The Sea Urchin and the Queen Old Jack's Boat

HORN BLOWS

GULL SCREECHES

BEE BUZZES

(LAUGHS) Oh!

Good day to you.

# This is the place to be For Salty Dog and me

# Down by the harbour we'll be there

# Round every corner there's something to share

# Give us a cheer Our friends are here

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

Ha-ha, come on, Salty!

# This is the place to meet

# Down at the end of the street

# Seagulls flying up in the blue

# There's always a cup of tea waiting for you

# Out in the sun, heavens above Just Salty Dog and me

# Haul away, haul away Sing the song of the sea

# Hoist the sail, I'll tell you a tale of Salty Dog and me

# This is the place to go

# And these are the people we know

# The village is busy with things to see

# And there's the Rainbow down by the quay

# There's stories to tell, join us as well, just Salty Dog and me. #

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

GULLS SCREECH

BELL RINGS

-MOBILE PHONE RINGS

-Oh!

Hello, Emily.

Yes, I'm at the stall. I've done all my chores

and I shall keep an eye on things until you get back. Bye!

You're on the move today, Miss Bowline-Hitch.

Yes, Jack! You know me, busy-busy!

You need a break once in a while.

That is exactly what I am doing!

I'm keeping an eye on Emily's stall this morning.

That is perfect! You can take a breather and have a sit-down.

I know what you can do, you can do a bit of bird watching.

Oh, no time for bird watching.

Nonsense! You need to relax. Come here a minute.

Have a seat. There you are.

Oh...too hard.

Right. Well, how about that? There, look at that.

Oh...too squishy.

Oh, well, what about a deckchair, then?

Oh, far too complicated!

I never sit down unless it's on my bike. Never!

I'm not that sort of person. I'm far too busy-busy.

I see. We should be getting busy-busy too. Eh, Salty?

Yeah, I've got a lot of ropes that need coiling over on the Rainbow.

Right, so I'll...I'll see you later, Miss Bowline-Hitch.

Try and relax!

-No time, Jack! Bye!

-Bye!

There she is!

The Rainbow!

What have you got for us today, me dear?

-WHISTLE

-(HE LAUGHS)

Come on, Salty. (HE HUMS)

Here we are.

WHISTLE

All right? Yeah, you look comfy there, Salty. Yeah.

Miss Bowline-Hitch didn't look like she'd be comfy

on any of those seats I offered her.

Here, do you remember the time we met the Seaweed Queen?

She could never get comfy, could she? (HE LAUGHS)

I'll do that later, all right?

Yes, I'll just see if I can remember that story.

I think I'll get comfy, too. There we are.

Are you comfy? Good.

Well, once upon a twinkly time, we set off from Staithes,

waved goodbye to Whitby, and disappeared over the horizon.

And as we sailed, we sang.

# Just Salty Dog and me

# On the briny, shiny sea

# There's many odd jobs We know we should do

# But the sun's in the sky And the sky is so blue

# So we'll stay at our ease And do what we please

-# Just Salty Dog and me. #

-WHISTLE

Yeah, we were just getting really relaxed,

when suddenly, "Ouch!"

A beautiful crown flew out of the water

and fell back down with a splash.

"Fetch my crown," came an angry voice.

Salty looked at me and I looked at Salty.

Something was going on under the waves

and we thought we'd better find out.

Well, as soon as we got under the water,

we saw lots of fish rushing here and there in a great panic.

And it wasn't long before we heard another, "Ouch!!"

And again the crown went whizzing past

followed by a cushion. Oops! Whoa!

Eventually, we came to a pair of enormous golden gates

and a large grim codfish with cotton wool in his ears

was standing beside the gate on guard.

Salty and I explained that we were interested in going inside the gates

to see what was going on.

"In there?" said the guard. "It's just noise and shouting.

"That's why we have cotton wool in our ears.

"You can go in if you like, but you'll only get shouted at. Ouch!",

just as another cushion went flying past.

Well, inside the gates was a beautiful underwater garden.

An old gardener fish was raking up seashells nearby.

We heard another shout from the other end of the garden.

"Ouch! This is no good!"

Well, the old gardener ducked as the crown flew past again.

We asked him what was going on and he looked at us sadly.

"It's the Queen of Seaweed, she loves her garden and she likes

"to sit on her throne and gaze out at all the beautiful plants."

Well, Salty and I thought she sounded nice.

"Oh, she's not," said the gardener quietly. "She's a stinker."

"She's rude and tells everyone off.

"And no-one knows why she throws cushions all day.

"Every time she sits down her crown flies off the top of her head."

