London, 25 June 2007. Talent Television, a wholly owned subsidiary of Talent Group plc, has been commissioned by CBBC to produce a further 40 episodes of its hit children’s reality series for 6-12 year olds “Best of Friends”.

Executive produced by Head of Talent Kids Annie Miles, and commissioned by Anne Gilchrist Creative Director for CBBC, “Best of Friends” has become one of CBBC’s most successful kids’ entertainment shows. The format was developed in-house at Talent by Jonathan Wolfman from an original idea by Mark Robson.

To date, Talent has made 56 half hour episodes which comprise three UK series, plus five African specials of the format which tests the real friendships of boys and girls. Currently airing on the CBBC channel and BBC One, the half hour format features ten year old boys and girls who are taken to task to prove just how much their mates really mean to them. The main theme of the programme is that ‘friendship matters’, and of course there are plenty of opportunities for the kids to get their own back on the presenters when they are dared to take on the tasks.

“Best of Friends” made its international debut at MIP-TV earlier this year following an agreement signed between Talent and UK independent distributor Bullseye Television. A number of broadcast and format deals are currently being negotiated with announcements imminent.

Annie Miles, Head of Talent Kids said: ““Best of Friends” has become a must-watch programme for children in the UK and is an established part of the CBBC schedule, We are delighted that the broadcaster has made a further commitment to this growing brand.”

For further information please contact:

Janet Balmforth at Blueprint PR
Tel: +44 (0) 208 868 0511
E Mail: janet@blueprintpr.co.uk

Notes to editors:

Talent Television (part of Talent Group plc) is a leading independent UK format creator and producer of innovative television, video and interactive programming. The Company's reputation for prime-time entertainment programming is unrivalled. The “Test the Nation” series for BBC1 is now well established as a scheduling event which combines the excitement of live network television with state-of-the-art interactive television and web technology.

Talent produces a wide range of entertainment and factual programming for a broad spectrum of terrestrial and cabsat broadcasters in the UK, US and worldwide. Current credits include reality documentary “Corkscrewed”, co-produced with LA-based Magic Pictures Inc for Sky One and Fox Reality, and controversial documentaries “The Man With 80 Wives” and “9/11: The Curse of Compensation” for Channel 4. Talent was also a pioneer in reality television with “The Villa”, which was first produced in 1999 for Sky One.

Talent Kids, the children's division, develops high quality, innovative programming for kids. “Best of Friends” is a hit breakthrough reality entertainment format for 6-11 year olds produced for CBBC, now in its third year with over 55 episodes produced, and Talent also works with Cartoon Network producing the live-action sequences for its innovative hit format “Skatoony”, a live-action/cartoon game show now in its second series.