Frank Skinner - Russell the Sheep CBeebies Bedtime Stories

Hello, my name's Frank. What do you do before bed?

Do you have a bath or a glass of goat's milk?

Well, Russell in tonight's story could do with some ideas to

help him nod off for the night.

The story's called Russell The Sheep. And it's by Rob Scotton.

Russell the Sheep lived in Frog's Bottom Field.

At the end of a long, busy day,

night fell and the sheep got ready for bed.

BAA

Soon, all was quiet.

Except for...Russell.

No matter how hard he tried, Russell could not fall asleep.

"Maybe if it were really dark," he thought, "I'd be able to sleep."

But the really dark really scared him.

"Perhaps I'm too hot," he thought.

"Brrr! Perhaps I'm not."

Russell pulled up a pillow.

But the pillow hopped away!

Hopping mad.

"Maybe I need a better place to sleep," he decided,

and went for a walk.

Russell spied the boot of the rusty car.

It was too cramped.

He tried the hollow of a tree.

CREEPY CHATTERING

That was too creepy.

Russell even tried sleeping on a branch.

But it was too crowded.

OWLS HOOT

What's a sheep to do?

Russell thought he would never get to sleep,

but then he had a brilliant idea.

What if he tried to count things?

That would make him fall asleep.

Russell counted his feet.

One, two, three, four.

Not tired.

"Mm, I guess I need more feet," he decided.

What next? The stars!

Russell counted each and every one. One, two, three, four, five...

..600 million billion and ten.

And Russell was wide awake.

He counted them again.

Um, 600 million billion and ten. And still wide awake!

Russell thought very hard.

In fact, he thought so hard his hat went ziggy zaggy.

"I know," he shouted, "I'll count sheep."

One, two,

three, four,

five, six,

seven, eight,

nine.

"Still awake," he said. And sighed.

Then Russell realised he had forgotten to count one very

important little sheep - himself.

Ten.

Russell felt a tickle and a twitch and then...

..sound asleep.

RUSSELL SNORES

By now it was morning and all the other sheep in the field

began getting ready for the new day.

Soon, everyone was up.

Everyone, that is, except for Russell.

RUSSELL SNORES

That story was called Russell The Sheep.

What a great trick Russell discovered to help him get to sleep!

But it's a shame it took him all night to find it.

I hope the rest of the sheep let him enjoy a lie in.

Now it's time for you to go to bed.

Perhaps you can try counting sheep to get to sleep,

just like Russell did.

I hope you have sweet dreams.

See you again soon.

SNORING