Ep1: Mellie Buse, Mimi's World
Our first guest is the prolific writer and series creator, Mellie Buse. Her earliest credit was as a writer on the rebooted Captain Pugwash series of the late 1990s. She has a CV that includes iconic brands aplenty with writing credits on Angelina Ballerina and Fireman Sam, and script editing on Charlie and Lola. It was for creating and producing Grandpa in My Pocket that she received international acclaim with 4 Kids BAFTA nominations and a Welsh BAFTA win.
In this conversation, Mellie talks with Matt Bowen about her new series, Mimi’s World. A modern day Mary Poppins that is already proving a hit on Milkshake in the UK, with its mix of stories, songs, play and magic.
Transcript
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Jetpack Distribution's very first behind the Blast podcast. On that phone and in this series will be meeting with producers and creators of some of the biggest shows in our catalog, finding out what makes them tick and how a simple idea can be turned into a massive hit. You can subscribe now, so we truly don't miss any episode.
::Speaker 1
in Pugwash series of the late: ::Speaker 1
New series Mommy's World is about a modern day Mary Poppins and is already proving a hit on milkshake in the UK with its mix of stories, songs, play and magic from industrial development. Please welcome Melle Buse
::Speaker 2
Thank you very much. Matt. That was an extremely warm and wonderful intro I.
::Speaker 1
Well legend doesn't quite cut it with all of those darn big big big titles under your belt but we've we've all got to start somewhere. So let's take you right way back to the very beginning. What was your very first job in the business?
::Speaker 2
First Telly was writing on a rebooted series of the new adventures of Captain Pugwash. Oddly, way back in the early nineties, I knew the producer and he obviously thought, Oh, I think this I think this woman can probably string a few words together, so we'll let her have a crack at it. So it was luck and a great opportunity.
::Speaker 2
And obviously one had to sort of steer away from the inevitable double entendres that are associated with that.
::Speaker 1
That's what Captain Pugwash is known for. It's known for his.
::Speaker 2
Which was all which is all a myth, an urban myth. But nevertheless. Yes, it was. And I while I was writing the Pugwash series, I was working in a recording studio as a producer, and we did all sorts of spoken word. It was radio, really dramatized documentaries and children's stories and penguin audiobooks appeared on the scene because it was the great big audiobook sort of revolution where all the audio book thing was suddenly happening.
::Speaker 2
So I got to work with lots of big lady actors on audiobooks, and Penguin wanted a series of dramatized Roald Dahl titles. They wanted nine, and it sort of fell into my lap match, you know? So could I please dramatize nine Roald Dahl stories and produce them and direct them and and I you know, I hauled in all the sort of big actors.
::Speaker 2
He was very happy to come and play at being a witch or a giant or whatever. And it was just a fabulous opportunity. And as a result of that, I got my writing agents, Gemma Hirst. And very quickly after that I got hired by the Jim Henson Company. Again, Luck was seriously on my side at that stage and work with the wonderful Justin Stephenson on a show called Muppet Shop, which then subsequently led to me showrunning a big Henson show called The Whoops, which was a 250 half hours.
::Speaker 2
Wow. And I said, yes because I was young and I knew nothing. I just take it well, I had nothing to lose. So that was a terrific, you know, opportunity. And it was it was particularly lucky because it was a showrunning system. So I got to use all the bits of me that was sort of there lying dormant.
::Speaker 2
I'd done a drama degree, and so it was sort of I was just really lucky that it wasn't just the writing, it was it was more of the producing and the kind of creative.
::Speaker 1
You know, and that and that got you going so well. We will skip or skip a handful of intervening years and bring you kind of right up to date with me, Miss World. Where where did that come from? What was your inspiration behind me, Miss World?
::Speaker 2
Well, when when I think about creating a new show, I tend to think of what would I like to write about that would resonate with the young audience that I that I really, really enjoy serving? And how can I make that theme be fun and inspiring and aspirational and all the things that we as a company really like to try to do.
::Speaker 2
And I wanted with I mean, with Graham from my pocket, obviously we wanted to write about the grandparent grandchild relationship and that's where it started. And then how were we going to deliver that? And with me is what I wanted to write about emotional resilience, really. I wanted to find a way to do a social emotional show that really tapped into helping kids to not just process their emotions, but to have some kind of a little bit of grit.
