Punky (TV series)

Punky is an Irish animated television series created by Lindsay J. Sedgwick and produced by Dublin based Monster Animation and Design. The series features the lead character as having Down syndrome, with the intention of being the first animated series to do so.^[3]

Punky
Genre	Children
Created by	Lindsay J. Sedgwick
Written by	Andrew Brenner
Directed by	Simon Crane
Starring	Aimée Richardson[1] Maureen Ward Bradley Burke Paul Tylak
Composer	John Atkinson
Country of origin	Ireland
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	40
Production
Producer	Gerard O'Rourke
Running time	7 minutes
Production company	Monster Animation & Design
Original release
Network	RTÉjr on RTÉ Two
Release	3 May 2011 (2011-05-03)[2] – present

Development

The show's creative director is Jason Tammemagi, who has been involved in a number of animated shows for pre-school children, including Fluffy Gardens.

The series is produced with the support of Down Syndrome Ireland, who also reviewed material during development and production of the series.^[4] The series is supported by investment incentives from the Government of Ireland (Section 481), in association with RTÉjr, with the participation of the Irish Film Board and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound & Vision Fund. A second series (also 20 x 7 mins) was launched in February 2014.

Characters

Punky relates tales from the everyday life of a six-year-old little girl who has Down syndrome. Punky is characterized as a happy little girl who, as explained in the introduction of the show, loves "music", "dancing" and "hugs". She is shown to like to play with her older brother, "Con", and her dog, "Rufus". She also tries to make her grandmother, "Cranky", "just a little less cranky".

The lead character is voiced by Aimée Richardson, a voice actress who has Down syndrome.

Broadcast

It aired in a number of TV networks in the UK, Australia, Germany^[5] and Sweden to screen the show. An Irish language version of the show was produced, it aired on TG4.^[6]