Production begins on ABC’s ambitious pre-school spy series Knee High Spies

Knee High Spies is a mix of puppetry, animatronics, VFX and live-action performances

Production has begun on Knee High Spies, one of Australia’s most technically ambitious children’s series, produced by Werner Film Productions for public broadcaster ABC.

The ABC commissioned series has taken seven years to develop, featuring a mix of puppetry, animatronics, VFX and live-action performances and is slated to screen on ABC and ABC iview later this year.

Created and co-written by Tim Bain, the creator of Kangaroo Beach, Knee High Spies is directed by Jack Jameson (Sesame Street) and produced by Nicole Minchin (Fisk).

Bain said he was inspired by pandemic-binging on Mission Impossible movies to bring  “the excitement of espionage and the spy world to children’s TV. I don’t think it had been done for preschoolers before.”

Bain originally pitched the concept to the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) in 2018 and was given development funding for early scripts and was further supported in 2020 by ACTF for a proof-of-concept trailer.

The ABC co-funded subsequent development before confirming the commission of the series in 2024. The series has also attracted production investment from Screen Australia and finance from VicScreen.

The ACTF will also distribute the series internationally.

The cast of Knee High Spies has been announced as Christie Whelan Browne, Mark Samual Bonanno and Ali McGregor.  Series co-writers include Charlotte Rose Hamlyn and Alix Beane, with Ray Boseley as script producer. Joanna Werner, Stuart Menzies, and O’Mahony serve as executive producers.

“It’s bringing in a lot of different elements: we’ve got children mixed with puppets, and a dog as well – the family dog that’s a real dog. It’s an insane idea, but it’s mixing puppetry with real animals. They say never work with children or animals and probably never work with puppets – we’re doing all three things on this show,” Bain said.

ABC acting head of children and family, Mary-Ellen Mullane said: “We love the way the team is playing with genre and form. Knee High Spies is a sophisticated, ambitious offering, bringing together one of the best teams working in preschool content production on the planet right now.”