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Award-winning Aussie kids’ series to screen in UK

Audiences across the UK will continue to enjoy the exploits of Australia’s favourite handball team, with the second season of the award-winning comedy series Hardball picked up by the BBC.

The Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) is pleased to announce that Hardball 2 will screen on the BBC’s children’s channel CBBC and be available on BBC iPlayer, following the success of Season 1.

Hardball 1, produced by Northern Pictures, won over audiences across Australia when it debuted on ABC ME in 2019.

The first season has won multiple accolades both at home and overseas, including an International Emmy Award – the only Australian recipient in 2020.

It has resonated with audiences right around the world, with the second series already being picked up in Germany, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, Canada and South Africa.

Season 2 has also been selected to screen and compete at the 38^th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in November.

ACTF Executive Producer, Bernadette O’Mahony said: “It’s wonderful to see that audiences right across the globe love this warm and funny series as much as we do. Hardball is full of clever and engaging storylines and hilarious new characters, and now UK fans will have the opportunity to follow the hilarious new exploits of Mikey, Tiffany, Salwa and Jerry in Season 2.”

Hardball 1 is a fish-out-of-water live-action comedy which tells the story of Mikey, who moves from New Zealand to Western Sydney and finds himself in the thick of the ultra-competitive world of schoolyard handball.

In Hardball 2, Mikey and his friends go on an epic adventure to win the state doubles handball tournament, but newly arrived twin sporting villains and a sweet scholarship opportunity for Mikey threaten to split up the gang for good.

Hardball and Hardball 2 are distributed worldwide by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.

The series was produced by Northern Pictures with production funding from Screen Australia, Create NSW and the ACTF for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.