Night Zookeeper TV Show
The Night Zookeeper Show was the first animated kids show in the world to be co-created alongside hundreds of thousands of children.
The series follows Will, Riya and Sam the Spying Giraffe as they try to save the magical animals in the Night Zoo from an army of evil robotic Voids!
Over 6 months, children from across the UK contributed incredible creative ideas towards the 10-part mini series, based on the world of the Night Zoo. The show was ultimately written, utilising many of the submitted ideas, by Joshua Davidson, CEO & Co-founder of Night Zookeeper, Bec Hill and Dave Ingham. It was directed by James Hing and featured Twinkle Jaiswal, Kemaal Deen-Ellis, Bert Davis, Peter Singh, Allen Doyle and Elodie Yung.
The show's ten episodes were based on children’s brand Night Zookeeper, which has evolved over the last ten years from a teaching resource into a brand known by millions of children worldwide. The Night Zookeeper show was the first animated children’s show in the world to collaborate with thousands of children on the creation of each episode.
The production team received over 150,000 verified submissions via their website and touring events. Wonky Star, the creators of Night Zookeeper, worked with BAFTA, Picture House Cinema, Zoological Society of London and schools to deliver creativity workshops across the country, from the Isle of Arran to Portsmouth, to work up ideas from real children for the series. The resulting mini-series was created for Sky Kids by BAFTA-nominated Wonky Star, and BAFTA and Emmy award-winning animation studio Karrot Entertainment - famous for the series Sarah & Duck.
Submissions included: drawings and descriptions of characters, props and locations as well as ideas for jokes, plot twists and character catchphrases. In the video below, Maruf, the child-creator of the Green Guardian, from episode 2 of the series, explains how he came up with his amazing idea, and you can see how it was transformed into an animated character for the show!
The show aired across the world in 2019, including on Sky Kids in the UK and on Mango TV in China, where it received 1 million views in its launch weekend alone.
On 'launch day', Joshua Davidson, the creator of Night Zookeeper, commented: “We are all going to work together to make a show! It’s incredibly exciting and an amazing opportunity to inspire children to write, draw and express their creativity. By giving children a real audience for their work, Sky will be having a huge impact on the literacy skills of children across the UK.”
Emma Cotton, a primary school teacher in Norfolk and long-time fan of nightzookeeper.com said: “This is going to utterly transform my classroom. My students already love Night Zookeeper and now there is going to be a TV show. The fact that they can help create it, is going to blow their minds!”
You can watch the series here anytime if you are a Sky TV customer, or you can also find it ready to view on NOW TV.
You can get a sneak peak of what you're in for, by meeting the main character, Will Rivers:
The Night Zookeeper story continues in our ever-growing adventure book series, available in our shop!
Children can also immerse themselves in the magical world of the Night Zoo by joining our gamified learning program.
