New Big And Small Series Airs On CBeebies

BRANDORA Editorial Staff - September 2011

 
Hit preschool property returns to our screens with a big bang

Kindle Entertainment, the BAFTA award-winning independent production company, announces that a third series of the RTS award-winning preschool favourite, Big and Small, is due to start airing on CBeebies on Monday 12th September at 4.20pm daily. Kay Benbow, Controller of CBeebies said “The brand new episodes of Big and Small are as warm and witty as ever, and will delight CBeebies fans and new viewers alike”.

Big and Small was co-produced with Belfast-based Sixteen South Television, whose award-winning productions Sesame Tree and Big City Park are both screened on CBeebies. The production has received funding from Northern Ireland Screen and will be distributed by Studio100 Media.

The original creative team behind the show returned for the new series, including head writer Kathy Waugh (Arthur, Peep and the Big Wide World, Judy Moody) and Canadian puppet masters Jason Hopley and Todd Doldersum. There are a whole raft of new Big and Small adventures set in their house and garden including an episode where they set sail in Big‟s boat and another where they climb aboard a rocket for the moon. As with the first two series, the 26 new episodes each feature a brand new catchy song, based around a different genre of music.

The new episodes will once again feature the vocal talents of Lenny Henry who brings great warmth and comedy to both characters - “I am chuffed to be doing the voices; Big and Small is an amazing show which successfully combines humour and great entertainment. It‟s a real hoot, combined with simple easy to understand messages about sharing, caring and diversity that even the most rebellious of pre-schoolers can comprehend – best thing of all about the show is that it is funny for parents and kids alike.”

The first two series regularly surpassed the slot average ratings for each timeslot that it played in, and so far this year, Big & Small has been seen by 49% of all children in the UK aged 4-6 on the CBeebies channel. The series continues to enjoy support from the BAFTA award-winning CBeebies website which attracts around 900,000 unique users every week (www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/bigandsmall).

Kindle Executive Producer Anne Brogan said, „It‟s fantastic to be able to return to Big and Small‟s world and have the opportunity to create more laugh out loud stories for them‟.

Colin Williams, Executive Producer for Sixteen South Television, adds, “We‟re delighted to have been able to bring the production of Big and Small‟s third series to Northern Ireland. To have a well loved show produced locally is a tremendous boost for Sixteen South and for the local TV and film industry. We had an absolute ball making the series!”

Big and Small is backed up by a strong licensing programme, which features licensees such as HarperCollins, Bandai Namco, Paper Projects, C & M Licensing and Little Star Creations. The characters are featured regularly in pre-school magazine favourites CBeebies Weekly and BBC Toybox Magazine; their very successful iPhone application has now sold over 15,500 copies and is consistently in the top 20 apps on the iTunes Lifestyle chart. Rainbow Productions operate a Big and Small costume character which has made a number of high profile public appearances recently.