In the Night Garden Climbs to the Top

BBC Worldwide reports that In the Night Garden is the No. 1 U.K. infant toy license, according to NPD figures to October 2008, and No. 5 in the overall toy and game market.

According to NPD data, In the Night Garden earned almost £18 million ($26 million) at retail, based on year to date toy sales for the same period.

The program, which launched on the BBC in spring 2007, was created by Ragdoll Productions and won Best Preschool Live Action at this year’s Children’s BAFTAs for the second year in a row.

“The value of In the Night Garden to us is in giving children across the country the chance to extend their experience of the fantastic television show through books, DVDs and toys,” says Neil Ross Russell, managing director, BBC Worldwide children’s and licensing. “The royalties that we earn from In the Night Garden also provide valuable revenue which is invested back in to BBC programming and services.”

“In the Night Garden” has been produced by Ragdoll Productions and created by Andrew Davenport, who, with Anne Wood, created the “Teletubbies.”  It is best described as a modern televisual interpretation of a nursery rhyme picture book with loveable characters inhabiting a magical place that exists between waking and sleeping in a child’s imagination.