Nickelodeon has commissioned a second series of pre-school series ‘Lily’s Driftwood Bay’ from Belfast indie Sixteen South. A further 52 x 7 minute episodes of the series have been ordered to run next year on Nick Jr. The second season commission follows a licensing deal between Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer products (NVCP) and Sixteen South. The deal gives NVCP the licensing rights for the property within the UK and Ireland.
Speaking at the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield, Tim Patterson, vice-president, director of programming, Nickelodeon UK, praised the animated series’ “beautifully authentic storytelling and its use of materials to give a unique proposition”.
Lily’s Driftwood Bay (52 x seven minutes) is created and produced by Sixteen South. It premiered on Nick Jr. UK earlier this year. Since then, the series has been watched by over 1.5 million viewers.
Aimed at 4-6 year olds and developed from an original idea by children's artist Joanne Carmichael, 'Driftwood Bay' tells the story of young Lucy, the titular 'Driftwood Bay' an island that exists in her imagination. Each day sees another piece of driftwood treasure wash up on the shore, forming the centre of that episode's adventure.
The animation uses solely materials from real beaches and is soundtracked by contemporary folk musicians.
The series features the voice talents of Stephen Fry, Peter Mullan, Tameka Empson, Jane Horrocks and Annette Crosbie. Irish actors in the voice cast include Richard Dormer, Ardal O’Hanlon and Orlagh O’Keefe, who voices the titular character (read more here).
The first series was pre-sold to 20 territories, including the US, the UK, Scandinavia and Australia, and distributed by the Jim Henson Company. It was part-funded by Northern Ireland Screen.
Besides Nick Jr., the show will also air on RTÉ, Sprout in the USA, ABC Australia, Kika in Germany, MTV in Finland, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and HOP! in Israel later this year.
