London-based indie Chalkboard TV is to make a 60×10-min improv-drama for CBBC out of a new Glasgow-based subsidiary, Chalkboard Scotland.
Set in a fictional school in Edinburgh, Logan High is based on a scripted-reality format called First Years, which originally aired in the Netherlands. The original format was devised and produced by Newen-owned Dutch indie Tuvalu Media Group for public broadcaster AVRO-TROS.
Logan High is structured on an improv-drama model, with actors improvising scenario-based rather than dialogue-based scripts. The action centres around life in secondary school, and the challenges, friendships, fads and fashions experienced by teens on the cusp of adulthood.
CBBC controller Cheryl Taylor ordered the school-based drama, which is due to TX in early 2018 on BBC iPlayer.
The 60 x 10 mins series will be executive produced by Mike Benson for Chalkboard, with Paul O’Donohue as senior producer. Chalkboard will produce the show out of its newly formed subsidiary Chalkboard Scotland, based in Glasgow.
Benson, managing director of Chalkboard, said: “CBBC have backed us on a bold and exciting concept. We’re confident that Logan High will live up to expectation, immersing its young viewers in great stories and characters in new and exciting ways."
Chalkboard Scotland will produce Logan High. New executive appointments to be announced in the coming months.
Chalkboard TV was founded in 2013 and is headed by Mike Benson and Warwick Banks. Recent UK primetime commissions include new ITV comedy game show Don’t Ask Me Ask Britain, C4 rig camera show Life Behind Bars: Visiting Hour, BBC historical-crime series My Grandad Was Innocent and reality series Celebrity Fat Fighters.
Chalkboard is part of the international production group IZEN, which consists of Elephant from France, Zebra from Spain and iMagic from the Middle East.
Staff Reporter
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