Pablo (TV series)


Pablo is a British-Irish children's television series that premiered on CBeebies on 2 October 2017 and created by Grainne McGuinness. The series follows the adventures of Pablo James, a five-year-old autistic boy, and his imaginary anthropomorphized animal friends, the Book Animals, who go on adventures in Pablo's "Art World". It is a hybrid of live action sequences and 2D animation. The series features a voice cast and writing team who are all autistic.
It also broadcasts internationally, including on ABC Kids, Nat Geo Kids, CBC Kids, and S4C.
On 11 October 2021 it was announced a third series was in development. This season will be reworked, with Pablo now eight years old and with a redesigned art style, and be for an older audience. On 1 April 2022, BBC Children's announced it had commissioned the third series, although in October 2024 it was refocused into a spin-off called Pablo: Boy Meets School, with Crayola joining to produce along with Cake and Paper Owl, it is set to release in March 2026.

Format

Series 1 & 2 (2017–20)

A typical episode will begin in the real world, where Pablo will be engaging in some sort of activity. When encountering a problem or something he doesn't understand, the episode will transition into an animated "art world", represented by Pablo's drawings. There, Pablo and the Book Animals will work together to solve whatever problem is at hand.

''Pablo: Next Level'' (2026)

The spin-off follow up series will send a now eight year old Pablo to primary school, a fascinating and at times overwhelming place. With the Book Animals at his side, Pablo will face new challenges and adventures.

Characters

  • Pablo James : the kind and playful protagonist. He loves to draw things in the Art World with his crayons.
  • Mouse : Mouse is very reliable, cute and organized, but she also hates loud sounds, she also talks in third person.
  • Noa : Noa is a Noasaurus who's sensitive, but often doesn't know how to express his feelings. He "stims" by flapping his hands.
  • Tang : Tang is an orangutan who's the big, fun goofball of the group. He's always ready to do anything, but has problems reading social cues and isn't always very careful.
  • Wren : Wren is gentle and loves to sing and flap her wings. Her words in her comforting voice always soothe others when they're in stress.
  • Llama : Llama loves to skip around back and forth on her four legs as physical "stimming". She has echolalia.
  • Draff : Draff is a giraffe who's the smartest of the group. Because of this, he's highly intelligent and precise. His most commonly used phrase is "in point of fact", as he loves explaining things; he represents Pablo's "infodumping" and his catchphrase "point of fact" is his verbal "stimming".
  • Pablo's Mum : caring and attentive, she supports her son in any way she can. She mainly appears in the live-action segments.

Episodes

Series 2 (2019–20)

Starting with "The New Sofa" on 7 October 2019, all the week's Pablo episodes would be made available on BBC iPlayer before their individual broadcast on CBeebies. From "Finger Prince" onwards, however, episodes would only go on iPlayer after their individual broadcast.

Special (2020)

In addition to the main programme, a series of online shorts were produced in 2019. These include Going to School, Pack for School, Making Friends and Everything Pumpkin. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an episode-length special was produced.

Awards

Pablo won Best Preschool Programme at the 2019 Broadcast Awards. It was nominated at the 2018 British Academy Children's Awards in Digital, was a Children’s Finalist at the 2018 Royal Television Society Awards and won the TORC Award for Excellence at the 2018 Celtic Media Festival. It was nominated at the 2021 Irish Animation Awards for Best Animated Preschool Series and Best Writer for Preschool Animation.

Spin-off books

In April 2020, Ladybird began publishing a series of picture books, adapted from previous Pablo episodes. Sumita Majumdar and Andrew Brenner, who wrote on the series, oversaw these.
  1. Goodnight Pablo,
  2. Pablo and the Noisy Party,
  3. Pablo Picks His Shoes,
  4. Pablo’s Feelings,
  5. Pablo Goes Shopping,
  6. Pablo at the Zoo,
There will also be "Ladybird Readers" Level 1 books, designed to aid children develop their speech, reading and writing skills.
  1. Pablo Chooses His Shoes,
  2. Are You Sad, Pablo?,
  3. Pablo: Noisy Party,

Stage version

In 2019, it was announced Selladoor Worldwide is developing a stage musical adaptation of Pablo, in collaboration with Paper Owl Films. The original creative team will be involved.