It's Another Grizzly New Year

Citv have scheduled Grizzly Tales in a late afternoon slot throughout the Christmas and New year period.

21 December two episodes from 5.30pm
22 December four episodes from 5.00pm
23 December two episodes from 5.30pm
Christmas Day four episodes from 5.00pm
28 December two episodes from 5.30pm
29 December four episodes from 5.00pm.
30 December two episodes from 5.30pm
31 December A Grizzly New Year's Tale 5.30pm
New Year's Day  A Grizzly New Year's Tale at 11.40am and four regular episodes from 5.00pm

The Grizzly Tales New Year special will also be shown on the main ITV channel at 8.05am on New Yeatr's Day.

OMG, it's Red Riding Hood's Phone

Red Riding Hood's Phone: Hacked

Now available from AMAZON

Looking for a stocking filler this Christmas? Simon Bor's new book, Red Riding Hood's Phone is now available in print or via Kindle.

'There's trouble ahead for Hoodie, when her mother asks her to take some cigarettes round to her grandmother's house. She does not listen to the warnings about taking the short cut through the park and is soon face to face with a serial killer known as The Wolf. Told through SMS and social media, this is an updated version of Little Red Riding Hood. Also included is the short story, 'Loup Hall'. Suitable for 14+ readers.'

Simon Bor is a writer, producer and director for children's television. Along with his partner, Sara, he has made over twenty animated series, including 'Binka' and many half hour specials, such as 'Lost in the Snow'. As a writer, he has co-created and contributed scripts to 'Tube Mice', 'Frootie Tooties', 'Funky Valley' and 'Funky Town'. As a producer and director he is best know for 'Wolves. Witches & Giants' and 'Grizzly Tales for Grusome Kids'. Simon lives in the Devon countryside with Sara and their two texting teenagers. He is currently writing a Young Adult novel. His blog is found at  http://simons-head.blogspot.co.uk

Binka, Wolves & Grizzly Tales on Facebook

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Spike Milligan on Wolves Witches & Giants

Twenty years ago this week, the Carton Television press department was in full swing, publisising ITV's new animated series, Wolves Witches & Giants.

New CITV schedule

Starting from 7th September 2015, the new CITV schedule presents four episodes of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids every weekday at 9.30 followed by two episodes of Wolves Witches & Giants at 10.20.

Wolves Witches & Giants @ 20: Sara's Tale

Wolves Witches & Giants is twenty this month. Producer and director Sara Bor recalls the making of the series.

Wolves Witches & Giants @ 20: Spike Milligan's Ad-Libs

Wolves Witches and Giants is twenty. Simon Bor looks back at how Spike Milligan's ad-libs inspired visual jokes in the CITV series.

Nicktoons: Grizzly Tales for Insomniacs

Can't sleep?

NickToons continues to broadcast two episodes of Grizzly Tales, on their UK and Ireland channel, every night at 3am.

Series 7 & 8 of show were made for Nickelodeon and are still exclusive to the channel. Meanwhile, the first six series continue to be aired on CITV during daylight hours.

Wolves Witches & Giants @ 20: Ed Welch

September sees the twentieth anniversary of Wolves Witches & Giants. Still airing on the CITV channel, the show featured the voice of the legendary Spike Milligan.

Writer and musician Ed Welch writes about his role in the series.

Grizzly Tales is No1

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids has been a regular fixture in the audience figures for CITV since its recent return to the channel.  CITV viewing figures for the week ending August 13th give the show 8 out of its top 10 placings,  giving Uncle Grizzly the top seven places plus number 9.

Susan Sheridan

Just a few days after the passing of George Cole, it has been announced that Honeycomb Animation has lost another voice.

Susan Sheridan was Trillion in the radio series of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, and she voiced many animated characters, including ‘Noddy’.

She narrated a pilot for a children’s version of Honeycomb’s adult series, ‘Beastly Behaviour’, and voiced several characters in its adaption of Ian Beck’s ‘Lost in the Snow’ for CITV.

The recording of ‘Lost in the Snow’ had Susan in a sound studio in London, alongside Helen Baxendale, David Holt and Rupert Farley; they were joined by the voice of Hugh Laurie on a live link to LA.

The DVD was released by Abbey Home Entertainment and is available on Amazon.

George Cole

The passing of George Cole was announced this morning; he worked with Honeycomb in the late eighties during the height of his fame as Minder’s Arthur Daley. 

When we were developing Tube Mice, our first series for ITV, voices for two loveable rouge mice, Vernon and Toaster, were needed. Originally, they were to be secondary characters, but Minder’s George Cole and Dennis Waterman came to mind. Amazingly, they both agreed to work on the project, promoting Vernon and Toaster to become the main characters.

I remember a kind and professional man, who was very encouraging to the young actors, directors and writers who were beginning their careers in television.

Although Tube Mice was a very minor part in the life of George Cole, he mentioned his time on the show in his recent autobiography.

Mop and Smiff

This month is the thirtieth anniversary of Honeycomb Animation's first children's series.

When Honeycomb Animation opened its London studio in the Smithfield, it was known for producing short sequences of animation for programmes such as BBC's Horizon. When approached by BBC Manchester to animate thirteen stories for a new, part live action - part animation pre-school series, the studio initially turned the project down: the budget for ninety minutes of animation being little more than a two minute film Honeycomb had recently produced for The Geological Museum.

A compromise was found and Honeycomb went into production of it's first television series: Mop and Smiff. The series had been created by Mike Amatt and featured his pets, the real Mop and Smiff. In each episode, Mike would draw Mop and Smiff in his studio and the live action would mix through to the simply animated stories.

The programme's director was the legendary darts commentator, Sid Waddell. It was produced by David Brown and featured the voices of Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

Joining Simon and Sara Bor's small team of animators was Mark Baker, who went on to become the co creator of Peppa Pig.

Merchandising included a series of book and tapes from Tempo, a forerunner of Abbey Home Entertainment.

More information on Mop and Smiff: http://www.curiousbritishtelly.co.uk/2013/03/mop-and-smiff.html
http://www.mikeamatt.webspace.virginmedia.com/mopandsmiff.html

Fifteen Years of Gruesome Kids

Happy birthday to Uncle Grizzly.

This month is the fifteenth anniversary of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids on TV.

ITV began transmitting the first series in January 2000. In all, eight series were made with the last new episode going out on NickToons in 2012. Reruns of the first six series began on CITV last September.

There are more anniversaries to come this year. It will be five years since the programme was first seen on Nickelodeon and twenty five years since Jamie Rix's first Grizzly Tales book was published.