Milkshake! adds Cooking With the Gills, Tweedy & Fluff to preschool slate

French CGI animated series Oggy Oggy

CMC: Paramount-owned Channel 5 in the UK has commissioned two preschool series and acquired French animated series Oggy Oggy for its Milkshake! children’s strand.

Louise Bucknole, Paramount’s general manager for kids and family in the UK and Ireland, announced Tweedy & Fluff (40×5’) at The Children’s Media Conference (CMC) in Sheffield on Wednesday. The stop-motion series was created by children’s author Corrinne Averiss and follows two big-hearted pals made from woolly yarn.

Directed by Chris Randall with characters handcrafted by Second Home Studios, the series explores love, nurture and friendship through visual comedy.

Bucknole also announced Cooking With the Gills, a live-action series following JB Gill, a farmer and former member of boyband JLS, and his family as they reach out to talented young cooks across the UK to ask for help in how to prepare and cook recipes from around the world. The 25×11’ series comes from MCC Media.

MCC Media culinary show Cooking With the Gills

Oggy Oggy is a 156×7’ spin-off to Oggy & the Cockroaches that comes from Xilam Animation. Unlike the original series, which has been on air for 20 years and caters to a pre-teen audience, Oggy Oggy is designed for younger children and follows a young kitten and his cat pals in a bright and colourful world.

Bucknole noted that Milkshake! is currently commissioning for 2024 onwards and said she is particularly interested in live-action series that could be factual or about STEM learning. The exec is also on the lookout for slapstick and comedy formats, messy play and shows about play patterns, in addition to coproductions.

For Nick Jr, which is also under Bucknole’s remit at Paramount, the exec is after character-driven storytelling with franchise potential, that could be based on a book.

Additionally, Bucknole called out for content aimed at the 6-12 audience for Sunflower TV, a YouTube channel launched last week by a host of organisations including Channel 5, for Ukrainian refugees.