Calon TV's preschool children's animation HANA'S HELPLINE, which features an newspaper advice columnist duck who helps young animals solve their emotional problems, has won a top U.K. industry award.
The series won the Best Children's Category at the 2009 Broadcast Awards, beating off stiff competition from five other shortlisted programs, all screened on CBBC.
EVACUATION TO THE MANOR HOUSE (Twenty Twenty Television for CBBC) FREEFONIX: PHANTOM OF THE HIP-HOPERA (Cinnamon Entertainment for CBBC), HIDER IN THE HOUSE (Eyeworks for CBBC), SORRY, I'VE GOT NO HEAD (So Television for CBBC) and SUMMERHILL (Tiger Aspect for CBBC) were also nominated.
This was the first time for Welsh company Calon TV to win an award at the London event, organized by broadcasting trade magazine Broadcast in order to recognize and reward excellence in program-making.
The panel of judges which featured executives and controllers from the UK's leading terrestrial TV channels and independent program-makers including Richard Deverell, Controller of BBC Children's, said the program was "charming, funny, the sort of program you would happily watch with your children."
The stop-motion animation, featuring cute hand-sewn fabric puppets and cartoon-style cardboard sets, is one of the flagship shows of Welsh-language channel S4C's new pre-school service CYW, where it is translated as HOLI HANA. A co-production between S4C, Five and Germany's ZDF, with additional funding from the EU's Media Plus Programme and the new Wales Creative IP Fund, the second season of the English-language version was screened on Five Milkshake last autumn.
Since it was first screened in 2007, HANA'S HELPLINE has become a hit for independent progamme-makers Calon TV. Loved by preschool children, their parents and older children, last year it won Best Animation awards at the Celtic Media Festival and Bafta Cymru. It has been sold to over 30 countries and the brand has extended to soft toys, DVDs and books, thanks to a series of licensing deals.
Calon TV is has now gone into production with IGAM OGAM, another stop-motion animation based on the adventures of a curious little cave-girl and her prehistoric friends. The series is a co-production with Channel 5 in England, S4C in Wales, MG Alba in Scotland and ZDFE, Germany.
For all the winners of the Broadcast Awards visit http://www.broadcastawards.co.uk/images/contentpage/broadcast_awards_08.pdf.
