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‘Honestly, it was one of the longest discussions that we had,’ says Julie Wilson Nimmo when I ask, apoplectic, about the decision to ditch her character Miss Hoolie’s iconic bob flip.
The groovy hairstyle has uncharitably been dubbed a ‘lampshade’ look, but to me, it was an iconic part of the Balamory topography. One that permeated my childhood brain so much that my hair now looks a bit like it.
Tuning in to the grand return of those gorgeous painted houses on CBeebies, it was the first thing I noticed had changed. Gone is the flick. Instead, Miss Hoolie now has more modern, beachy waves.
Nimmo admits to Metro that the Hoolie hair ‘went on and had a little life of its own’. She couches what she says next with the admission that ‘this will get quoted’, which is indeed what’s happening.
‘I think she would be a bit of a weirdorama if she had the same hair after 20 years. Hoolie has to move with the times, doesn’t she?’
The hair also brings in a wider point about the return of this cherished children’s show: its cast has aged and ‘moved with the times’ in the years since, so their characters should have too.
Nimmo adds: ‘We all don’t look exactly the same, and that’s something to be celebrated, especially for the female cast members.
‘We’re proud to be up there and be the age that we are and Hoolie deserves a new hairdo.’ I want to whoop or something, but manage to restrain myself.
‘Just because she stays on that island, doesn’t mean she doesn’t read Vogue now and again. She likes a bit of Grazia,’ she adds, explaining the decision to ditch those Hoolie headbands too.
It’s coming at such a lovely time. Community is at the forefront, and we need to start caring about each other.
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‘I think if we all stayed exactly looking the same, then we would all have been recast. I think [Hoolie] would be recast as a 25-year-old. The hair has to match the fact that time’s moved on. We would be getting into Baby Jane territory if she didn’t.’
The hair is by the by, because if you listen to Miss Hoolie in the nursery or PC Plum (robbed of a rank bump since we last saw him) popping in for a cuppa, you will feel whatever age you were when you first visited that coastal town via your TV. It’s like no time has passed at all.
Each episode of the new 10-part series asks that query of the opening credits: What’s the story in Balamory? The hope is that a whole new generation of children will want to answer it, perhaps the offspring of the first show’s fanbase.
Were Miss Hoolie and PC Plum ever an item?
‘There’s always that secret love between Hoolie and Plum isn’t there?’ jokes the PC star Andrew Agnew. At this point in our chat, my heart soars.
The niche corner of the Balamory fandom – let’s call ourselves Ploolie-heads – will know, there was always something-something between the copper and the nursery teacher.
The actors chalk it up to a season two episode where PC Plum took Miss Hoolie out sailing. ‘PC Plum had a yacht. Of course he did,’ jokes Agnew.
‘It became a bit romantic and I think that’s where it started. But I think that was more to do with the situation. We were on a boat. It was lovely. We had a cup of tea and a little cheers, and I still remember it.
‘I think from there, that’s when people then started going, “Oh, I think there’s maybe something going on”. But it was never, ever written into any scripts or anything.’
Nimmo is similarly light-hearted about the whole thing. ‘It’s a wee something for the parents to get a laugh out of,’ she says.
This idyll of community first aired in 2002, as a shoestring production that was filmed in a whirlwind. It was cancelled just three years later. But Balamory went on to have an outsized afterlife thanks to reruns on CBeebies.
The show was huge. When I speak to the cast, each of them has a tale of being mobbed by tots demanding a selfie, everywhere from Disneyland to the Aussie outback, often recognised by their voices alone.
In more recent years, it’s the odd hen night down the pub who can pick out PC Plum having a pint. Even ahead of this reboot, they’re still being recognised several times a week.
With that sort of fanbase, it’s astonishing to think the BBC ever cancelled the show. But Andrew Agnew (who plays the bumbling PC) doesn’t think this reboot would have come without the swing of the axe back then.
‘I think they would have maybe run it down as much as they possibly can and people maybe wouldn’t have been interested 23 years later,’ he says.
‘Whereas now we’re getting to do maybe what we could have done 23 years ago, slightly later on in life.’
The Scottish utopia is still filmed in Tobermory, which Balamory put on the proverbial map. Agnew likens it to another character in the show. The cast say the brightly coloured houses were still the same hue when they returned.
Other things have changed. Edie McCredie (Juliet Cadzow) has traded in her yellow school bus for a boat, so expect more seafaring in that harbour full of dolphins.
There are new additions to the cast, because not everyone is back (sorry Archie or Spencer fans). Those missing Suzie Sweet will find a lovely Easter egg tribute to the late Mary Riggans, via shop pal Penny Pocket’s new red attire, says Kim Tserkezie.
There’s that ‘little magical element’ to being back in Balamory, which all the cast refer to. It’s still a diverse, picturesque dream of painted houses and community. Who wouldn’t want to live in this Scottish utopia?
It might be a 20-minute children’s show, but the chief themes of friendship and cooperation feel incredibly prescient. This topic is what gets Nimmo the most fired up (of course, she plays Miss Hoolie, so the baseline is already thrillingly high).
‘We don’t want to get political, because it’s a kids’ show,’ she says. ‘But I think it’s coming at such a lovely time. Community is at the forefront, and we need to start caring about each other.
‘We need to be pals with our neighbours, even the annoying ones, and just reach out to each other and come together. More than ever. I sound like a Catholic, but I’m not,’ she laughs.
The new series of Balamory airs on CBeebies from Monday, April 20 at 5pm, with all 10 episodes available on BBC iPlayer on the same day.
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