In The Night Garden - a guide (part 7)

[internetsdairy]

With its treacly pace and reassuringly consistent structure, In The Night Garden is perfect for winding its young audience down; indeed, it's currently shown in CBeebies' Bedtime Hour. What this means is most parents won't get to the end of each 30-minute episode - they'll be putting their child to bed by the third time the Tombliboos' trousers fall down.

If you do get to the end of an episode of In The Night Garden, you'll get to meet Shunka Warak'in:



'Who's here? Oh Jesus fuck - it's Shunka Warak'in!

When Shunka Warak'in appears, Derek Jacobi sings reverentially:

Yes, I'm Shunka Warak'in
Shunka, chunka, chanka-chin
My jaws will rend you limb from limb
Hungry Shunka Warak'in!

Then the puppet wolf makes its reassuring, regular rounds of the Night Garden, hunting down, killing and eating Igglepiggle and all of his friends (aside from one of the Pontipine children, who it leaves alive as a witness).

Here it is stalking Makka Pakka:


There's no escaping Shunka Warak'in, not even on the Pinky Ponk:


If you do end up watching to the end of an episode, why not play a game with your child where you both guess who Shunka Warak'in will leave alive the longest, so it can toy with their body and fling their steaming string innards all over the Night Garden as the credits roll?

Read part 1 - Igglepiggle
Read part 2 - Makka Pakka and Upsy Daisy
Read part 3 - the Tombliboos
Read part 4 - the Ninky Nonk and the Pinky Ponk
Read part 5 - Jacobi's special list
Read part 6 - The Pontipines and the Wottingers