Sky Kids Renews The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

Sky has commissioned a second season of The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, which is also headed to new markets thanks to deals put in place by WildBrain.

The new season is currently in production and will be available on Sky’s on-demand service Sky Kids and the streaming service NOW in the U.K. and Ireland in early 2022. Sky has also commissioned additional songs from the original Tom Gates songwriting team (Mark Flannery, Martin Cooper, Liz Pichon) for a new standalone short-form music series that will run later this year.

A 22-minute The Brilliant World of Tom Gates seasonal special is also in production.

In addition to the commission, WildBrain has secured international sales for the first season with ABC (Australia), Knowledge Network and TVOKids (Canada), JUJKO and Tuki Channel (Slovakia), E-Vision and ejunior (MENA and Pakistan), MBC Group’s streaming platform Shahid (MENA) and PCCW—Now TV (Hong Kong).

A Sky original kids’ series, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates is based on the best-selling Tom Gates books written and illustrated by Pichon and published by Scholastic. Pichon is also co-writer and presents the Draw It sections of the series. The Brilliant World of Tom Gates is produced by TG Entertainment, which is jointly owned by Black Camel Pictures and Wild Child Animation, with additional investment from The National Lottery and Scottish Government through Screen Scotland, and WildBrain.

Lucy Murphy, director of kids’ content at Sky UK & Ireland, said: “Tom Gates has been a real crowd-pleaser and has proven appeal to a broad age group of our viewers. We’re really pleased to be teaming up again with Liz Pichon and TG Entertainment to bring more of Tom’s adventures to life and inspire our young audiences to get creative.”

Ken Anderson and Arabella Page Croft of TG Entertainment, executive producers on Tom Gates, said: “In Tom’s words, it’s epic that Sky Kids has commissioned another series of The Brilliant World of Tom Gates. We’ve all had such a fantastic time working on the show and are excited to be back in production again. This time we are able to spend real time together to create a series that will be better than ever!”

Pichon added: “It’s been really exciting to be part of the whole process of bringing The Brilliant World of Tom Gates to life. The show is exactly the sort of program that I’d have loved and got totally obsessed with when I was a kid. And the feedback I’ve had from my readers is—they feel exactly the same way. The whole show is stuffed full of creativity and fun ways to engage children and make them laugh. Everything I put in the books has been brought to life by the incredibly talented team of people that have all worked so hard to make the series brilliant. I can’t wait for everyone else to see what we’ve done for series two.”

Screen Scotland’s Jennifer Armitage said: “This is fantastic news for Scotland-based production company TG Entertainment, and this recommission will support further significant growth opportunities for Scotland’s animation sector. The Brilliant World of Tom Gates has brought to life on screen a widely beloved character in Tom Gates and inspired children through art-and-craft projects from creator Liz Pichon, which has proven vital over the last year. It is exciting to see that the first series will also be reaching international audiences through this new deal.”

Caroline Tyre, VP of global sales and rights strategy at WildBrain, said: “The Brilliant World of Tom Gates has been very well received by international broadcasters, and we’re delighted to support more of Tom’s adventures to inspire kids with engaging storytelling and humor, delivered on-screen with the same wonderful creative style that has made Liz Pichon’s books so popular.”