JoJo & Gran Gran


JoJo & Gran Gran is a British children's animated television series based on the semi-autobiographical picture book Jo-Jo and Gran-Gran, All in a Week by Laura Henry-Allain MBE. It is the first animated series to focus on a Black British family. It first premiered on 16 March 2020 and airs on weekdays on CBeebies. In the United States, it was released on the Noggin streaming app 14 June 2021. The series moved to Tubi after the closure of the Noggin app.

Premise

JoJo is an inquisitive and cheerful four-and-a-half-year-old girl who lives in London. Her loving Gran Gran looks after her while her parents work and teaches her about the many wonders of life and the world, such as cookery, friendship and her Saint Lucian heritage.
The series also features live-action interviews with real children, which accompany the animated segments, and features the children discussing the topic of the episode and how it relates to their lives and families. Normally, this will then lead to them performing a related activity, such as cooking a particular dish or painting.

Voice cast

Production

With three series, there are 44 episodes per series divided into four seasonal blocks. More than 100 people worked on the production; Tom Cousins is the series' producer and Tony Reed its executive producer. Leo Espinosa designed the characters. BBC Children's In-House Productions announced in 2020 a double season order for a second and third series, set to begin airing in 2022. In the US, the series was released on the Noggin streaming app on 14 June 2021. It is currently available on Tubi.
The series is based on Laura Henry-Allain's book. The main characters are based on herself and her Saint Lucian-born grandmother, Marie-Helena. The High Commission of Saint Lucia and the Saint Lucia tourism authority were consulted for the series.