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Yonderland
Yonderland is a British sitcom television series that was broadcast on Sky One from November 2013 to December 2016. It was produced by Sioned Wiliam, and was created by, written by and starred the main performers from CBBC's series Horrible Histories.
33-year-old Debbie Maddox (Martha Howe-Douglas) from Birmingham becomes increasingly bored with her life as a stay-at-home mother, until Elf (a puppet voiced by Mathew Baynton) appears from a portal in her kitchen cupboard, insisting that she is the "chosen one" destined to save Yonderland - which she can reach through the portal in her cupboard. Reluctantly, Debbie agrees, and meets with the Elders of the realm, only to discover that they have lost the scroll that explains what the chosen one is supposed to do. As it turns out, Yonderland is a silly, magical place, threatened by the evil Negatus (Simon Farnaby). It will take all of Debbie's resources to complete each week's quest in time to pick up her children from school - and to find out the secrets of the realm to save Yonderland.
Most of the cast play multiple roles, both physical performances and voices of puppet characters. The list below is by no means conclusive, but nevertheless lists many of the characters the cast portray. The main cast are as follows:
On 22 March 2013, Sky1's Lucy Lumsden announced Yonderland, saying: "We are delighted to give the incredibly talented Horrible Histories cast the opportunity to write and star in a brand new show for the whole family on Sky1." The show was co-produced by Working Title Films. Principal filming under former HH director Steve Connelly began the following May.
The show initially grew out of the desire of its creators (Baynton, Farnaby, Howe-Douglas, Howick, Rickard and Willbond) to continue working together after Horrible Histories ceased production in 2012. The new standalone troupe wanted to maintain the sketch-based, character-driven comedy style from their previous series. They quickly settled on the fantasy quest genre, with its emphasis on individual short vignettes within the larger plot, as the logical next step.
At the same time, Baynton and Willbond had been developing a film idea about an ordinary person dragged into a parallel universe – specifically, a nostalgic fantasy adventure using puppetry rather than more modern animation techniques, in the vein of Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story." This concept in turn naturally lent itself to the casting of sole female troupe member Howe-Douglas as the central heroine, with her five male costars in multiple roles as the different characters she meets in each episode. In terms of writing together for the first time as a troupe, Howick noted to The Guardian that "[By now] we're such a tight unit, we know exactly what the humour is, and what the tone is." Baynton agreed: "It just grew very nicely out of what happens when the six of us are together in a room."
In keeping with the nostalgic, "lo-fi" tone – and in the interest of creating a more richly populated, inventive and potentially surprising world – Yonderland features numerous Muppet-style puppet characters designed and built by longtime Jim Henson associates Baker Coogan, Lifecast and Fiona Cazaly. The final series, which also featured an extra long Christmas episode had a plethora of new puppet characters designed and built by a team headed by Fiona Cazaly, including puppet makers at Darryl Worbey Studio, Chris Barlow, Andy Heath, Iestin Evans, Natalie Ellnor and puppet costumes by David Brown. Explaining the decision to keep computer animation to a minimum (save for the portal to Yonderland itself), Rickard said: "Because you can make everything photo-realistic these days, it kind of takes the joy out of it. Even if it's brilliant CGI, you still know it's CGI ... you know it's not there, it's not tangible, and it's the same with comedy."
The first series was considered a critical and popular success, earning solid ratings for its timeslot. On 30 June 2014, Sky announced that the show had been recommissioned for a second series, which was filmed in autumn of the same year and began airing in July 2015.
Yonderland
Yonderland is a British sitcom television series that was broadcast on Sky One from November 2013 to December 2016. It was produced by Sioned Wiliam, and was created by, written by and starred the main performers from CBBC's series Horrible Histories.
33-year-old Debbie Maddox (Martha Howe-Douglas) from Birmingham becomes increasingly bored with her life as a stay-at-home mother, until Elf (a puppet voiced by Mathew Baynton) appears from a portal in her kitchen cupboard, insisting that she is the "chosen one" destined to save Yonderland - which she can reach through the portal in her cupboard. Reluctantly, Debbie agrees, and meets with the Elders of the realm, only to discover that they have lost the scroll that explains what the chosen one is supposed to do. As it turns out, Yonderland is a silly, magical place, threatened by the evil Negatus (Simon Farnaby). It will take all of Debbie's resources to complete each week's quest in time to pick up her children from school - and to find out the secrets of the realm to save Yonderland.
Most of the cast play multiple roles, both physical performances and voices of puppet characters. The list below is by no means conclusive, but nevertheless lists many of the characters the cast portray. The main cast are as follows:
On 22 March 2013, Sky1's Lucy Lumsden announced Yonderland, saying: "We are delighted to give the incredibly talented Horrible Histories cast the opportunity to write and star in a brand new show for the whole family on Sky1." The show was co-produced by Working Title Films. Principal filming under former HH director Steve Connelly began the following May.
The show initially grew out of the desire of its creators (Baynton, Farnaby, Howe-Douglas, Howick, Rickard and Willbond) to continue working together after Horrible Histories ceased production in 2012. The new standalone troupe wanted to maintain the sketch-based, character-driven comedy style from their previous series. They quickly settled on the fantasy quest genre, with its emphasis on individual short vignettes within the larger plot, as the logical next step.
At the same time, Baynton and Willbond had been developing a film idea about an ordinary person dragged into a parallel universe – specifically, a nostalgic fantasy adventure using puppetry rather than more modern animation techniques, in the vein of Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story." This concept in turn naturally lent itself to the casting of sole female troupe member Howe-Douglas as the central heroine, with her five male costars in multiple roles as the different characters she meets in each episode. In terms of writing together for the first time as a troupe, Howick noted to The Guardian that "[By now] we're such a tight unit, we know exactly what the humour is, and what the tone is." Baynton agreed: "It just grew very nicely out of what happens when the six of us are together in a room."
In keeping with the nostalgic, "lo-fi" tone – and in the interest of creating a more richly populated, inventive and potentially surprising world – Yonderland features numerous Muppet-style puppet characters designed and built by longtime Jim Henson associates Baker Coogan, Lifecast and Fiona Cazaly. The final series, which also featured an extra long Christmas episode had a plethora of new puppet characters designed and built by a team headed by Fiona Cazaly, including puppet makers at Darryl Worbey Studio, Chris Barlow, Andy Heath, Iestin Evans, Natalie Ellnor and puppet costumes by David Brown. Explaining the decision to keep computer animation to a minimum (save for the portal to Yonderland itself), Rickard said: "Because you can make everything photo-realistic these days, it kind of takes the joy out of it. Even if it's brilliant CGI, you still know it's CGI ... you know it's not there, it's not tangible, and it's the same with comedy."
The first series was considered a critical and popular success, earning solid ratings for its timeslot. On 30 June 2014, Sky announced that the show had been recommissioned for a second series, which was filmed in autumn of the same year and began airing in July 2015.