CBBC hires Joe Godwin as director

Joe Godwin, the head of the BBC’s children’s news, factual and entertainment is set to become director of children’s at the British public broadcaster, taking up the role vacated by Richard Deverell.

Deverell is set to become chief operating officer of BBC North and Godwin will take responsibility for the pubcaster’s entire kids output from November. Godwin previously produced Blue Peter and was head of original production at Nickelodeon.

This comes as the BBC announced that it would boost spending on kids series by over £25 million in the next three years.

Meanwhile, CBBC has just greenlit a pilot for Man in Coats, a live action series from Wallace and Gromit producer Aardman. The series, which is a coproduction with German public broadcaster WDR, is a live action version of the contraptions that Wallace uses in his basement. The series already has a large following on YouTube and will be turned into a 13x15mins project.