Tell-Tale Productions

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Tell-Tale Productions was an animation and live-action studio, established by Will Brenton and in 1994. The company first produced live shows, and later went on to produce TV shows.

History[]

On September 14, 2001, Tell-Tale signed a deal with Gullane Entertainment for the production on two new shows, called Ella, and Sprogs, with the latter company distributing the series. ^[1]

On July 26, 2002, the BBC picked up the UK broadcasting rights to Boo! for a broadcast in September 2003.^[2] On September 1, it was announced that Universal Pictures had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the series.^[3]

On September 18, 2002, Tell-Tale announced the production of a cross 2D/3D series titled WARP. On the same day, it was confirmed that the distribution rights to Ella and Sprogs reverted to Tell-Tale after the deal with Gullane fell through due to HIT Entertainment's purchase of Gullane, alongside the production on two 60-minute direct-to-video Tweenies specials.^[4]

On February 1, 2003, the company signed a property management deal with LMI for Sprogs, alongside a deal with BBC Music to allow music production for the series, which would air in Early 2004.^[5]

On January 27, 2004, Carlton International acquired distribution rights to Sprogs. The company purchased the video rights in all regions except for the US and French-speaking territories, and worldwide TV rights excluding the UK, the US, and French and German-speaking territories. It was also confirmed that CBBC had acquired the UK broadcast rights to the series for a Fall 2004 broadcast date.^[6]

On September 13, 2004, Entertainment Rights announced they would acquire Tell-Tale for £3.1 million. The buyout would include the rights to Sporgs, which had by then been renamed BB3B (previously handled by Carlton) and would be broadcast during the winter of 2005, alongside the rights to a new reboot of Fun Song Factory for air on CITV. The Tweenies property was retained by BBC Worldwide although Entertainment Rights would gain royalty income for the property, alongside rights to a planned feature-movie adaptation to the property. ^[7] The purchase was completed on October 1, 2004.^[8]

On December 20, 2005, ITV acquired the broadcast rights to Jim Jam and Sunny for broadcast on the then-new CITV Channel, and that production would start in 2006, being the largest broadcast deal made by ITV for a children's series.^[9]

Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan left the company in 2006 to found Wish Films, taking the Jim Jam and Sunny IP with them. Wish have also made other programmes including a TV adaptation of Wibbly Pig, Mighty-Mites, Florrie's Dragons, and Melody.

As of 2016, the back catalog library of Tell-Tale Productions are owned by NBCUniversal through Universal Pictures.

Filmography[]

• 1998 - 2005: Fun Song Factory
• 1999: Wow! That's What I Call Nursery Rhymes/Christmas!
• 1999 - 2002: Tweenies
• 2003: WARP (CGI/2D animated pilot)
• 2003: Jim Jam (animated pilot of Jim Jam and Sunny)
• 2003 - 2006: Boo!
• 2003: Tweenies - Night-Time Magic (direct-to-video special)
• 2004: Tweenies - Jungle Adventure (direct-to-video special)
• 2005: BB3B (originally called "Sprogs" in 2003 pilot)

Live Shows[]

• Fun Song Factory (1994-1997)
• CBeebies Live (2005)
• Thomas & Friends: The Big Live Tour/The All Aboard Live Tour (2002-2006)
• Tweenies Live (2000-2001)
• Tweenies Live: The Christmas Present (2001-2002, 2003)
• Tweenies Live 2: The Fab-a-Rooney Tour (2002)
• Tweenies Live: No Sleep 'till Bedtime (2005)

References[]