Andrew Davenport (born 10 June 1965) is an English writer, puppeteer, producer, composer, and actor, specialising in creating television, music, and books for young children.
[9] Davenport references child developmental science in the creation of his shows[9][10][12] and has described his process as to "engage minds and feed imaginations with the unfailing power of characters and worlds forged with kindness and playfulness".
He went to Hayes School where, at the age of 13, Davenport was inspired by Sir Jonathan Miller's TV series "The Body in Question" to be the first in his family to go to university, and to look for a subject that combined arts and sciences.
[12] His dance performance in Mehdi Norowzian's short film Joy inspired the award-winning Guinness "Anticipation" advert, and became the subject of a landmark high court ruling in 1998.
[26] While he was writing for Tots TV, Davenport discussed with Anne Wood the viability of a show for a younger audience that was based on developmental rather than educational rationale.
[12] Davenport had been working on an idea for a set of characters based on spacemen, having noticed the toddler-like proportions and antics of astronauts in footage of the Moon landings.
Wood's invitation gave Davenport opportunity to draw heavily on the studies and theories of child development and language acquisition he was introduced to at UCL.
[27] In an interview with UCL's Alumnus magazine, Davenport said "There was a tendency for makers of children's TV to come from a teaching background, and the accepted form often involved a presenter/teacher leading a group of puppets/children in learning things.
"[12] Despite initial negative critical reception, and rigorous scrutiny by developmental experts, Teletubbies went on to be one of the most popular and iconic shows in history, pioneering programming for pre-school children, winning 17 industry awards and broadcast in over 120 countries,[10][1][7] being translated into 45 languages.
[26] In September 2013, WildBrain acquired all rights to Teletubbies through its purchase of Ragdoll Worldwide, adding new characters and combining Davenport's original scripts with new writing.
He draws heavily on the studies and theories of child development and language acquisition he was introduced to in his Speech Science degree at UCL.
based on the series' theme song, which reached number 1 in the UK singles chart in December 1997 and remained in the Top 75 for 32 weeks, selling over a million copies.
[36][37][38] His music has been performed by Michael Bublé (Davenport's "Silly Song" from Moon and Me)[17][18][31][6] and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (In the Night Garden theme at the Royal Festival Hall).