Fungus the Bogeyman gets BBC treatment

Raymond Brigg's children's book Fungus the Bogeyman is to be adapted for television for the first time by the BBC for its Sunday access primetime slot on BBC1.

The six-part drama will mix live-action with some cgi for the character of Fungus, a green slimy subterranean troll who emerges at night to give children boils and scare babies.

The show will be produced by as yet unnamed new outfit set up by ex-Granada Media kids' exec Dan Maddicott. It will air in January 2002 and repeat on the new kids' channel CBBC, which launched today.

Controller of BBC children's programmes Nigel Pickard has also greenlit an in-house BBC kids' drama called Rude Boy. The studio sitcom follows a black teenager who strives to become a dotcom millionaire to secretly raise cash for his widowed mum. The show, written by Marcus Powell, is destined for the CBBC channel.