Wales's own challengers to the Teletubbies and the Tweenies, the Bobinogs, put in a guest appearance at Tenby Infants School last week.

The Bobinogs, BBC Wales's first venture into English language programming specifically aimed at pre-school children, made their debut on BBC2 Wales last Thursday morning, but pupils at the school got a chance to meet Nib, Bobin and Ogi, in the flesh, with a special all-singing, all-dancing live stage show on Thursday afternoon.

The Bobinogs are five-year-old Owen's favourite toys and live in a bobble hat in his bedroom. However, when he leaves the room they spring to life to discover the ways of the real world.

The 10-part programme, a blend of live action and animation by Siriol - the Cardiff based animation specialists behind Sali Mali and Super Ted - tackles everyday problems that children aged between three and five are likely to encounter, like why it is important to share with friends and to wear the right sort of clothes for different weather conditions.

Nib, Bobin and Ogi encounter parallel problems to those the children may encounter, but by looking through their Bobinoculars at clips of real-life scenarios filmed at nursery schools throughout Wales, they come up with the answers, and, as all three Bobinogs are members of a band, reinforce the message with a song.

The 15-minute long programmes are the brainchild of BBC Wales Education and Learning and cover the National Assembly's foundation curriculum through entertaining children.

BBC Wales's head of education and learning, Eleri Wyn Lewis, said: "Children live in a make believe world much of the time and the idea with Bobinogs is to use fantasy friends like Nib, Bobin and Ogi in an entertaining way to teach children all the basics they need when starting school, like social skills, being friends, sharing and going to the toilet.

"The idea is the children learn without realising it."

The visit to Tenby was part of a week-long tour of schools by the live stage show, which also included visits to Rhyl and Newport.

"The idea is to introduce the characters with an hour-long stage show and get as close as we can to gauge their response, which has been very positive," explained Eleri.

The Bobinogs can be seen on BBC2 Wales at 10.50 am every Thursday, with a video release planned in the near future.

A Welsh language version is also being planned and more information can be found on their website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/bobinogs">www.bbc.co.uk/bobinogs