MUMBAI: CBBC continues its commitment to educating and entertaining young minds with two new science series.
Space Hoppers is a new seven half an hour interplanetary adventure featuring physicist Professor Brian Cox and, following the success of the first season of Richard Hammond‘s Blast Lab, there will be a further 26 episode season of the science-based gameshow.
CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist, who commissioned both series says, "It‘s great for CBBC to have two such powerful science series. It is perfect inspirational material for an audience which is constantly curious about the world around them and how it works."These programmes are part of CBBC‘s commitment to producing 550 hours of factual programming in 2009/10.
Space Hoppers will launch in 2010, the BBC‘s Year of Science, and is being made in conjunction with BBC Science‘s series Seven Wonders Of The Solar System, which will also be presented by Professor Cox.
In Space Hoppers, intrepid travelers Dan and Steve team up with Brian to investigate worlds beyond our planet and try to find out exactly what you would need to do to take a holiday in outer space
and do a bit of space hopping.
They will delve into the wonders of the Solar System, blending global adventures with explosive experiments, and quirky animation with state-of-the-art CGI.
In each episode, Dan, Steve and Brian will explore a holiday-related theme, from holidays in (or on) the Sun to volcano-spotting. Their search will take in extreme environments, wild weather and the best places in the Solar System to "enjoy" a bit of snow and ice.
Space Hoppers is a collaboration between the London Factual department and CBBC. It will be executive produced for CBBC by Peter Davies and for Factual by Andrew Cohen. The Series Producer is John Piper.
The first series of Richard Hammond‘s Blast Lab, broadcast earlier this year, was a success for CBBC, peaking with a 23.3 per cent share with 6 to 12-year-old viewers.
The series is set in a fictitious underground laboratory in the grounds of his supposed stately home. Richard invites two groups of three friends into his lab to take part in his crazy experiments and compete against each other to win prizes.
Each show focuses on a different scientific theme and experiments are designed to have true ‘take away‘ value, so children can seek to replicate these at home if they wish.
