersnikes & Gumbles

"In a far away forgotten valley, heaped with long abandoned junk, a timeless battle rages between between squashy and scaly, happy and grumpy, clever and dim-witted, cute and plain old ugly! It's the land of Bottersnikes and Gumbles."

Bottersnikes & Gumbles is a new kids tv series which will launch on CBBC. The launch date is July 25th.

The Gumble gang includes Tink, Bounce, and Willi as they head out on gumbling adventures while trying to avoid those mean old Bottersnikes.

So who or what are the Bottersnikes and Gumbles???

Although the tv series for kids is new, The Bottersnikes & Gumbles story actually dates back to 1967 in a series of books by Australian author S.A Wakefield. The series therefore being based on Australian literature.

Gumbles, on the other hand, are the most friendly and cheerful creatures in the bush and can be squashed into any shape without being hurt, although when flattened out completely they cannot regain their own shapes without help. They are hopeless when they get the giggles.

Bottersnikes have green wrinkly skin, cheese-grater noses and long, pointed ears that go red when they are angry, which is most of the time. They are perhaps the laziest creatures in the world. They eat mattress stuffing (preferably barbecued) and pictures of food out of magazines, and for sweets they like rusty nails and bottle tops. The Bottersnikes' biggest fear is water, because they shrink when they get wet and have to be hung out to dry.

There are 52 episodes in the series, each one lasting approximately 11 minutes. The cast includes Richard Grieve, Jeff Rawle, Kathryn Drysdale and Miriam Margoyles. It has also aired on Netflix.
Saturday July 9th was the UK premier launch of Bottersnikes and Gumbles. This was held at the Charlotte street hotel in London. We were all invited to this event which we felt very privelaged to attend.

Once there the children were able to make various items related to the tv show such as masks and also have tattoos on, Jordanna covered herself in them.

There were plenty of photo opportunities with the official photo board from the show. We were treated to a preview of the first two shows which my children loved and will certainly be watching when it's aired. This was in a cinema and we even got popcorn.

Refreshments, food and comfy seats awaited us, plenty of activities and very friendly staff and of course - hanging out with the Bottersnikes and Gumbles cast and people behind the show including writers and managers. What an amazing day we all had. My son Ryan especially loved it as he got to speak to and even interview some of the cast whilst I was chasing after Izebella. He also managed a few photographs with some well known faces.

Jordanna and Izebella even got the chance to be interviewed on camera and I believe this may just be shown on CBBC at some point.

A great afternoon, well worth the trip to London and one that we won't forget.