Mayo company produces ground-breaking series for RTÉ

Mayo television production company GMarsh TV have just produced a ground-breaking new children’s series for RTÉ.

Directed by Julian Hills and Ballina native Paula Rouse, the series helps young children identify and regulate their emotions in a fun and light-hearted way.

The brain child of Gillian Marsh of GMarsh TV, Bellie and Whizz ‘Minding Me’ features lovable forest puppets, Bellie the Badger and Whizz the Hare, who through a series of scenarios bring awareness to twelve key emotions: Anger, Disgust, Jealousy, Shyness, Surprise, Fear, Guilt, Sadness, Embarrassment, Anxiety, Grumpy and Love.

Featuring real children, Bellie and Whizz then learn to identify and manage these emotions through creativity and play and mindful breathing.

The breathwork featured in each episode was developed by breathwork consultant Derval Dunford of Suí Mindfulness.

Westport-based breathwork and mindfulness expert Derval Dunford (www.sui.ie) has worked with over 10,000 school teachers and produced Ireland’s first mindfulness CDs for adults and also for children. She presently works with US psychiatrists Gerbarg and Brown teaching trauma-informed breathwork teachers.

The design of each eight-minute episode makes it a perfect cross-curricular lesson, including SPHE, SESE and creativity. Each episode is also a fun, uplifting and informative life lesson for home use, with each episode focusing on a different emotion.

Filmed in Telegael Studios, Galway, the forest set was one of the largest ever constructed for puppet show in Ireland and featured Galway puppeteer Gráinne Bleasdale.

Based in Mayo, set builder and designer Tommy Casby spent months crafting his creative vision for the forest which was brought to life by his experienced team based in Claremorris.

From script to screen, this was truly a west of Ireland affair with camera, sound, props, music and script all hailing from Mayo and Galway.