::Speaker 2
Just a little bit of grit. And then I thought, Well, where would we set this? It would be great to set to find some sort of precinct where we could not just mixed the ethnic demographics, but we could mix the social and economic demographics so that, you know, the plumber's daughter could be best friends with the consultant heart surgeons son.
::Speaker 2
And I thought that was really important, particularly for for for the 21st century. And indeed, it's happening more, which is great. It's really heartening. And so I didn't want to set it in a family or in a street because then you get the same the same social group. So I thought, well, what about a fantastic childcare setting, you know, and have a, a really aspirational place where kids, when they watch it, would all go, I really want to go there.
::Speaker 2
That's where I want to go after school. And it started off because I thought, well, let's, let's set it in a fabulous apartment at the tippy top of a big high rise block with a wonderful view. And let's have this wonderful childcare guru who's been all over the world. So her apartment is full of fabulous stuff that kids wouldn't necessarily have seen, you know, didgeridoos and wonderful African drums and toys from different countries and Chinese puppets.
::Speaker 2
I mean, I wanted to make it international in its flavor and sort of setting it up by offering those children a window on a wider world, you know, sort of physically and metaphorically. And it was originally called Rooftop is because I had this this image of this wonderful lush rooftop garden, you know, very green and gorgeous. I thought, oh, yeah, that's it.
::Speaker 2
Rooftop is. And the tag was not just a club, but a way of life. I think we did. But the rooftop thing got some sort of partners and broadcasters, a tiny bit anxious and I think want to see people in a compliance compliance department. Swenton laid in a darkened room and visiting.
::Speaker 1
Encouraging have pre-schoolers running around on rooftops.
::Speaker 2
Really all they're going to want to do is hold themselves off obviously obviously. So that didn't matter. That was fine. That was fine. We just ended up with a wonderful balcony that was big and lush and full of gorgeousness. So that's that's where it sort of began. And it was then called Mimi's World, which I think, you know, I think is a better title.
::Speaker 2
You know, it's with development, you know, it's so evolutionary and you usually take a while to really smell it, you know, and know that you've got it. So that's where it that's basically where it began.
::Speaker 1
And that's going to sort of build from there. And and part of the magic within the show is the whole kind of the mixed media world that you've got going on. You've got characters like Sausage, You, You Mama Tembo, the Barbie Dolls and the trips into the magic portals and all this this kind of sort of sort of fantasy world almost that the kids managed to go into.
::Speaker 1
What made you choose the mixed media route rather than just going down a, you know, sort of a straight live action or straight animation.
::Speaker 2
Because it's more fun, it's more creative. Those imaginary characters that that Mimi summons up, the magical characters she summons up in her apartment are really extensions of herself because what you would do if you didn't have the magic and you didn't have the mixed media and you didn't have the elevated reality and you didn't have the fantasy, basically, Mimi would set a child down on the sofa and have a little chat.
::Speaker 2
Well, you know, y have a little chat when you can do it with an elephant or in here a wonderful little dog or, or a unicorn. Let's do it. Let's do it with something inspiring and and fun and colorful. And so that's really and the mixed media is kind of our thing. And it just it's just not it's we don't do mirror on life.
::Speaker 2
We do elevated stuff and that and that's why and this just got more and more magical as I work through it. You know, originally that was just one magical character. And then there were three and then there were four. And then we had the magic portals that you jump through and say we had all the 2D animation as well.
::Speaker 2
So it just sort of grew. And you know, it's like everything, it's sort of finds itself.
::Speaker 1
And and you obviously you're building up and building out and you've worked with a couple of different partners, I think, for for this one as well, haven't you Tim, to make the worlds come to life.
::Speaker 2
We were so lucky with our animation team. The two companies in Northern Ireland, a company called AUT Animation, who did all the 2D portals for us and the 3D stuff was done by a company called Torch. And honestly, Matt, they are so talented and they were so flexible and tolerant because, you know, as you can imagine, this was a this was a covered show and everybody needed to draw on every single bit of their patience to get through it.
::Speaker 1
And, well, we were will come to come to some of those those COVID challenges in a little while. But first, I just want to go back to you mentioned obviously right in the beginning when you were introducing the show that it's about it's about resilience. There are a lot of really big themes within the series of sort of helping kids understand the world around them.
::Speaker 1
Just talk a little bit more about them and why that they've they're sort of so important in this kind of 21st century age.
::Speaker 2
Well, I mean, obviously, there are a lot of shows about emotional challenges that children have. I mean, there are only seven ideas in the world. So you have to think, well, I'm going to do I'm going to do that idea. But how do we make it really distinctive? And it wasn't so much the foundation of Mimi's world. And this is going to sound worthy.
