Nina and The Neurons

"Hiyu Nina, am Wullium an' a wantae know..."

And so begins another prime example of why people from certain parts of
Scotland shouldn't be allowed on national television.

Nina and The Neurons is a good idea poorly executed.  Take pre-schoolers
and with the aid of a cartoon, force some science down their throats by
stealth.

The budget goes on the cgi cartoon part.  Unfortunately the BBC didn't get
much for their money, leaving poor, hapless Nina trying to bluff her way
through the rest of each episode.

Each day, a child asks a scientific question and Nina, from her base at the
Science Centre in Glasgow, tries to answer it.  Usually this involves Nina
roping the child's family into a science experiment.  We then forget all about
the Neurons from the title until they appear briefly again at the end.

Unfortunately, standard BBC casting takes over - Nina can't act or sing and
appears to have little interest in science.  Given that these are the three main
elements of her job, you get the idea.

Strangely though my two-year old loves it and added the word Nina to her
vocabulary swiftly, now asking for the show by name.  Oh well.  A search
around blogs will also reveal that Nina has certain attractions for the fathers
out there - she has quite a fan-club.

Breaking News - Christmas '07
Saw "Nina" (whatever her real life name is) in a
far-too-worthy-alternative-pantomime-bothering Tron Theatre production - at
least her acting has improved a bit.

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