Armstrong was brought in at an early stage to narrate, with the idea that his rich tones could create something similar to Lionel Jeffries’ character in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is littered with pop-cultural references: Apocalypse Now, Donkey Kong and the Cure to name just three. Its songs have been played on Newsnight, fans include Orbital – and the show’s storylines ask the big questions about art and life. Armstrong fell in love with the voice he’d landed on, so much so that when there was a bit of pushback regarding whether or not it was the right fit for CBeebies, he said: fine, but they would have to recast it. What makes it significantly better than it sounds on paper is the amount of love poured into it – from the acid-house-inspired music and smart visual gags to the hilarious regional accents of characters such as Chew Chew the Panda (whose sarf-east tones have been compared to those of Adele).

When she was talking affectionately to her grandchildren, she had a way of making her voice purr slightly; it was so warm and loving you could wrap it around you like a blanket. People have said to me: ‘It’s clearly a show written for adults that kids also enjoy,’ which is not the case.

The simple geometric shapes that make up the characters (the frogs are just triangles with eyes) make animation far swifter. Such is the crossover love for Hey Duggee that the BBC used a Hey Duggee Stay at Home Badge video as part of its lockdown awareness campaign; a Handwashing Badge video swiftly followed, and garnered 97,000 views in the first 24 hours. Evan Davis even used it to play out Newsnight, declaring: “Even if you weren’t in a gravel pit with a big speaker in 1989, we think you’ll like this. Parents grappling with home schooling could turn to Science With Duggee on YouTube, which has now had 12. It would be disingenuous to say that we didn’t think about inclusivity, but we didn’t want to be preachy with it,” says Orchard.

Indeed, affection for the song was such that a bunch of metallers even formed a band around it – recording a blistering cover version and naming themselves Slay Duggee as a result. Orchard says that some voice actors emerge sweating from the booth after putting their all into voicing the astonishing array of secondary characters in the show.Betty wants to make costumes, Happy wants to sing, Tag wants to make music, Norrie wants to dance, Roly wants jelly and they all want you to join them at the Clubhouse. Halfway through the first series, we realised that we had access to the entire BBC back catalogue, so we really went for it,” Orchard says.

I really liked the idea of this patrician, faintly military-sounding character having that huge capacity for warmth and affection. Each seven-minute episode involves a bunch of animal children (a crocodile, octopus, hippo etc, all confusingly referred to as “squirrels”) spending time with Duggee, a kind of canine scout leader who heads up Squirrel Club. Help your little one learn and play with our wide selection of Hey Duggee toys, games and partyware here at The Range.Join Duggee and his friends on their adventures or create fun tunes with our collection of musical toys, your little ones are sure to have a blast making memories with their favourite members of Squirrel Club!

From dolls and dinosaurs to cars and craft kits, you’ll find the perfect toys to surprise the little ones, no matter the occasion. This is the first-ever theatrical production of the hugely popular CBeebies series, bringing Duggee and friends to life through extraordinary puppetry and storytelling, with families able to see their TV heroes live on stage.The brightly coloured animation is creative, inclusive, joyous and ever so gently educational – and the ratings reflect that. And he was thrilled when his mum – a voracious reader – mentioned that a fictional character in one of her books had shoved her kids in front of Hey Duggee. They want to hear Hey Duggee played on a Dean Dimebag spiky guitar with double kick-drum and somebody screaming into a microphone.