BBC brings back Clangers after 45 years

Classic British animated series Clangers is coming back to the BBC, 45 years after the last series.

The new Clangers will go out CBeebies in the UK and Sprout in the US following the commission.

BBC Worldwide has international distribution rights, while the UK’s Coolabi and original series producer Smallfilms are attached for production duties. Factory Transmedia will create the stop motion animation and Mackinnon & Saunders are also onboard.

Production on the £5 million (US$8 million) series is already underway ahead of a premiere date in 2015.

The original series launched on the BBC in 1969 and followed mouse-haped creatures that lived on a small blue planet not far from Earth. It came from legendary UK animators Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate (Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog).

Firmin and Postgate’s son Daniel are attached as executive producers, with the former helping with design and the latter writing storylines and scripts.

“We hope to engage and entertain children of all ages and their families, just as Oliver and I did all those years ago,” said Firmin. “The new series will include great story telling with lots of heart. It will also be technically improved.

CBeebies controller Kay Benbow said: “Nostalgia is a funny thing, and we always think very carefully about remakes or re-imaginings of classic children’s programmes. The new proposition has been built firmly upon the joyful foundations of the original, and will be produced by a team of exceptional talent which includes the extraordinary Peter Firmin.”

“Clangers has a remarkable animation heritage, which had a big impact on my childhood in the UK, so I look forward to its reinvention for a brand new audience on Sprout in the US,” added Sprout’s senior VP, programming, Andrew Beecham.