JoJo & Gran Gran, the UK’s first preschool animated series featuring a Black British family, will return to CBeebies after securing two further series from the BBC.
Image credit: BBC
The animation tells the story of a four-year-old girl and her fun and wise grandmother who cares for JoJo while her parents are working. The much-loved series will return for a bumper 88 episodes, news which is sure to delight the millions of young fans it has gained since its launch in March this year.
Since its unparalleled debut, the series, based on the wonderful books created by Laura Henry Allain, has received more than 14m views on BBC iPlayer, making it a firm favourite with the preschool audience.
“JoJo & Gran Gran … has received more than 14m views on BBC iPlayer, making it a firm favourite with the preschool audience.”
Laura Henry-Allain, an early education specialist, based the characters on the relationship she had with her grandmother who used to share stories of her St Lucian heritage and adventures with a young Laura when she was a child.
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Laura shared on Instagram that she cried when she got the news that the series would be returning for an additional 88 episodes. She said she found out just before her grandmother’s ‘heavenly birthday’. She would have been 113!
In addition to the newly commissioned series two and three, fans of the programme can also look forward to a 2020 Christmas Special, an audio series for BBC Sounds and two games for CBeebies apps – all of which are set to extend the brand even further.
The BBC’s Helen Bullough said: “JoJo & Gran Gran is a very special brand, celebrating that special relationship between grandparent and child, reflecting kids’ lives and inspiring real-world discovery and play. In turn we’ve been inspired by the feedback from the audience and are thrilled that we’ve now got the opportunity to follow JoJo and Gran Gran on even further adventures.”
Watch Series 1 of Jojo & Gran Gran here.
