Yes. I know it’s a TV show for kids.
It’s an admittedly defensive start to my celebration of Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, but it’s worth ushering away the elephant in the room from the outset.
Children’s TV is often dismissed as insubstantial, or as twee, or as (worst of all) ‘just for kids’.
In many ways, Ben and Holly is no different. Recurring motifs include fairy princesses, belching frogs and a four-legged sidekick providing comic relief. It’s chock-full of the primary colour overload that would still dazzle even the mildest sufferer of cataracts. Episodes have self-explanatory titles like ‘King Thistle’s Birthday’ or ‘Camping’.
So yes: it’s most definitely a TV show for kids.
Its appeal, however, deserves to be appreciated by those no longer wearing Doodles. Ben and Holly has depth. It has nuance. It has soul.
It even purveys political sensibility in every rudimentarily-drawn frame. Holly is a fairy princess, born with a silver wand in her hand, who lives in a castle with her indolent father and softly-spoken mother. The King and Queen enjoy the help provided by their live-in maid, Nanny Plum.
Holly spends much of her time, in a platonic spin on the Romeo & Juliet theme, with Ben Elf. Ben is an elf. He lives in a tree, which appears to be the Little Kingdom’s equivalent of a high-rise council block: all the other elves reside in this one tree. Ben, Holly and their friends enjoy a range of colourful adventures together.
I love the interplay between the two cultures: the fairies enjoy the delights of their Little Kingdom, only pausing to attend fairy school to further develop their innate supernatural powers. The elves, in contrast, keep the Little Kingdom operational. They make the toys. They tend to repairs. They understand the plumbing system. Mr Elf, Ben’s dad, even has a business delivering essentials across the Little Kingdom, to both elfkind and fairykind.
There’s an especially interesting incident during ‘Hard Times’ when Mr Elf delivers groceries to the Castle. When Mr Elf asks for payment from King Thistle – the King appears to be running an oft-ignored tab – the King inexplicably finds himself out of gold coins. He’s forced into work to pay off the tab. It’s an unmitigated disaster. The King is patently incapable of operating in the real world of employment. Eventually, he’s able to ‘magic up’ the funds required to pay off the tab. The small claims court is narrowly avoided.
This is why Ben and Holly is my favourite kids’ TV show. It excels in doing what the best children’s programmes do – it charms, educates and emphasises the value of family and friendship. It’s also very witty, with some subtle nods to popular culture. Most excitingly though, it has created a society where, quite easily, everything could crumble into a state of revolution. How long will the elves put up with slow payment, long working hours and unsatisfactory housing, for example? When will the fairies’ “magic mischief” spill over into something more sinister?
Thankfully, order is always maintained, and the societal imbalance rarely causes consternation. Which suggests something remarkable – that Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom represents a Utopian society where the proletariat co-exist happily with the aristocracy.
So yes. It’s a TV show for kids. If that’s all you want it to be.
Polar Nightcap 