The Grimes, a short series produced by The Old Branch, and distributed by Bejuba! has sold to ITV. The 15 x 5 minute series tells the story of The Grimes, the dirtiest family in the world. No matter what normal, everyday activity they’re doing, they always end up completely filthy. Luckily, they have a marvelous magical bathroom which helps them clean up and get ready for bed every day. Cleaning up with soap is a very important message these days. The Old Branch, headed by Eliot Wykes and Nikki Haley, created The Grimes in an unusual fashion. Eliot, Nikki and their two daughters voiced all the characters. Ideas for the episodes came from their own life in the middle of a forest where their kids run wild. Eliot hired a team of animators from around the world and premiered the first 5 episodes on YouTube where the series has been a great success. The goal is to create more. The Old Branch has a number of other successful shorts, like “Caterpillar Shoes” (over 37 million views on YouTube), and has ambitions to create longer series based on their online success. Eliot says: “My partner and I moved out of London to the middle of a Suffolk forest 5 years ago to follow our dream of writing stories for children. Watching our own daughters becoming slightly feral - trying to crawl down rabbit holes, building dens using random objects dug up with a metal detector, swimming in our murky fishpond - these experiences wrote The Grimes for us. It’s a real joy to see it finally finished, and to partner with Bejuba! and ITV in bringing this filthy family out into the world.” Tatiana Kober, of Bejuba! noted, “We were delighted to begin working with Eliot and Nikki, because of the success of the series on YouTube and the strategy they have. We look forward to bringing more of their shows to the marketplace. Knowing where the series has struck a chord globally helps us to be more targeted in our sales efforts.”
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The Old Branch
The Old Branch is a small, family-run film studio, making shorts and TV for children. We write and produce all our own content, operating from our headquarters in the middle of an English forest. We have a successful Youtube channel with over 100,000 subscribers and 38 million views, and our new pre-school show, The Grimes, can be seen daily on ITVBe in the UK.