Jetpack Expands Kids’ Portfolio

Jetpack Distribution has secured the international rights for CBBC’s live-action drama Katy and Li Critter Workshop’s non-dialogue series Buck + Buddy.

Katy, available as three 30-minute episodes or one 90-minute film, targets 8- to 11-year-olds and is based on a book by British children’s novelist Dame Jacqueline Wilson. The series centers on Katy Carr, a tomboy with an overactive imagination who loves building dens and climbing trees.

One day Katy’s life changes dramatically when she falls from a makeshift swing and suffers life changing spinal injuries. Katy is played by Chloe Lea (Scott & Bailey). The series has scooped two BAFTA Awards, a Royal Television Society (RTS) Award and a Rookie award and has been nominated for an Emmy.

Buck + Buddy (60×5 min.) targets 6- to 11-year-olds and features Buck the beetle and Buddy the stick insect, a pair of unusual allies who are sometimes friends and sometimes foes. They are always trying to get what they need to survive, gathering used, useful but mostly useless objects that have been discarded in the various wastelands they call home. Together they live, compete and play in the world around them.

Dominic Gardiner, CEO of Jetpack Distribution, said: “These are two brilliant additions to our catalog. I am very pleased to be expanding our live-action offer and Katy is a serious coming-of-age drama tackling some big themes. Its brilliance has been recognized by BAFTA, RTS and—of course—U.K. audiences.”

Gardiner added: “Buck + Buddy is a very different type of show but one that is equally great, with humor and warmth that will appeal to kids globally.”