::Speaker 2
And I think you already know me well enough to know that I'm not Mrs. Worthy. But the foundation there was the idea that not only did we want children to understand and process their emotions, but we wanted them to have some control over their emotions, which is slightly different. So the example I always use is I understand why you're feeling angry.
::Speaker 2
Matt You have every right to feel angry. Matt I can see exactly why you're feeling angry. Matt But you could choose not to feel angry. How does that feel? Oh, feels better. So they all. You can have that one for nothing. And the answer is yes, I do use this, I do use it.
::Speaker 1
But I no longer feel angry as you.
::Speaker 2
So now it's like because you were plotting the voyage when you started this. It's, it's it's a very simple philosophy and it's used in counseling. It's a it is a known and we had a consultant come onboard and she just put her finger on that, which was the distinction between, oh, children of processing their emotions and what we're trying to do.
::Speaker 2
So just give them that little bit more. So we used a very subtle thing. Instead of saying something like the thunder, the thunder scares me. We don't say that a name is loud, we use different terminology. I feel scared because of the thunder. So the thunder scares me. Means there's nothing you can do about it because the thunder is scaring you and it's the Thunder's fault.
::Speaker 2
But I feel scared because of the thunder. Well, then there's the potential within that for you not to feel scared. If you understand what the thunder is and why it's happening, then maybe you can choose not to feel frightened when it goes bang. So that's just a very simple explanation.
::Speaker 1
And it's really important, I guess, to going to get those sort of messages ingrained in kids heads a young age so that, you know, dealing with simple things like sort of scary thunder, you can then as a older sort of an adult, it's a process so that other things in a more healthy way, I guess, and it's kind of building that resilience into adulthood.
::Speaker 2
Hopefully. Was saying a little seed, you know, television can't change the world, but hopefully it can be you know, it can be a little bit enriching and inspiring and helpful.
::Speaker 1
If anyone's going to change the world, Millie, it's going to be you. I'm sure.
::Speaker 2
Yeah, right.
::Speaker 1
We we touched although you touched on some of the challenges. Obviously, the the biggest thing was trying to bring Mimi's world to life during a global pandemic. And I know people who worked on grown up shows who had a hard enough time trying to make actors control themselves in among all the restrictions that you had.
::Speaker 2
Oh, you can't make actors in control themselves ever under any circumstances. Well, you.
::Speaker 1
You were working with kids who are well known for just wanting to run around and just kind of live in havoc. How did you navigate all of the restrictions that were kind of put upon the show as a result of the pandemic?
::Speaker 2
Well, I mean, it was a huge challenge, there's no question. But the biggest challenge really was not so much the shoot, but the preamble, because we had to delay it by 15 months and then we had to re budget it to make it work for COVID because those COVID protocols are jolly, costly, and we had to have them obviously in place because of insurance and everything else.
::Speaker 2
And also we didn't want anyone to get COVID, we didn't want to stop the show. So I mean, our funders all stayed with us, which was which was fantastic. But it was a big challenge trying to make it work because originally it was an 11 week shoot and we had to we had to get all the kids from GB to Northern Ireland and normally under normal circumstances you'd fly them back and forth.
::Speaker 2
The flights used to be cheap. You could just pop them in and out. So a kid could come for two weeks, go home for a week, come back for three days, done deal. But we were going to have to bubble them and I could not countenance imprisoning children and their mums or their dads for 11 weeks. You know, that was like and this was going to be at a time when the rest of the world was was allowed out to play because the actual lockdown was over.
::Speaker 2
So all their friends would be on summer holidays. We would be here. I am in, you know, in Majorca. And they they were being kind of incarcerated in a in a in a warehouse in Belfast, not for 11 weeks. So basically, I recast it. I rewrote 40 episodes, we did 40 instead of 52. I reformatted it and put a little more animation in it.
::Speaker 2
So we had more portals introduced, cut the cast, the adult cast out. It was a it became less of a sitcom with magic and more of a format show. And I don't think it suffered as a result of that. I suffered a bit as a result of that. I don't think the show did. You know, it's just a bit it's different, but it's very clear.
::Speaker 2
And the fundamental, the bedrock of what we were trying to do is still there and the magic still there and the music is all there. So it was fine. But we did have to costs of children for four weeks each and it was all done under COVID. And, you know, every day you would go in to the shoot thinking, is today the day we're going to have to shut the show and actors would turn up and test positive in the morning.
