Alphablocks Ltd. and Blue Zoo Animation Studio have been commissioned by BBC Children’s to make a new series of their global hit preschool IP, Numberblocks.
The 15 new episodes will premiere on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer.
The new series sees the block characters delve into a more complex, curriculum-led slate of topics, including perimeter, area, capacity, and data handling. This move “reflects a growing industry trend towards enriching preschool content that builds a foundation for formal education.” The series will introduce key maths skills like “bridging the ten,” adding and subtracting two-digit numbers, and understanding parts of 50 and 100. This builds on the core educational framework from series creator Joe Elliot and the Alphablocks team.
Adam Shaw, Co-founder of Blue Zoo, said: “With every new series of Numberblocks, our goal is to find the story and comedy in a new area of maths. We want to make abstract concepts tangible, visible, and fun for our young audience. This season, we’re tackling big ideas like measurement and data, but we’re doing it through rescue missions, detective mysteries, and team challenges. The film noir episode is a perfect example of how we can push our creative boundaries to serve the educational core of the show. It’s about showing children that maths isn’t just in the classroom; it’s everywhere, and it’s an exciting tool for solving problems.”
Ruth Cassidy, Editorial Director & Creative Lead of Alphablocks, said: “Our creative process always starts with the maths. We ask ourselves, ‘What is the story within this calculation?’ or ‘What’s the adventure in learning about capacity?’ This series has been about translating those key early years concepts into tangible, character-driven narratives that a child can delight in. Seeing Detective One use the principles of time-telling to crack a case is a perfect example of how we fuse rigorous educational thinking with unforgettable storytelling.”
Following the premiere of the series, new maths concepts will be carefully integrated into the Numberblocks World app and Numberblocks YouTube channel allowing children to engage with their favourite number characters in a variety of ways. The new series of Numberblocks will be available on CBeebies and BBC iPlayer from this autumn.
Jon Creamer
Share this story
