A CHILDREN’S TV series which will make its debut this weekend was devised and made in Bournemouth.

Pop Paper City, an animated show aimed at pre-schoolers, was created by around 60 people based in the Winton studios of LoveLove Films.

The show – distributed by Wallace and Gromit creator Aardman Animation – will introduce children to Plom and friends, who inhabit a world made out of paper.

The first two of 52 episodes will be shown this Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13, 9am, in Channel 5’s Milkshake! strand. The lead voice is that of Nick Mohammed, from the Apple TV+ hit Ted Lasso.

Georgina Hurcombe, managing director of LoveLove Films and producer-director of the series, said: “It’s all being produced in Bournemouth. We’ve had lots of people move to the region as well as taking on local talent. So we’ve had people who’ve moved from Ireland, Italy, all over the world to come and join us on the adventures of Plom and friends.

“It’s really lovely, especially the young people who’ve moved down for the show, how much they love the resort. They just love living here, they love the beach and they’re all excited about the Christmas market.

“For a lot of them, especially the junior animators, it’s their first opportunity to work in TV, so we’ve taken a lot of Bournemouth University graduates, a lot of Arts University Bournemouth grads, we’ve taken some people from Southampton University as well as other universities. Two of our production coordinators came from the Kickstarter scheme that the government ran for people that were out of work, so that worked out really well.”

Each Pop Paper City adventure features an intervention from Helping Hand, a live action hand which assists with what the characters are making.

“They’ll say something like ‘We want to build a race car’ or ‘We want to build a submarine or ‘We want to build binoculars’ and the kids at home can then do the craft as well,” said Ms Hurcombe.

“It’s doing as well as viewing. I wanted make it so that kids felt as though they could be part of the adventure.”

Much of the work of the series was done at the height of the pandemic and required the company to set up remote working.

The production was partly funded by the Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF), a government initiative to support home-grown content which has since been closed.

It also attracted a grant from BCP Council’s Bounce Back Challenge Fund, a scheme for supporting innovative projects.

The involvement of Aardman was a huge boost to the production.

“I always say we were like a horse at the Grand National, so we were trotting around with some ideas and we looked lovely and shiny, but no one was sure if they could bet on us,” said Ms Hurcombe.

“Then we got Aardman on board and they were like our champion jockey and champion trainer and then the YACF came on board so we were in the race and I guess we’re jumping the hurdles now.”