Teletubbies star lifts lid on iconic show saying Laa-Laa suit was 'living hell of uncomfortable'

Back in 1997, four brightly coloured Teletubbies captured the imagination of children all over the world and sent the media into a spin saying its “baby talk’ was dumbing down language.

Now two decades later, the TV show has been shown in over one hundred and twenty countries and translated into forty-five languages, and Laa-Laa actor, Nikky Smedley, has written a book revealing what it was like playing the yellow, sunny character of Laa-Laa.

Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po all lived in Teletubby land populated by giant Flemish rabbits, eating Teletubby custard with a robot hoover called Noo Noo. The show was deliberately repetitive and play was a central theme, with each episode ending when the Teletubbies had finished playing and needed to go to bed. The Teletubbies spoke a “play language based on emergent speech”.

Being chosen to play Laa-Laa was 'best Christmas present ever'

Nikky Smedley, who has written Over the Hills and Far Away – My Life as a Teletubby, says that getting the part was the “best Christmas present ever”.

“I was to be a Teletubby. I was to be Laa Laa. I was to be employed – and yellow.” She had originally seen an ad in the Stage magazine in 1995 asking for ‘Artistes with stamina’ for a new children’s television programme. ‘Unusual personalities and backgrounds especially welcome’.

Her audition for the show which was originally called ‘Teleteddies’ was about her unrequited love for a chair.

As a freelance dancer, who was fed up of being “dirt poor” and living from job to job, she reveals “the weekly wage for filming Teletubbies for three years amounted to more money than I had earned in my entire life”.

In order to fully get into the role, Nikky needed to get into the head of a three-year-old.

Teletubbies creator Anne Wood, who also devised and produced In the Night Garden, encouraged the actors to spend time with small children so they could familiarise themselves with their audience. So Nikky contacted her local nursery which let her sit in the corner and watch the children interacting with each other.

Once she began observing them, she “became fascinated”.

“I learned how perceptive children were and how they needed closely defined personalities to latch onto.

The Teletubbies were designed to look like toddlers

“The intention was for the Teletubbies to look like toddlers to encourage the toddlers watching to identify with the characters.” This is why they look like they are wearing nappies and have a waddling walk.

The four Teletubbies actors had training in non-verbal communication and physical comedy as well as puppeteering as they were given controls to blink the eyes and open and close the mouth.

She reveals how physically tough the role was, encased in “four stones of fun-fur” unable to see her feet, wearing a giant puppet head.

Everyone on the outside saw Laa Laa, a yellow furry character trying to water the flowers. But “within that charming baby-giant, however, was a small woman blinking sweat out of her eyes, trying not to stand on any flowers or rabbits, desperately wrestling with the watering can”.

The Teletubbies episodes were filmed on a farm in Stratford Upon Avon with five Flemish giant rabbits.

Critics said it was 'dumbing down language'

The show attracted a lot of criticism that it was “detrimental to children’s development” and dumbing down language with our baby talk”. However, she says: “As Teletubbies had been co-created and written by a childhood linguistics specialist, this was rather a hollow criticism.”

“What took the cast and the crew by surprise was how impactful the programme was for children with autism,” with the producers going on to build relationships with major autistic charities.

The company had an ongoing relationship with several nurseries, schools and childminders and the children would be shown episodes of Teletubbies so the producers could see when they laughed and what grabbed their attention and if they got bored and wandered off.

Nikky Smedley became “part of a bizarre family working in a field in the middle of the English countryside for six years of my life”. The series had 365 episodes and ended in 2001. There was a reboot of the series with different actors in 2014 using CGI. Now Netflix has decided to produce its own Teletubbies series which will be screened in November.

In preparation for the book, Nikky reveals when she asked colleagues what they remembered about the time they spent working on Teletubbies, “they all said their over-arching memory was of a happy time”.

“I’m also proud that in all the years we worked together, the four Teletubbies never had a falling out. When I think about them now I automatically smile. The love I feel for them is true.”

What was problematic for the show and the actors was the media interest. After attacking the show for its ‘poor’ educational value, the tabloids then went on a hunt to find out the identities of the Teletubbies. Security guards had to be employed to protect Teletubby land and journalists even hired helicopters to try and get photographs from the air.

Things are very different now and Nikky says: “Teletubbies no longer gets any kind of bad press – no if we are mentioned at all it is with warmth and rosy glow of childhood nostalgia.”

Her book is a fascinating glimpse into what became a global phenomenon and now aged 59, she says: “I haven’t for a minute forgotten that inside the suit is a living hell of uncomfortable, but beyond that, it was truly profound experience.

“Even now, if at any point I’m feeling rather worthless, it’s a hell of a way to cheer myself up to be able to think that it’s more likely than not, somewhere in the world, a small child is looking at Laa-Laa, at my Laa and is laughing.”

You can read our interview with Anne Wood, founder of Teletubbies here