Show of the week: Sisters

The Sisters comic strip is one of the best-selling in France, and has sold over 2.5 million copies around the world in 11 languages. Now it is coming to TV.

Free-to-air broadcaster M6 and its pay counterpart Canal+ co-commissioned the show, with Samka and Bamboo on production duty. Indie distributor Jetpack is selling the show. “What’s so attractive about it is these are real-life stories,” says Jetpack boss Dominic Gardiner. “It’s girls doing what girls do.”

The show, like the comic strip, follows two sisters, seven-year-old Marie and 13-year-old Wendy. They bicker, with the younger one vying for her older sister’s attention and the older one thinking about her social life and boyfriend. But they love each other, and Sisters captures that day-to-day drama of their lives. “It’s a very well-observed situation comedy,” Gardiner says.

Research from the publishers shows that while the property obviously skews girl, boys with siblings are also fans of the comic. The 2D animation of the 52x11mins series closely resembles the look and feel of the publishing property. The core demo is 6-10s.

Jetpack hopes buyers after sitcoms, whether live and animated, will be keen to take a look at Sisters. “A lot of buyers want live-action sitcoms, and we think this show offers what you get with a live-action series from Disney or Nick, but in animation,” says Gardiner.

“The fact it is animated means you can do things you can’t in live-action.”

The show: Sisters
The producers: Samka Productions, Bamboo Productions
The distributor: Jetpack Distribution
The broadcasters: M6, Canal+ (France)
The concept: Comic-based sitcom about two squabbling sisters