America has long been emotionally, practically and politically involved in the Northern Ireland peace process but not until now has it sent in a crack squad of its finest furriest puppets, the Muppets, to keep it on track.

Today, BBC2 Northern Ireland will air its first local version of Sesame Street , the world's most successful children's television show. But this is no wholesale American export. The usual cast of Cookie Monster and Grover will be joined by two new, Celtic companions: Potto, a mop-topped monster, and Hilda, a curious Irish hare, who says, "That's beezer!" and sprints around the countryside in search of answers to children's questions. And the show has been renamed Sesame Tree because, well, it's easier to have children hanging around a tree than decide if the street is in a Catholic or Protestant neighbourhood.