Ray Winstone is to join the voice cast of a new computer animated series of The Wombles alongside original cast member Bernard Cribbins.
“Bernard Cribbins is doing Great Uncle Bulgaria, and Ray Winstone is doing Tobermory,” said creator Mike Batt, speaking at the Children’s Media Conference in Sheffield.
“People keep asking if it’s going to have that lovely parochial, cuddly quality that the Wombles are famous for,” said Batt.
“We have to bring it into the modern century, but do we have to speed it up, do we have to cut every second? Yes, we have to make it palatable to the modern audience, but we can do it other ways.”
During a speech encouraging TV commissioners to push back against the increasing pace of children’s shows, Batt said that he thinks there is still a space for slower formats.
“I believe you can hold the attention of the child – I don’t just believe it, I know it – with laughter, quality and music. Because children really, really know about quality,” he said.
“We’re spending a lot more money per episode. It’s costing us over twice the expected budget to make these episodes, because we want to five them a really high-quality look … I wouldn’t claim to be a Pixar, but that’s where we’re going with it.”
He implored television commissioning editors to take a stand in support of slower-paced children’s shows.
“You can add laughter, quality and music, and you don’t have to go cut cut cut cut cut cut cut,” he said.
“If the programme makers would relax, the audiences would relax. We have a public duty. We’re in the Piccadilly Circus of life, just going faster and faster and faster. Let’s just have a bit of Lake District in there, that’s all I’m saying.”
The CGI Wombles reboot was originally meant to air on Channel 5 in 2015, however it has yet to find a home.
