Internationally successful and hugely popular children’s TV show ‘Grandpa in my Pocket’ is to have its third series produced in Wales.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of the news that the series won the Bafta Cymru Award for the Best Children’s category.
The Welsh Assembly Government is supporting the production through the Single Investment Fund to ensure the latest series is made in Wales, providing an important boost for the creative sector.
The first two series were also produced in Wales and supported by Finance Wales.
‘Grandpa in my Pocket’ is written and produced by Mellie Buse and Jan Page of Adastra Creative Ltd who have been working in children’s media for more than fifteen years.
Set in the picture book village of Sunnysands it is a magical story about seven year old Jason Mason and his Grandpa. Grandpa has a magic shrinking cap which, when he puts it on, makes him shrink to the size of a coffee cup. He can get up to all sorts of mischief when he’s small but he and Jason always work together to make everything turn out for the best .
Mellie said she was delighted the third series will be a Welsh production and ensures the continuation of the highly creative collaboration between Adastra Creative, which is based in Cambridge and Cardiff based Dinamo Productions who carry out the animation.
"We have built up a tremendous relationship with the team from Wales who make an incredible contribution to the success of the show and it’s a real joy to work with them," she said.
"They bring a huge amount of individual expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm to the production and their commitment is second to none. which is why we would like to do more and more productions in Wales if possible. In short, anything that can be done in Wales, we’ll do in Wales."
The series, originally commissioned by Cbeebies, is now also shown on BBC1 and has been sold to 100 countries overseas. It stars James Bolam as Grandpa and child actor Jay Ruckley from Barry as Jason.