THE weather is always a hot topic when it comes to Irish conversation and now it looks set to travel the world in a brand new children’s show.
Nelly and Nora premiered on RTÉ earlier this week and will receive its British debut on CBeebies later this year.
It all began with the programme’s creator Gerard O’Rourke who, while spending weekends away in the family’s mobile home on the Wicklow coast, noticed his children were unfazed by the weather.
“There is a field behind the mobile home and if you look across, you can actually see the weather changing,” he said. “This dictated what we did, but the kids would come in, grab their rain jackets and be back outside playing.”
From that initial lightbulb moment O'Rourke has seen his cartoon, which is aimed at preschool children, enjoy an atmospheric rise to the top.
Nelly and Nora are the two main characters – but the weather is the all-important third character.
The two young sisters are on what O'Rourke describes as a “perpetual summer holiday”, and they take to the outdoors to play – come rain, hail or shine.
The magic to the early success of the animation, O'Rourke believes, is that it has a genuine feel.
“Nobody has done it this way before,” he said. “It came from a natural place. The cartoons that involve planning and deliberation are successes, yes, but ours stands out because it was a genuine and natural idea that just grew.”
Aside from the BBC and RTÉ airings, Nelly and Nora will air on German broadcaster ZDF.
BBC Worldwide have also picked it up – meaning the cartoon all about the elements will soon be going global.
“We feel like we’re exporting the Irish weather internationally,” O'Rourke joked.
The series will also be transformed into a book this year, for those who want to read the adventures of the two girls to their children.
You can catch Nelly and Nora on RTÉ Player now and on CBeebies from this summer.
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