anne wood reveals the surprising inspiration behind the characters. it aired in 97. but we first had the idea in 911, �*95. this time we were invited by anna hume at the bbc to submit an idea. anna had decided to let the flagship preschool programme playdates go in and replace it with another show. it was controversial to actually consider making program for two and three year olds. at the time, there was a big increase in new technologies. i mean, a small child of two or three would not be surprised if the toy train in the corner spoke to it. so i decided that they would be technological babies. the teletubbies were influenced by the fact that andrew davenport, who was a brilliant writer and i went to new york