::Speaker 2
And then I desperately at 8:00 be rewriting the day's sheet. You know, I mean, you can spot the curve. It shows if you're smart. Yeah. I mean, you know, some random person turning up with a dog that's weird. But, you know.
::Speaker 1
It's there's there's there's a challenge for it for anyone out there. It is so true all 40 episodes and try and work out which ones were the ones that were made on the.
::Speaker 2
Over days.
::Speaker 1
Anyway.
::Speaker 2
But it was remarkable and the crew were fantastic and very young, you know, a young team, a lot of them in their first jobs. And it was a big you know, it's a biggie. It was a biggie. And they were they were delightful because most of them work on, you know, line of duty and heavy, heavy dramas. And they just had an absolute blast on this kind of magic, wonderful, colorful preschool show.
::Speaker 2
They all dressed up every day and brilliant with the kids. So we couldn't have asked for more from Northern Ireland. Really.
::Speaker 1
It's a it sounds fantastic. And as you say, you know, it's although COVID kind of influenced what you did with the show, it's kind of it's changed it a little bit, but actually it's worked, as you said. Yeah. You know, obviously.
::Speaker 2
It doesn't it made it a bit different. It didn't make it worse. And that's my maxim with everything really, you can make things different. As long as you don't make them worse, then you can buy it.
::Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's clearly working on unconscious, believe it or not, that the timing is is slightly against us as well. It's where we're flying through it. And any minute now I'm going to start getting someone like talk in that language they boring. Oh tell me about it. But I've got so many questions I want to ask.
::Speaker 1
So if it's alright with you, I want to show a quick fly around.
::Speaker 2
Okay.
::Speaker 1
Which is just like kind of a list of questions, very kind of top answers. Maybe if something really weird comes up, we will dig deeper. I don't know, but if you're up for it, go for the quick the quick fly around and say, okay.
::Speaker 2
Okay, okay.
::Speaker 1
So first up, which character in Mimi's world do you most identify with?
::Speaker 2
We live forever. Oh, that's really hard because they're all my babies. You don't want favoritism here, but I guess.
::Speaker 1
If somebody maybe I.
::Speaker 2
Had to, I would go for Mama Tambo and I would go for Mama Tambo, the elephant, because I was brought up in Africa. And I just love that character and I love all the words of wisdom and the and the proverbs and the African sayings and the fantastic Miriam Makeba singing. Yeah, she's my she's my girl.
::Speaker 1
It's back to your roots sort of thing. Yes. Yeah. And this I mean, if you had a hard, hard job choosing my character, choosing a favorite episode from Amy's World Order.
::Speaker 2
They're really very different. I, I, I was very, very pleased with the Father's Day episode, and we got some wonderful feedback on that, and that was quite a hearty episode that explored quite a big thing. So it was kids whose father didn't live at home, a little girl whose dad didn't live at home, and she was seeing him on Father's Day and she was nervous and worried and a bit cross and, you know, all those mixed emotions.
::Speaker 2
So that was a kind of big emotional show. And we got some fantastic feedback from parents and, you know, the sort of thing that makes you think, that's why I do this. That's why I do what you in some of the shows with the dinosaur of of are fabulous because the 2D animation and this is wonderful and sausage has a great a great role to play in there so you know but again, it's a tough it's a tough it's a tough call.
::Speaker 1
It's a tough call where you you made a call. That's not bad. This is going to be even tougher given everything that you've written on kind of in your entire career, the thing you've written or created that you're most proud of.
::Speaker 2
I can't.
::Speaker 1
Really put you on the spot.
::Speaker 2
Is that is seriously favorite child syndrome. And I'm not doing that. I'm so I'm proud of all of them for different reasons. I'm proud of this one for for all the reasons that we've just discussed, that we managed to get something that looks gorgeous and is working up together during that pandemic was I'm so hugely chuffed that we managed to do that.
::Speaker 2
I'm obviously really proud of Gran for my pocket because that was our first big show and we did five seasons of that. I'm really proud of the whoops because obviously it was completely out of me to agree to do that and we pulled it off and got a BAFTA. So, you know, different reasons for different, you know, horses for courses that match.
::Speaker 2
I'm not going to I'm not going to take.
::Speaker 1
So we'll try this one then. The thing that you wish you'd written or created.
::Speaker 2
Peppa Pig, because I'd be on a yacht now.
