In The Night Garden is probably the only lullaby-filled children’s TV programme that has almost caused a parental riot. Why? Because when CBeebies once moved the tots’ favourite - featuring the adventures of Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and friends - from its bedtime slot to an earlier one, it prompted parent petitions, outrage, and a swift u-turn from the BBC.

In the Night Garden is the BAFTA award-winning series that’s been one of the BBC’s most-watched shows for 12 years. Only 100 episodes were ever made - so toddlers and their parents around the country will be elated that, following 2010’s sell-out live touring show, In the Night Garden Live is coming to the Alban Arena with a brand-new show and a brilliant new story to tell on Wednesday, June 19, and Thursday, June 20.

Whilst the average grown-up might watch In the Night Garden and see a strange plot of cuddly characters apparently speaking gobbledegook to a soporific backdrop, it’s all sophistically-tailored linguistics to captivate pre-schoolers.

Andrew Davenport, the show’s creator, explains: “The characters speak almost entirely in play language, which is hugely important to language development. Children recognise the nursery rhyme silliness of it, they love the funny language and characters - but I think, at the end of it, that it’s the comedy that draws them in.”

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It might be all about having fun, but the makers of In the Night Garden Live took the responsibility of putting on what will be a lot of the audience’s first trip to a theatre very seriously. As Oliver Seadon, producer of In the Night Garden Live, puts it: “It’s such a heart-meltingly brilliant thing to hear the hysteria when Igglepiggle first appears on stage in front of his little fans - there’s a sort of glow of happiness throughout the theatre. In their minds he exists - he’s real - and they’re all so excited to see him.

“Making shows for two-year-olds is brilliant - they’re so vocal when you get it right (and when you get it wrong). My favourite ever clip that one parent shared on social media after seeing In the Night Garden Live had her two year old repeating over and over ‘Mummy, it’s amazing. Wow, it’s amazing. It’s amazing.’ As a theatre producer you can’t really wish for a better review than that.”

To guarantee that reaction with the latest show, the producers called in world-renowned theatrical experts to create the show, which is written by Bing Live writer Helen Eastman, with the puppets’ costumes designed by Tahra Zafar. A costumier, puppet and animatronics expert whose career spans the Harry Potter and Star Wars films, Zafar even worked with the Queen on her first (and only) acting role, as she was head of costumes at the 2012 London Olympics. Yet ask the creative whiz what character she’s most proud of working on in her three-decade-long career, and the answer isn’t Hermione or Obi Wan-Kenobe - it’s Upsy Daisy.

The always-happy dolly with red, pink and yellow hair who Zafar helped create for the original In the Night Garden TV show is, she explains, “just smashing. She’s a girl character who avoids the usual stereotypes.”

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Zafar has spent months working on the design of the characters “because, to the children in our audience, In the Night Garden’s characters are like friends that they know really well: they have to look exactly as they do on their screens at home.” And the show’s writer, Eastman says her biggest challenge was “creating something which will feel completely familiar to our young audience, who know the world of Night Garden and its characters intimately, but is also fresh and exciting.”

That sense of responsibility is echoed by Will Tuckett, the Royal Ballet stalwart, Olivier award-winner, and one of the Royal Opera House’s top choreographers, who is director of the new In the Night Garden Live stage show.

“It’s not just the actual show that we want to be perfect for our young audience, but the whole theatre experience,” Tuckett explains. “We’ve trained all the front-of-house staff to make sure everything runs smoothly - after all, it’s not every show that sees hundreds of buggies arrive!”

Tuckett’s favourite thing about In the Night Garden Live is that “its style is perennial - a make-believe world, all about how friends operate, how small children play, how they learn about texture, communication - it’s very relaxing to watch.”

Like the rest of the In the Night Garden Live crew, Tuckett knows he has “a really precious audience for Night Garden. For so many this will be their first time in a theatre; we want the families to go back to see something else, for the theatre to feel like a place they all enjoy going to, to see magical shows. It’s a big responsibility.”

The Alban Arena, Civic Centre, St Albans, Wednesday, June 19, 1pm and 4pm, and Thursday, June 20, 10am and 1pm. Details: 01727 844488 alban-arena.co.uk