The Numtums

The Numtums
Genre	Toddlers, Pre-school
Created by	Barry Quinn
Written by	Katie Simmons
Directed by	Steve Smith, Mark Taylor
Voices of	Simon Greenall, Kate Fleetwood.
Opening theme	Theme Tune
Country of origin	United Kingdom South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia (CGI Series only)(Series 1,2 and 3) France Belgium (Season 4-)
Original language(s)	English Dutch French
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	77 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tony Reed
Producer(s)	Lotte Elwell, Katherine McQueen
Running time	5 minutes (2012) 11 minutes (2014)
Production company(s)	Beakus (series 1) A Productions (series 2)
Release
Original network	CBeebies
Original release	27 February 2012 – 23 February 2015
External links
Website

The Numtums is a children's television show about a group of ten small creatures called Numtums, each with a number from one to ten on their tummy.^[1] BBC, ZDF, France Télévisions and TF1 aired in 2013-2015, and is designed as an interactive programme to help a young audience learn about numbers.

The first series was a simple introduction to numbers for toddlers, second and subsequent series are story-based and aimed at older children.

First series

The first series was animated by Beakus, a London animation studio set up in 2010 and run by the programme director Steve Smith. This series was aimed at toddlers.^[2]

Second and later series

A second CG animated series was created for CBeebies by Bristol-based A Productions in 2014. This version was aimed at older children and is notable for giving the characters names and voices.

For the second series, producer Barry Quinn chose to use an Australian theme: the Numtums are based on numbats (hence the Numtums' fondness for eating termites), side characters include an echidna, Billy, a lyrebird, Larry, a koala with plans for world domination, Fluffy McTuffy, a smart, acerbic, silent and also somewhat stoic frilled lizard who is her assistant and three small rubber ducks, Dennis, Finley and Trixie. ^[3] The Numtum characters' names are based on Australian place names.^[2] Along with Super Numtum now getting his own show, while Gladdy, Flinders, Hobart and Nimbin are the four oldest numtums, Bendy Go, Dar Dar, Champer, Humpty Do, Little Sandy and Coogee are the six youngest Numtums, known as the Numpups. They hang out at a termite shaped café where they reward themselves with Termite Treats. Even though they come from Australia, each of the characters, except Super Numtum, Frilly Lizzy, Fluffy McTuffy, Larry and Billy, all are particularly British.

The Numtums' names and numbers are:

1. Bendy Go
2. Dar Dar
3. Little Sandy
4. Flinders
5. Humpty Do
6. Coogee
7. Hobart
8. Nimbin

Episodes

^[4]

Series 1 (2012)

Note: Episodes 21-25 are compilations with scenes from previous episodes.

#	Episode Name	Original Airdate
1	Number One	27 February 2012
2	Number Two	28 February 2012
3	Number Three	29 February 2012
4	Number Four	1 March 2012
5	Number Five	2 March 2012
6	Number Six	5 March 2012
7	Number Seven	6 March 2012
8	Number Eight	7 March 2012
9	Number Nine	8 March 2012
10	Number Ten	9 March 2012
11	More Number One	12 March 2012
12	More Number Two	13 March 2012
13	More Number Three	14 March 2012
14	More Number Four	15 March 2012
15	More Number Five	16 March 2012
16	More Number Six	19 March 2012
17	More Number Seven	20 March 2012
18	More Number Eight	21 March 2012
19	More Number Nine	22 March 2012
20	More Number Ten	23 March 2012
21	Animals	26 March 2012
22	Clothes	27 March 2012
23	Vehicles	28 March 2012
24	Food	29 March 2012
25	Games	30 March 2012

Series 2 (2014)

#	Episode Name	Original Airdate
26	Very Fast Food	3 February 2014
27	You Can Do It, Humpty Do!	4 February 2014
28	School Of Cool	5 February 2014
29	Numbot	6 February 2014
30	The Quest For The Hooded Paw	7 February 2014
31	Unstuck With A Stick	10 February 2014
32	Termite Takeaway	11 February 2014
33	Painting By Numtums	12 February 2014
34	Tum Tum Tap Tap	13 February 2014
35	Faster, Higher, Funnier	14 February 2014
36	Tent-o-saurus	21 February 2014
37	Hoedown Havoc	10 March 2014
38	Numpups Can't Fly	11 March 2014
39	Beak Of The Week	12 March 2014
40	Koala On The Loose	13 March 2014
41	Larry's Takeaway Trial	14 March 2014
42	Treasure Trail	17 March 2014
43	The Mysterious Land Beyond Ten	18 March 2014
44	Little Sandy's Rocket	19 March 2014
45	Don't Forget To Remember	20 March 2014
46	The Search For The Five Keys	21 March 2014
47	Cafe Chaos	24 March 2014
48	Billy And Champer's Big Adventure	25 March 2014
49	Humpty Do's Zoo	26 March 2014
50	Picture Perfect	27 March 2014
51	You've Missed Your Cue, Humpty Do	28 March 2014

Series 3 (2014)

#	Episode Name	Original Airdate
52	Feet Don't Fail Me Now	29 September 2014
53	Switcheroo	30 September 2014
54	Larry Gets the Hiccups	1 October 2014
55	Hunt for the Golden Treat	2 October 2014
56	Gladdy's Special Birthday	3 October 2014
57	Numpup Nursery	6 October 2014
58	Gladdy's Secret Recipe	7 October 2014
59	Larry and Billy's Dance Game	8 October 2014
60	Yo Ho Bendy Go	9 October 2014
61	Humpty Do, What about You?	10 October 2014
62	Has anyone seen Hobart	13 October 2014
63	Never Fear, Nimbin's Here!	14 October 2014
64	The Great Hobarto's Magic Act	15 October 2014
65	Finding Neddy	16 October 2014
66	Find Those Flamingos	17 October 2014
67	Running Like Clockwork	2 December 2014
68	Little Sandy's Big Bug Hunt	3 December 2014
69	The Great Numpup Rally	4 December 2014
70	Dar Dar's Not So Lucky Flower	5 December 2014
71	Hobart's Hand Bells	8 December 2014
72	The Drumtums	9 December 2014
73	Rules Are Rules	10 December 2014
74	Flinder's First Sunset	11 December 2014
75	Champer Loses His Bounce	12 December 2014
76	The Best Hobart Ever	15 December 2014
77	Flinders' Big Adventure	16 December 2014

References

1. Beakus's quote on Vimeo
2. Bradley, Hazel (11 March 2014). "Numbats by numbers". The West Australian. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/cbeebiesgrownups/posts/The-Numtums-A-new-series
4. Episode Guide

External links

• The Numtums at BBC Programmes
• The Numtums at the Internet Movie Database