10 Creepy Theories That Ruin Your Favourite Kids TV Shows
5. In The Night Garden Is The Fever Dream Of A Dying Sailor
The batsh*t insane In The Night Garden has haunted the dreams of children worldwide for a decade now. Designed to be shown to youngsters around bedtime to teach them the difference between sleeping and waking, each episode follows the same pattern.
A child is lying down to sleep, as the narrator (stage and screen legend Sir Derek Jacobi) murmurs the rhyme: round and round, in a little boat no bigger than your hand, out on the ocean, far away from land. Take the little sail down, light the little light. This is the way to the garden of the night.
We cut to the show’s protagonist, Iggle Piggle, a strange, blue-skinned man, adrift at sea in his boat at night, as he lights a lamp and curls up under his red sail to sleep. The viewpoint shifts to the stars, which blur into blossoming flowers as we enter the Night Garden, a permanently sun-dappled forest filled with strange but friendly creatures: some tiny, some monstrously massive, all preoccupied with their own odd lives.
In every episode Iggle Piggle wanders the Night Garden, still clutching his red sail like a security blanket. Often, he’ll find Upsy Daisy, with whom he shares a close friendship - the two will frequently kiss and hold hands. At the close of each episode, the Garden’s denizens settle down to sleep… all except for Iggle Piggle, the visitor, who is still awake. He must follow the path back to his little boat again where he lies, sleeping under the little red sail.
Clearly, In The Night Garden is a narrative governed by dream logic. A sailor becalmed at sea (maybe after a shipwreck left him with only a lifeboat to survive), Iggle Piggle lights the lamp each night to attract ships that may pass while he sleeps, and then sleeps under the sail to protect himself from the elements.
Then he dreams of a sunny forest, and the lost love he left behind. As time goes on, he grows weaker and weaker from hunger and thirst… but in the Night Garden, he’s back on land again, happy and safe.
One day, Iggle Piggle will fall asleep along with everyone else in the Night Garden. Then he’ll never have to leave again.