Ragdoll inks Antipodean deals for Badjelly

Ragdoll has inked a pair of Antipodean licence deals for its Spike Milligan animation special Badjelly the Witch, and is prepping its latest show Brum for a MIPCOM extravaganza.

TVNZ (New Zealand) has taken both video and broadcast rights to the 30' special, while ABC (Australia) has walked away with broadcast rights and ABC Video took video rights.

The show has previously been taken by KBS (Korea) and TVB (Hong Kong). In the UK, BBC1 aired the toon last Christmas.

New on the Teletubbies-producer's slate is the third series of Brum, a live-action children's comedy about a little car that regularly saves the crazy residents of Big Town from mishaps.

The show premieres in the UK from next week, airing three times a week on BBC2 and BBC1. BBC2 will air the 40×10' series at 08:10 and again at 13:00, while BBC1 will give the show a Saturday 07:25 tx from next weekend.

Though Ragdoll's head of international sales Nick Kirkpatrick was tight-lipped about Brum's recent pick-ups, he said that a UK video deal has been struck with VCI, which will put Brum VHSs and DVDs in shops from October 8.

Kirkpatrick added that Ragdoll had produced two 13-part series of Brum back in the early 1990s, which saw sporadic airings on BBC1 and BBC Choice.

Nonetheless, the show was taken by some 37 broadcasters overseas – including NHK (Japan), ABC (Australia) and Kindernet (Holland) – so the third series was made due to {popular demand.{