When it comes to entertaining your kids one Belfast company knows exactly what they’re doing.
BAFTA-winning and EMMY® nominated Belfast-based studio Sixteen South have already notched up a whopping 30 international awards including a BAFTA, Broadcast Award, IFTAs, British Animation Award, HUGOs and countless nominations in their eight year history.
Here are 6 Awesome Kids TV Shows Made In Belfast:
Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree is a new version of Sesame Street for children across the UK. A co-production with Sesame Workshop, Sesame Tree teaches mutual respect and appreciation of difference while having lots of fun.
Sesame Tree is aimed at young children and features strong curriculum and educational content as well as entertaining and engaging storytelling through a mix of traditional Muppet interaction and live action films.
Watch out for new characters such as Potto the purple monster, Hilda the hare, Archie the red squirrel, Claribelle the red bird, Samson & Goliath the bookworms and the Weatherberries who all live inside the Sesame Tree – a magical question tree.
Lily’s Driftwood Bay
Lily’s Driftwood Bay is a mixed-media animated show for 4-6 year old boys and girls.
Driftwood Bay is a special island that exists in the imagination of Lily, who creates a world of adventure and friendship from different treasures she finds washed up on the beach.
Lily is 7 years old and lives on an island with her Dad in a little hut on the beach. Across the way is Driftwood Bay – the other island that Lily can see from her window, and it is here that the characters that she has created in her imagination come to life. Every day the sea washes up a new treasure which sparks Lily’s imagination about what might be happening on Driftwood Bay. And so, accompanied by her best friend Gull, the clever seagull, an adventure begins as they go ‘across the way to Driftwood Bay’.
Everything on Driftwood Bay has been uniquely created entirely from things washed up on the beach – from the characters to the props and landscapes, everything has been created from beach salvage.
Lily’s Driftwood Bay is about using your imagination and creativity to inspire an adventure or tell a story. It teaches about living in community, and the importance of inter-generational relationships.
Big City Park
Big City Park is an outdoors show for CBeebies. Co-produced with BBC Scotland, the live action and puppet show aims to get children outside and rediscover the awe and wonder of nature. It’s an outdoors show that’s really filmed outdoors.
Big City Park celebrates being outdoors. It’s a green oasis in the heart of every town and city across the country – a place to close your eyes and listen; to shout and sing; laugh and have space to let your imagination run free. A place just down the street, where you can feel a million miles away from everything…
The show features Billy the badger, Dara the fox and their ageless friend, Ruairi who lives in the park – and along with their human friend, May the park keeper, they welcome four new explorers to the park in every episode.
Together, the characters show viewers at home just how much fun they too can have outdoors – there’s so much to see and do – games to play, stories to tell and things to make, and all they need to bring is their imagination.
Big and Small
Big and Small is a children’s pre-school show featuring two best friends who share a house together.
Each story revolves around the comedy of Big and Small’s contrasting approaches to life, and encourages young children to appreciate that people have many different ideas and opinions.
The series combines the imagination of animation with the warmth of puppets – great stories packed with humour, laugh-out-loud moments and highly memorable songs.
Each episode features a brand new catchy song, based around a different genre of music.
Pajanimals
Pajanimals is a show for young children following the amazing adventures of four cuddly musical puppets. Co-produced with The Jim Henson Company for Sprout, the US 24-hour preschool television channel, part of the NBC family.
Pajanimals was designed to help parents and caregivers develop bedtime routines for their preschoolers. Through their imaginary journeys, the Pajanimals model the skills preschoolers need to move through their days and nights successfully. Along the way, the Pajanimals discover how cozy and safe nighttime can really be when accompanied by friendship and songs.
Pajanimals features four of the most cuddly puppet characters ever. This inseparable quartet forms a nighttime community in the comfort of their magical, shared bedroom – Sweetpea Sue the pony, the excitable duck Squacky, the creative cow CowBella and the optimistic puppy Apollo.
The Pajanimals venture out on amazing imaginary journeys of discovery and delight and entertain children around the world. The series is based on the original musical interstitials broadcast on Sprout.
Claude
The newest programme on the Sixteen South block, Claude is based on the much-loved, best-selling series of books by Alex T. Smith.
Following the humorous adventures of a little beret-clad dog, Claude and his faithful sidekick Sir Bobblysock the show is aimed at children at the upper end of the pre-school age range.
The new series is adapted for television by Sixteen South in a distinctive 2D hand-drawn style, bringing to life the unique visual style of the original books.
Claude is no ordinary dog. He lives with his owners, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes at 112 Waggy Avenue and every day, after they’ve hotfooted it out the door to work, Claude heads off on an extraordinary adventure with his best friend, Sir Bobblysock (who is, in fact a bobbly sock). Claude’s world is full of colourful characters like Miss Highkick-Spin the dance teacher, Belinda Hintova-Tint the hairdresser and Lord Turret of Armslength Keep, the local castle.
Sixteen South produce all their shows in-house and employ over 100 people. In January 2016 they invested £1m in a new 7500sq ft studio in downtown Belfast.
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