2D animated preschool series · Ages 3–7
By the harbour at Brancaster Staithe, six-year-old Molly, her round white Pomeranian Mallow, and the gang work through the big feelings of growing up. Each one meets the tide, a wild animal and a song.
The promise
01
One thing happens at a time. Shots hold, the real coast plays underneath, and every episode ends in stillness. Children come away settled, and readier to talk.
02
Seals on the far sandbank, geese coming in at dusk, shy shore crabs. The animals stay real and wild. Molly says what she thinks they feel, always from a respectful distance.
03
Mallow wants everything at once: the ball, the crab, the sausage, Molly’s lap. He tumbles in, and a quiet afternoon turns into a chase.
Thoughtful, careful, and brave inside the rules. In yellow wellies and an oversized knitted scarf, Molly notices feelings and hums her way through them. The song in each episode is her working the feeling out. She has her own walking loop along the boardwalk, with Grandad’s gate always in sight.
A pure-white Pomeranian who looks like a round, rolling ball of fluff, named after the marsh mallow that grows wild on the salt marsh. He is afraid of nothing except the hoover and seagulls. He never speaks. His ears and tail do the talking.
The gang
Three live at the Staithe and two come up for the holidays, so every child watching finds the one they are most like. Their den is an upturned boat on the harbour hard.
The heart
Notices feelings and hums her way through them. Careful, and brave inside the rules.
The little one
Copies everyone, takes words literally and says exactly what he thinks. He is never the butt of the joke.
The maker
Builds boats and kites, and asks how things work.
The bold one
“Let’s go!” Sporty, and wants to be captain.
The funny one
Always hungry, clumsy and big-hearted. A bit scared of crabs.
The setting
A harbour village on the North Norfolk coast. Seaside, never countryside. Dinghies and a blue crab boat ride in the tidal creek, there are lobster pots on the jetty, and the boardwalk runs out over the salt marsh to the dunes and the open North Sea. The tide is the clock every story runs on.
The Christmas special · 22′
On Christmas Eve, rare snow falls on the Staithe. At dusk, from the snowy boardwalk, Molly, Grandad and Mallow hear a lone grey-seal pup crying across an icy channel. Its mother is out at sea. They do not cross. They keep watch by the light of Grandad’s storm lantern, Grandad rings the seal warden, and Molly sings softly across the water. When the tide turns, the mother comes back. Then home: the fireside, cocoa, and Mallow asleep in a white puff.
The YouTube songs
Our own upbeat songs on YouTube, about just the two of them: songs to join in with, songs for every day, and songs about the big feelings. They are separate from the series, where every episode has a song of its own.
Beyond the screen
The series tells the story. In Outloud English, children talk back. The song a child loves becomes one they sing to Molly, and she listens and replies.