The Transporters

The Transporters is a 2006 children's television series produced by Catalyst Pictures Limited designed to help children with

aged between 2 and 8 years old recognise and understand emotions.

It was developed by the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge by a team led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and including Dr Ofer Golan.

The Transporters is based on the idea that children with

format.

Evaluation

A study^[1] published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that after watching the DVD for 15 minutes a day for four weeks, most children with ASC (autistic spectrum condition) caught up with typically developing children in their ability to recognise emotions on four different tasks.

The series

The Transporters

award.

The series features eight animated toy vehicles owned by a boy called Jamie. Each of them have an actual human face so that viewers learn to recognise real rather than cartoon expressions. All the expressions were verified by an independent panel before they were included in the series.

There are two versions of the DVD, with different accents and vocabulary. The North American version is voiced by Kerry Shale and the British English version is voiced by Stephen Fry.

The Transporters was originally commissioned by Culture Online, which was part of the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Characters

• Barney the Tractor
• Charlie the Tram
• Dan the Cable Car
• Jennie the Tram
• Nigel the Bus
• Oliver the Funicular
• Sally the Cable Car
• William the Ferry

Episodes with key emotions

1. "The Transporters' Happy Day"
2. "Sally's Sad Day"
3. "Nigel's Slow Day"
4. "Charlie Saves the Day"
5. "A Very Exciting Day"
6. "Jennie's Smelly Adventure"
7. "Barney's Special Day"
8. "William's Scrapyard Nightmare"
9. "Charlie's Missed School Run"
10. "Oliver the Kind Funicular"
11. "Slow Down, Nigel!"
12. "The Great Race"
13. "Why Can't I Be Somebody Else?"
14. "Playing Around"
15. "Jennie's Difficult Day"

Voice cast

• Stephen Fry as the Narrator (UK)
• Kerry Shale as the Narrator (USA)

See also

• The Space Place
• Normal People Scare Me

References