BBC Unveils Trio Of Animation Series As It Steps Up Search For British ‘Simpsons’
The BBC has unveiled the trio of projects that it hopes could fulfil the search for a British Simpsons. Coming from the Ignite animation program, the corporation has greenlit Duck and Frog, The Underglow and Captain Onion’s Buoyant Academy for Wayward Youth. The former is a slacpstick comedy with a modern British setting and an energetic anarchic sense of humor, The Underglow is a preschool series with little creatures and characters that come out to play when the sun goes down and the latter follows Marvin and his friends on their boat-based boarding school, the Unsinkable II. The projects were greenlit after producers submitted ideas to the BBC and have been chosen following an 18-month development process. BBC Children’s boss Patricia Hidalgo has made clear her ambitions for UK animation and used her first setpiece to say she was seeking a British verison of The Simpsons two years ago. “The reason we chose these three is because they all have a clear sense of the audience they are trying to target and a strong creative vision,” she said. “The ideas, stories and characters felt truly British and very original but they hold a sense of the familiar which is what usually makes a show successful amongst kids.”