Competitions

A Note To Grown-ups

We have been together composing and performing since the early 90's and have worked professionally together in Children's TV for many years - in fact we have worked on more than 150 Children's TV Series between us.

We created and produced The Bopps TV show and we write, record and perform our own music.  We even manage our own affairs and we do these things to ensure that The Bopps remain what they should be - parents entertaining kids.

As parents ourselves we take a vocational pride in creating quality, safe and enjoyable entertainment for youngsters whilst doing our best to avoid recording songs that will drive grown-ups crazy.

Young or old we're thrilled to welcome you to the website and hope you have a lovely time looking around.

The Bopps
March 2010

The Tale of The Bopps

In a green and leafy park, beside a serene and rippling lake there is a tall tree and hidden among the branches of that tall tree there is a tree house called The Boppstop. It is home to The Bopps. One day they formed a group.

The four Bopps are:

Stan Bopp is a bit bossy and likes things to be just so. His favourite colour is blue.

Keith Bopp can be a bit clumsy and is very silly. His favourite colour is red.

Mike Bopp is always inventing things….which don’t work. His favourite colour is green.

Jo Bopp loves singing and dancing. Her favourite colour is pink.

The Bopps love to play their songs to children but had soon played to all of the local playgroups and schools. They needed to think of a way to find more children to play their music to.

Mike Bopp invented The Gloombuster. This special machine allows The Bopps to talk with children everywhere who like to listen and dance to music.  Soon The Bopps were travelling all over the country making new friends and inviting everyone to become a Bopper.
 
Over time their special tree house grew and grew until there was a large and comfortable den. Wooden steps inside the trunk of the tree take you to the Gloombuster.  Below the Gloombuster is a recording studio and then, at the very bottom of the tree is Mike Bopp’s inventing room and a door to the outside world……which is very well hidden.

The Real Bopps

Stan Cullimore

Vocals, guitar, ukulele, bass.

Stan enjoyed international success with The Housemartins from 1984 through to 89 and, in the process, held the cherished Christmas #1 spot with Caravan of Love.

It’s hard to think of a link from international pop stardom to running a wholefood shop but that’s what happened next.

This brief sojourn into retail was followed by a successful period writing numerous books and consulting on Children’s TV with CINAR and Entertainment Rights during the 1990s. In addition Stan wrote scripts for the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol.

It was late 1999/2000 when Stan and Keith Littler met on Merlin The Magical Puppy (an animated series for ITV) culminating in co-writing the Theme Song and the two have worked together since.

Stan, Mike and on occasion Keith have recorded several long running Nick Jnr songs at Little Entertainment’s studios: The Arnie/Barnie Wiggle Song and Jimmer/Jammers.

Outside of work Stan teaches ukulele (and occasionally maths) to kids, plays football and is a keen cyclist. He enjoys cleaning his teeth regularly between meals.

Keith Littler

Vocals, guitars, harmonica.

Keith played in bands until the late 80’s. He then went into radio composing advertising jingles and then into producing sport programmes. Keith formed Little Entertainment Group in 1990 to focus on Children’s TV.

He has created and produced several series for youngsters including Little Red Tractor (75 X 10 min episodes), Roman Mysteries (20 X 30 mins), Little Monsters for BBC (52 X 5 mins), Merlin the Magical Puppy (26 X 10mins) and Billy (26 X 10 mins) for ITV.

His interest in sport was maintained with producing and presenting motor sport on SKY SPORTS in the early part of this decade.

He has also worked on over 150 series through Little Entertainment including Watership Down, Magic Roundabout, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Lazytown and many Nickelodeon shows including Kai-Lan and The Backyardigans.

Outside of work Keith is a qualified football referee, and also a keen cyclist. Keith collects public footpaths and says he will soon need a bigger house.

 

Mike Cross

Drums, programming, keyboards.

Mike launched his career with an agricultural degree from Reading University and looking after a herd of 200+ cows.....a case of herd but not seen.  After a spell cleaning windows Mike landed his first studio job in the mid 80's and began his love affair with recording and composing that endures to this day.

Mike joined The Little Entertainment Group in 1990.  As well as Voice Directing numerous Children's animation series over the years he has recorded 6 albums with his band, Longstone, and has composed TV music scores for Natural History, documentary, drama and Children's.  In 2007 he becam a Director of The Little Music Company.

Outside of work Mike enjoys experimental music and has been known to cook a mean fish pie (the fish were quite evenly tempered - it was the pie that was mean).

Joanna Ruiz

Vocals and percussion.

Jo has always sung and was performing with bands from Britpop to backing Elvis impersonators.

Jo joined Little Entertainment as a freelance voice-over in 1991 and has built an enviable career as a specialist in character voices for Children’s TV.  Her credits include Lazytown, Horrid Henry, Fifi and The Flowertots (“Buttercup”), Clifford The Big Red Dog, Fireman Sam……..

Outside of work Jo teaches movement/dance to children up to 4yrs old in nursery schools around Cardiff, sings at every opportunity and wants it to be known that she is the youngest Bopp.

 
All four are married parents with 9 children and 2 grand-children among them and jointly share 75 years in Children’s TV/entertainment.