A girl, a ball of white fluff, and the big feelings of being six.
By the harbour at Brancaster Staithe, six-year-old Molly, her round white Pomeranian Mallow, and the gang work through the big feelings of growing up. Each one meets the tide, a wild animal and a song.
Season 1 · 23 × 11′ episodes
22′ Christmas special
A song in every episode
The promise
Calm, nature, comedy.
01
Calm
One thing happens at a time. Shots hold, the real coast plays underneath, and every episode ends in stillness. Children come away settled, and readier to talk.
02
Nature
Seals on the far sandbank, geese coming in at dusk, shy shore crabs. The animals stay real and wild. Molly says what she thinks they feel, always from a respectful distance.
03
Comedy
Mallow wants everything at once: the ball, the crab, the sausage, Molly’s lap. He tumbles in, and a quiet afternoon turns into a chase.
The lead duo
Molly, 6
Thoughtful, careful, and brave inside the rules. In yellow wellies and an oversized knitted scarf, Molly notices feelings and hums her way through them. The song in each episode is her working the feeling out. She has her own walking loop along the boardwalk, with Grandad’s gate always in sight.
Mallow
A pure-white Pomeranian who looks like a round, rolling ball of fluff, named after the marsh mallow that grows wild on the salt marsh. He is afraid of nothing except the hoover and seagulls. He never speaks. His ears and tail do the talking.
The gang
Five children, one upturned boat.
Three live at the Staithe and two come up for the holidays, so every child watching finds the one they are most like. Their den is an upturned boat on the harbour hard.
The heart
Molly, 6
Notices feelings and hums her way through them. Careful, and brave inside the rules.
The little one
Billy, about 4
Copies everyone, takes words literally and says exactly what he thinks. He is never the butt of the joke.
The maker
Yusuf, 6
Builds boats and kites, and asks how things work.
The bold one
Aisha, 6
“Let’s go!” Sporty, and wants to be captain.
The funny one
Oliver, 6
Always hungry, clumsy and big-hearted. A bit scared of crabs.
Brancaster Staithe, where the harbour meets the sea
A harbour village on the North Norfolk coast. Seaside, never countryside. Dinghies and a blue crab boat ride in the tidal creek, there are lobster pots on the jetty, and the boardwalk runs out over the salt marsh to the dunes and the open North Sea. The tide is the clock every story runs on.
On Christmas Eve, rare snow falls on the Staithe. At dusk, from the snowy boardwalk, Molly, Grandad and Mallow hear a lone grey-seal pup crying across an icy channel. Its mother is out at sea. They do not cross. They keep watch by the light of Grandad’s storm lantern, Grandad rings the seal warden, and Molly sings softly across the water. When the tide turns, the mother comes back. Then home: the fireside, cocoa, and Mallow asleep in a white puff.
The songs
Sing with Molly & Mallow.
Upbeat folk songs, just the two of them: old favourites by the sea, songs for every day, and songs about the big feelings.
The series tells the story. In Outloud English, children talk back. The song a child loves becomes one they sing to Molly, and she listens and replies.