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Welcome!
The Black Sheep are Ciaran Murtagh & Andrew Barnett Jones, multi-award-winning writers, head writers, script editors and series developers on a whole host of children’s television shows, podcasts, games and commercials.
Together they have written hundreds of episodes of shows enjoyed by millions of children around the world.
Equally at home writing individual episodes, assembling and overseeing writing teams and developing dynamic characters and rich, deep worlds for new properties, Ciaran and Andrew are master storytellers who bring heart, humour and passion to everything they do.
Latest News
Toad and Friends the Movie
The news is out! Ciaran and Andrew are thrilled to be working on the new Toad and Friends movie with our friends at Ho Ho Entertainment and Wild Child animation with the support of Screen Scotland. Ciaran and Andrew loved developing and heading up the writing of the recent hit series and can't wait to return to the world of Toad and Friends to bring a long form story to the screens - watch this space and read more here:
https://www.animationmagazine.net/2025/02/toad-friends-hops-to-the-big-screen-in-new-movie-from-hoho-ent-wild-child-animation/
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Wonderful Wonderblocks coming to Cbeebies
Andrew and Ciaran helped to develop, script and the head up the writing team for the new show from the creators of Numberblocks. We're really proud of what we achieved with the show and had an amazing writing team to help us. It launches on CBeebies on the 20th January, please do take a peek if you can.
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10 Little... for Sky
Ciaran and Andrew have been heading up the writing team for this brand new Sky show based on the tremendously popular books by Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty. It's being made by Karrot and is shaping up to be a classic - we can't wait for you to see it.
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Super Happy Magic Forest lands on CBBC
Super Happy Magic Forest has landed on CBBC and internationally and is already becoming a firm favourite. The Guardian called it 'an all-timer' and kids are loving it. Check it out wherever you get your content!
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All new Dave Spud
There's new Dave Spud on ITVX. We've worked on all three series of this show and have enjoyed dipping in and out of Dave's rubbish world for the past few years. Please give it a look - it's made with love and is very funny!
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Mary & Franky at Cartoon Forum
Ciaran had a great time pitching the new show Mary and Franky at Cartoon Forum this year. The team at Media Valley have done a magnificent job with this show and Ciaran and Andrew have been developing it for a while. Please reach out if you'd like more information or to see the teaser trailer.
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Toad and Friends on Cartoonito!
Andrew and Ciaran developed and head wrote Toad and Friends and are thrilled to see the reception its getting all around the world. They're very fond of this show. Working with an amazing team of writers, they created something pretty special which was then taken to the next level by an amazing team of creatives. Please watch where ever you find your cartoons!
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Mr Bean rides again!
The Black Sheep are pleased to be heading up the writing team for Series 4 of Mr Bean, continuing on from their work on Series 2 and 3. Working directly with comedy hero Rowan Atkinson to break stories is always a thrill and the ideas are flowing. They can't wait for you to see what they've been up to when the series is released later in the year.
Read more here:
https://variety.com/2024/tv/global/mr-bean-animated-series-season-4-1235861261/
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Numberblocks - Now we are 7
The Black Sheep have been with the Numberblocks since the very beginning. Now we've got to Series 7 we're bowing out with a smile. We've loved being part of this huge success story and we hope you enjoy where the show has ended up - for us at least!
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All new Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese
All new episodes of Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese - or BGDCMC as all the cool people are calling it - have been released on CBBC. The Black Sheep are proud to be behind three episodes in the first batch released - Yeah Baby, Best, Best Friends annd Finding Gretchen. Tune in wherever you find your top quality animation!
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Meet the Marsupilamis!
Ciaran and Andrew have been hard at work heading up the UK and French writing teams on a new 52 episode series of The Marsupilamis for Ellipse Animation.
Find out more at Annecy!
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Deep in the Bowl on ITVX
The Black Sheep are thrilled that Deep in the Bowl, a fishy sketch show we head wrote during Covid, has hit the UK. We loved getting back to our sketch show roots and created over 150 scenarios for these fin-tastic five minute eps. Stream the first half of the series on ITVX now.
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