::Speaker 1
That's a perfect answer.
::Speaker 2
You know what's not to love? I think I more recently the shows that I that I hugely admire I, I think that hey, duggee is a work of complete genius and it has the hallmark of a really creator led show. And it and it and it's, it's a show where you think a brought the broadcaster took a bit of a fly on this because it's quirky and and very individualistic.
::Speaker 2
And and to be fair, the shows that we've done, you know, we accept that the broadcasters have taken it, taken a risk. We like you know, you need to take a risk. Charlie and Lola took a risk and it worked. And so I think that's that's brilliant. And Bluey similarly has got that, you know, it's got its own distinctive.
::Speaker 1
Some quality something about and.
::Speaker 2
Also artistry really important for me to see some flair my mother my old mother old mother my dearly departed mother was a singer and a theater director and and subsequently a teacher and a head teacher. And she always used to say, if you give them quality, you will get quality back. Mm. And it's a, it's a great maxim that.
::Speaker 1
That sets that great motto to live by a great motto to live by the if you hadn't made it in the media industry, what would you have done?
::Speaker 2
God, have I made it? Does anyone make it?
::Speaker 1
Well, you you've done a lot. You've done.
::Speaker 2
I've done. It's been fun. I will probably in my younger days, I would probably have done I would probably headed towards journalism, but I suppose that is media related. Now, if I if I jumped ship now I would great alias Matt. Oh lovely because it's a nice benign thing to do they don't answer back, but neither do they bloom in a heatwave so you know but yeah so that you can.
::Speaker 1
Put in that you can put them in a rooftop garden with no you can weather is also as you.
::Speaker 2
Can.
::Speaker 1
Charlie or Lola.
::Speaker 2
Charlie.
::Speaker 1
Charlie always and the last one from our quickfire around your favorite TV show as a child. Kids TV show.
::Speaker 2
Okay. So now this is weird. So I was I was brought up in Uganda and there really wasn't any TV for kids. There was one dedicated show. We had the old thing like his Lucy and the Man from Uncle and Lost in Space. But there was only one dedicated children's show and it was called Aunty Treasures Half Hour.
::Speaker 2
And we loved her. She was a lovely I mean, she was she's mama tambo. She was a lovely, warm, wise, jolly woman who did this half hour show, which I actually got to go on. Matt.
::Speaker 1
Did you?
::Speaker 2
Oh, yes. This is amazing.
::Speaker 1
This is your first media job. You lied earlier on. This is your first media job by the sounds.
::Speaker 2
Yes, it was. It was really my debut on Aunty Treasures SOFA. I was I was playing the Goose Starling in the National Theater production of Mother Goose in Kampala, and they had flown the Goose costume out from Burnham's and Nathan's in London. The costume is so it was the pukka West End goose outfit with the mask in the head and the legs and the feet and the tail of the whole caboodle.
::Speaker 2
And I had to do pirouettes and legs as you do, as geese do. And Auntie Trisha came to the show and invited me to appear on Auntie Treasures. How far can you imagine? Yes. So this is a biggie. Unfortunately, it went horribly wrong.
::Speaker 1
If I ask.
::Speaker 2
Well, she always invited a group of kids to join her, and she would tell them stories and they'd sing. And on this particular occasion, she had a brownie pack and they did a lovely song and walked on tins or whatever it is, brownies, do you know. And I was waiting offset to make my pirouetting entrance, darling, which I, Julie did with my mother on piano.
::Speaker 2
And the kids took one look at me and they all leapt up and screamed, It's a big duck and they ran away. This is live TV.
::Speaker 1
But so you did your very first role within Kids TV. You scared the audience off to their hopeless.
::Speaker 2
So I thought, Stay behind the camera, Mel. Don't try that again. That was a fail.
::Speaker 1
And on that note, I think we should say thank you so much, Mother Goose Malibu's for your time and talk this through. May meets World today it's been it's been great talking to you and if you're in the UK you can catch up on episodes of Mummy's World via my five at channel five dot com forward slash milkshake or you can check out the trailer and availability for the series on the shows page of our Web site at Jetpack Distribution Dot TV.
::Speaker 1
That's all for this episode of Behind the Blast. If you've enjoyed it, be sure to tell your friends. And if you haven't enjoyed it, well, tell them anyway. See what they think. We'll be back behind the blast again very soon. So be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss out. But in the meantime, thanks again Melle and thanks for listening.