Well, this was very peculiar.

And Salty and I, we decided that we had better go and see

the Queen of Seaweed right away.

So we walked over, ducking the odd flying cushion as we did so.

Well, finally we arrived at a large and very elegant golden throne.

"Try another cushion!" It was the Queen of Seaweed.

She was very serious looking with seaweedy hair,

a long flowing dress and she was wearing the crown.

And beside her was a rather sad little fish carrying a cushion.

"Put it on the throne!" she ordered. "And this time it had better work!"

Well, the sad little fish did so.

Then the Queen sat down... rather gingerly on the throne.

"Ouch!" she shouted.

And the crown shot off into the air.

Two soldier fish appeared and raced after it.

"Not again!" shouted the seaweed queen hurling the cushion.

Then she saw us standing there watching her with open mouths.

"What are you staring at?! Go away!" barked the Queen.

Well, I bowed low and said, "Ma'am, we heard your shouts

"and we thought we might be able to help find out what the problem is."

"I know what the problem is!" snapped the Queen. "It's that!!"

The Queen was pointing at a spiky little creature.

It was a tiny sea urchin

which was sitting quietly in the middle of her throne,

right where the Queen wanted to place the royal bottom.

"It's a nasty, prickly, spiky thing

"and I can't sit down on my throne because of it."

"Every time I do it hurts and my crown goes flying in the air."

"I've tried putting cushions on it,

"but I can still feel those pointy little spikes!"

Sad little fish with the cushion said in a quiet voice,

"We've tried to move it,

"but it's so spiky that none of us can pick it up."

The sea urchin blinked and stared at us.

I scratched my beard. Now, here was a pretty problem.

And then for the first time the sea urchin spoke.

"Ask her to say please," it said in a tiny voice.

The Queen looked like thunder.

In all of her born days,

she had never, ever, ever had to say please!

She was a queen, queens didn't say please!

"Well, perhaps that's the problem, Your Majesty," I suggested.

All the fish that work for you are unhappy

because you shout all the time.

Maybe if you were a little bit nicer...

Well, I thought the Queen was going to explode.

But instead...she took a careful look around her garden

and she saw the sad faces of all her fish with cotton wool in their ears

from all the shouting.

And she wondered if maybe, just maybe,

she could try being a little bit more polite.

So after a deep breath,

she bent down and said in her best and most polite voice...

"Mr Sea Urchin, could you move somewhere else?"

"Please."

It was the first time the fish of the seaweed queen's garden

had heard her say please.

And do you know what? It worked!

"Of course," said the sea urchin.

And he rolled off the throne.

"Thank you," said a rather surprised Queen.

And she looked out at all her fishy gardeners and guards and said,

"Erm... thank you...everybody! Hmm!"

And with that, she sat down on her throne.

There was no shouting, no cushion throwing,

no crowns whizzing through the air,

just the quiet sounds of a beautiful undersea garden.

The seaweed queen sighed a happy sigh

and decided there and then to always say please and thank you,

because it obviously worked wonders.

And she gave the sea urchin a special medal

which he proudly wore on one of his spikes for ever after.

Wasn't that nice of her? (HE CHUCKLES)

WHISTLE

You like that story, Salty? Yeah?

All true, of course.

Mind you, my stories always are. (HE LAUGHS)

(HE SIGHS)

I wonder if Miss Bowline-Hitch found time to relax

and do a bit of bird watching, eh?

(HE CHUCKLES)

-Well, I never!

-(SHE SNORES SOFTLY)

Well...

Come on, Salty.

(HE HUMS)

-Hello there, Miss Bowline-Hitch.

-Oh!

-Ah! Jack!

-Yeah. Having a quick snooze?

Never! I was just resting my eyes.

Oh, yes(!)

I was doing...a bit of... bird watching.

-Yes, that's it.

-Yeah(!)

-Have you seen any yet? (HE LAUGHS)

-No, I've not.

GULL SCREECHES

-Oh.

-(HE CHUCKLES)

-Well, perhaps I dropped off briefly.

-Yes.

The deckchair was more comfy than I realised.

I think you deserve a break. Everybody deserves a break.

Oh, thank you, Jack.

You won't tell anyone. I don't want people thinking I'm not busy-busy.

No, no, I won't tell. See you soon. (HE CHUCKLES)

Bye, Jack. Bye, Salty.

GULL SCREECHES

(SHE SIGHS) Seagulls!

Well, Salty, that's it for today.

We'll see all our friends again next time.

Oh, and we'll see you next time as well.

Bye-bye.

Come on, girl.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd