Michel Manini, director of the French children's program "Bonne Nuit Les Petits", dies at 86

Michel Manini, the director of "Bonne nuit les petits" ("Goodnight, Little Ones"), one of the most famous children's programs on French television, passed away on Sunday at the age of 86, as announced by his family to AFP on Monday. 

Manini passed away in the city of Arcachon in southwestern France. He directed hundreds of episodes of the program, which was created by Claude Laydu and his wife Christine in the early 1960s.

"Bonne nuit les petits" ("Goodnight, Little Ones") left a lasting impact on generations of viewers in France and around the world, becoming a part of French popular culture.

The episodes of the program started in black and white and later transitioned to color. It was initially broadcast on the public ORTF network between 1962 and 1973, then on the private TF1 channel in a new version in 1976, and finally on the public France 2 channel in its last version between 1995 and 1997.

The melodies of the flute played during the program's episodes, featuring puppet characters like the "Sandman" and his assistant "Nounours" (the teddy bear), who would descend from the clouds each night before bedtime to visit the children Nicolas and Pimprenelle, became embedded in the memories of generations of French speakers worldwide.

In an interview with the newspaper "Ouest France" in 2016, Manini spoke about the challenges of producing the program.

He said, "At the beginning, we had to record the actors' voices. Then we filmed using the 'playback' technique for the voices. The cameras were suspended at a height of 1.7 meters, because the puppeteers were standing and moving the characters with their hand gestures."



AFP