The Stage

CBBC to launch drama inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Published Friday 19 September 2008 at 15:00 by Matthew Hemley

CBBC has unveiled a brand new drama series that draws its inspiration from ancient Chinese myths and legends.

Called Bo and the Spirit World, the children’s drama has been written by Jo Ho and will be executive produced by Jon East, whose previous CBBC credits include Summerhill and That Summer Day, which won a Bafta for best drama in 2007.

It has been commissioned by CBBC controller Anne Gilchrist, who said the show would be like “nothing ever seen on children’s television”.

“Inspired by Yimou Zhang’s House of Flying Daggers and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, we wanted to bring our CBBC audience the visual spectacle and exciting adventure of an ambitious drama set in Ancient China,” she added.

Bo and the Spirit World follows a young British Chinese girl who, accompanied by her brother Timothy, gets transported to a magical spirit world, where they begin a quest to save the universe from their arch enemy Li and his shadow ninjas.

The BBC said the series would “use the latest digital technology to create an original and exciting” show for the six to 12-year-old audience.

“Bo and the Spirit World is another first for CBBC drama, a totally new kind of drama that poses some exciting technological and editorial challenges by virtue of its fantasy setting,” East said.

Filming for the series will begin in April 2009. It is being made in-house at the BBC.