In defence of Peppa Pig
A Bank Holiday bonus article by my wife Helena, written for The Telegraph
Congratulations to Mummy & Daddy Pig, Peppa and George on the safe arrival of Evie! Not ‘Eve’ for the birth certificate/passport/Granny Pig and ‘Evie’ for every day, but named after Mummy Pig’s Aunt Evie, as all Peppa Pig fans will know. As Mummy Pig only announced the pregnancy on 27 February, this formerly third-time mother wonders how on earth she kept it under wraps (literally) until the 6th month. Oh wait, she’s a pig… *Googles pig gestation period* - 115 days - remarkably specific, or 'three months, 3 weeks and three days' (sounds even odder), according to AI and more reassuringly, porkcheckoff.org.
It seems the accuracy stops with the gestation period however. Farmers have criticised the new arrival’s depiction for being an unrealistic portrayal of porcine birth, pointing out that pigs typically deliver farrows (pig litters) of eight to twelve, not individual piglets. You don’t say. A pig farmer from Scotland also complained on a radio phone-in that after birth, piglets immediately get up and walk to start feeding from their mother. So they aren’t usually swaddled in arms (pigs in blankets…?) to be presented to an adoring world (possibly on the steps of the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Paddington, like our future king and siblings)? We never realised.
This is ridiculous - to state the blindingly obvious, Peppa Pig is a children’s cartoon. No one, I hope, has previously complained that pigs don’t live in tall, narrow houses atop bizarrely tall narrow hills with a swing in the garden; go to school, the dentist, the recycling centre (that episode was rather worthy) or English Heritage-inspired castles (brilliantly funny); nor that they don’t shop at a supermarket run by a rabbit nor, thankfully, drop their car keys down a drain (traumatising).
Possibly more outrageously, according to some, Mummy and Daddy Pig failed to support the NHS (now that we’re no longer meant to be protecting it, presumably) by daring to have the baby at the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, London, like our splendid future queen. Given recent reports into the postcode lottery of maternity care, including my niece Theo Clarke’s brilliant Parliamentary report, podcast and book on the subject (called Breaking the Taboo, since you asked, available from all good bookshops), perhaps Mummy Pig decided to go private on this occasion. Is the NHS not good enough for them? Capitalist pigs.
How typical that controversy arises once the series dares to introduce maternity. Will we see Peppa and George helping by bottle-feeding their baby sister? Cue outcry over whether Mummy Pig even attempted to breast-feed. Presumably followed by farmers explaining that pigs usually suckle their young, actually.
Have there been complaints that they shouldn’t have had a third child/piglet at all, given the effects of overpopulation on the poor old Earth? Au contraire. As The Telegraph has recently starkly explained, if the western world doesn’t boost its birthrate pronto, we face a demographic catastrophe, as we fail to produce enough workers to support economically and to care for a ballooning elderly population, plus the ensuing headache for incumbent political parties when they inevitably seek to replace the missing workforce through immigration.
So let’s hope Mummy and Daddy Pig go on to have more children. A large number is easier than it sounds, as the children entertain and supervise each other as they grow (some of ours may even learn to drive one day). The more the merrier! Perhaps it's time to introduce Nanny Pig?
The series is a jolly send-up of nuclear family life, with sometimes subtle humour that adults can enjoy with their children.
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Helena needs to write more about Peppa Pig! An excellent and very funny piece.
I do enjoy all the articles you publish.
Most amusing ,Thankyou I did read it in the Telegraph.Book wise I much prefer your sister in Laws ',"Chocolate cake with Hitler" and her time line series,especially the one on the Kennedy assassination.