Birmingham has a new star – in the shape of a canal-loving Jack Russell.
Chico Chugg, which charts the life of a loveable dog, is filmed on canalsides across the city.
Made by Brummie producer Anita Ramdharry, a former TV reporter for the BBC in the Mailbox, the second series of the show will be screened across Wales after a deal with broadcaster S4C.
It has already started to gain a following on Youtube, after the first series was screened online, and Ms Ramdharry said she was in talks about broadcasting on English-speaking channels.
It is something of a return, as Ms Ramdharry’s grandfather Keith Thomas was an artist whose speciality was painting the city’s many canals.
She said: “We make it around the Midlands, particularly around the canals.
“The second series, which we are filming now, is far more in Birmingham.
“It is the part of the countryside I love. My grandfather was an artist who used to paint the canal boats.
“It feels like home – we always used to go down to the canals for days out.”
The series is all filmed from the viewpoint of the Jack Russell.
It ends with a series of quiz questions, to engage young minds.
All the music and the voice of Chico is performed by Mike Roberts from the hit 80s band King. The group had a string of successful albums and singles, including their biggest hit Love and Pride.
The show is the first major children’s series from Midlands television company Chugg Productions, which aims to a rising tide of digital-savvy youngsters.
This comes just weeks after the Mail revealed a manifesto calling on the BBC to reverse its tiny level of spending in the Midlands by making the television of the future in Birmingham – Europe’s youngest city.
While the state broadcaster reinvests 50 per cent or more of the money raised by licence fee-payers in every other part of the country, that is only about 13 per cent in the region – and Ms Ramdharry, worked for the BBC in the Mailbox until 2006, said now was the time for action.
She said: “When I left the BBC, I wanted to do something I cared about, and I wanted to do it in the Midlands.
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“I noticed that the BBC were taking everything up to Manchester and I felt this area wasn’t being represented.
“I am right behind the campaign to get a fair share of BBC funding in the Midlands.
“I saw it happen – little by little there is something or another taken from Birmingham and going to Bristol or Manchester.”
Ms Ramdharry said she was confident Chico had a big future – and talks were already taking place with major English channels.
“There are irons in the fire and we are approaching broadcasters in England,” she said.
“But it is working well online – and the way young people consume TV is changing. Having it on Youtube doesn’t feel like a downwards step.”
