A BBC children's television series, particularly aimed at babies and toddlers. Unlike most television programmes aimed at toddlers, In The Night Garden is not primarily intended to be educational. Instead, it is intended to help children relax, and achieve calming relationships with parents. Producer Anne Wood stated "We became very aware of the anxiety surrounding the care of young children which manifested itself in all kind of directions – but the one big subject that came up again and again was bedtime. It's the classic time for tension between children who want to stay up and parents who want them to go to bed... so this is a programme about calming things down whereas most children's TV is about gee-ing everything up!"

The programme features a large cast of colourful characters with unusual names who live in "the garden", an area of sparsely wooded grassland scattered with large daisies and brightly-coloured balls of flowers. The characters mostly speak short, repetitive phrases in an invented language. The repetition of sound associated with the characters builds up familiarity amongst the target audience. The garden is a perpetually sunny, colourful environment reminiscent of a dream world. 

Each episode starts with a child in bed (a different child appears in each episode), while the narrator introduces the episode. The scene cuts to Igglepiggle, in his boat, travelling to the Night Garden. The episodes end with one character receiving a bedtime story, which is generated by the "Magic Roundabout" style gazebo that sits at the centre of the Night Garden. This story is a summary of the plot of the episode. Sometimes the characters all sing and dance together under the gazebo.