London, UK – 22 September 2008 – Downtrodden Cinderella, who flourished into a fairytale princess, has captured the hearts of the nation and been crowned Britain’s favourite heroine in a survey of the best-loved Heroes and Villains from children’s literature, by popular UK preschool TV channel Nick Jr.The timeless character who enchanted Prince Charming won 15% of the votes for the best literary Heroes, narrowly pipping modern day favourite Max from Rosemary Wells’ books Max & Ruby to the top spot. The adventurous bunny rabbit, renowned for driving his older sister up the wall with his mischievous behaviour, secured 13% of the online vote by over 1000 users of Nick Jr’s website, www.nickjr.co.uk. Surprisingly, school boy wizard and recent children’s favourite Harry Potter just scraped into the Heroes poll with 3% of the overall vote.The Villains survey revealed that Britain favours old dastardly scoundrels as Peter Pan’s arch enemy Captain Hook (13%) stole the crown, banishing Dorothy’s nemesis, the Wicked Witch of the West (11%), into second place.The hook-wielding pirate also beat Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters who could only rank joint eighth alongside the Gruffalo with 8% of the votes. The Gruffalo secured the highest spot in the Villains poll for a modern day character. The book, originally published in 1999, features a mouse who stumbles across the legendary bear-like creature in the woods.Nearly 1,300 people voted in Nick Jr’s online Heroes and Villains poll which was commissioned by Nick Jr to help celebrate Once Upon A Bedtime month in November, which will feature the winners of its Once Upon A Bedtime story writing competition. Nick Jr has dedicated the month to bedtime programming with an aim to make reading part of every child’s nightly routine, in support of the 2008 National Year of Reading.Actress Charlie Brooks, who will soon be reprising her role as Janine Butcher in EastEnders, firmly believes in the importance of reading to children at bedtime. She says:“I love spending the last few moments of the day reading to my daughter Kiki before she goes to sleep. Her favourites are Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and any Dora the Explorer books! We also make stories up together – it really fuels her imagination.”Howard Litton, Managing Director of Nickelodeon UK, says “Nick Jr’s Heroes and Villains poll received a fantastic number of entries and it is fascinating to see that classic story characters such as Cinderella and Captain Hook have stood the test of time and are still just as popular with today’s children as more modern creations. Their enduring popularity proves that these stories are still being passed on from generation to generation and are very much alive in the 21st century.”
