Horrid Henry (TV series)

Horrid Henry is an animated children's television series based on the British children's book series of the same name by Francesca Simon. Produced by British company Novel Entertainment (in association with Canadian company Nelvana Limited for series 1 only), it was broadcast from 30 October 2006 to 17 May 2019 on CITV. It is currently available to stream on Netflix in the UK. 250 episodes were produced in total.

Production and development
The series was first announced to be in development on 2 October 2003, when Novel Entertainment announced they had secured exclusive TV, film and home entertainment rights to the franchise from Orion Children's Books. They then announced that a planned animated series was in development, which would feature a new animation style that would bring the books to life. More information was confirmed in March 2004. At Cartoon Forum 2004, 26 episodes would be produced, although no release window was announced at the time.

On 7 May 2008, CITV commissioned a second season for the series.

On 10 February 2011, CITV commissioned a third season.

The series producer is Lucinda Whiteley and the animation director is Dave Unwin. The animation style differs from the Tony Ross illustrations in the books. The series has broadcast in more than 90 countries, including France, United States, Germany, South Africa, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Russia, the Philippines and Australia.

The incidental music is composed by Lester Barnes, and additional songs are composed by Lockdown Media. Three series were aired, with 52 episodes each. The fourth series started on 11 October 2014 with another 52 episodes making it 208 in total.

On 10 May 2018, Nicktoons UK announced they had acquired the broadcast rights to all the seasons of the show, and it premiered on 28 May 2018 on Nicktoons in the UK and Ireland with a special "Horrid Half Term". On the same day, Novel Entertainment ordered 42 new episodes slated to start airing in 2019. Series 5 took the episode count to 250 in total.

Horrid Henry was broadcast on Nicktoons UK in May 2018 and quickly became the channel's most popular show. In 2019, the series was the number three most-watched animation across all the UK's commercial TV services.

CITV lost the rights to the series to Nickelodeon in January 2019, just a few months before the fifth series ended in May that year.

Beginning in 2020, with the successful release of the Horrid Henry's Wild Weekend special, Novel Entertainment announced they would be producing a series of one-hour specials for Netflix, beginning with Horrid Henry's Gross Day Out.

Merchandising
On 11 October 2006, Novel appointed the Copyright Promotions Licensing Group as the British and the European licensing agent for the series.

On 19 May 2009, Novel appointed Stella Projects as the licensing agent for the series in Australia and New Zealand.

Clothing
On 23 July 2007, CPLG appointed Blues Clothing to produce a range a line of nightwear and underwear.

Toyline
A toyline for the series was announced by CPLG in January 2008 for a Fall release window.

Soundtracks
On 17 November 2008, Novel Entertainment signed a record deal with EMI to release Horrid Henry's Most Horrid Album, which consisted of new music from the series which would later be featured in Series 2 of the show and was previously featured in the Live and Horrid Live Show. It was released on 1 December 2008.

In December 2019, Horrid Happy Christmas was released on Spotify and iTunes.

Horrid Henry's Horrid Album was released on 14 January 2020. New tracks including My Song, Born To Be Rude, Wanna Be Me and Too Cool For School featured on the Vue Cinema special and will be released on the album.

Video games
On 27 January 2009, CPLG and Novel Entertainment appointed Asylum Entertainment as the show's video game partner. On 1 June 2009, it was announced that SouthPeak Games would co-publish and distribute the game. The game: Horrid Henry: Missions of Mischief, was released for the Nintendo DS and Wii on 4 December 2009. The game was later released on Microsoft Windows, and altogether sold 100,000 units on all three platforms in the UK.

A second game: Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure was released in November 2010 for the Nintendo DS. On 25 November 2011, Asylum and Koch Media released Horrid Henry: The Good, The Bad and the Bugly for the Nintendo 3DS.

On 21 January 2022, P2 Entertainment released Horrid Henry's Krazy Karts for the Nintendo Switch eShop. A Microsoft Windows port was released on 30 June 2022 on Steam.

Apps
In December 2010, Novel announced they would release an IOS application based on the series.

Live show
On 5 June 2008, Novel Entertainment announced a theatrical stage show titled Horrid Henry: Live and Horrid. Produced by Watershed Productions and Sheffield Theatres, the show opened at Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield on 28 August 2008, with previews from 26 August, and ran at the venue until 13 September. After which, the show toured the UK at locations such as High Wycombe, Bromley, Newcastle, Hull, Liverpool, and Bradford. During Christmas 2008, the show was showcased in London's West End to great fanfare.

In January 2009, it was announced that the show would tour again for the 2009 season due to popular demand during its run. The second run of the show started in Oxford in April before the show travelled to Coventry, Wolverhampton, Nottingham and Cambridge. During the Christmas season that year, the show toured Manchester's Dancehouse

Radio series
During August and December 2009, Horrid Henry took to the airwaves with his own radio show on Fun Kids Radio, hosting a weekly show of comedy and music.

International broadcast
On 22 February 2007, Novel announced that Nelvana Enterprises would distribute the series worldwide except in the UK and Germany. Other than CITV in the UK, RTÉ in Ireland and ZDF in Germany already acquired the rights to the series in the respective countries.

On 19 February 2008, Novel transitioned the show's international distribution to Little Bird Rights. By March, the series was pre-sold to Disney Channel in France, RÚV in Iceland, SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway and YLE in Finland, with broadcast deals in South Africa, Turkey and Portugal being negotiated. In October 2008, the broadcast rights for the three regions were pre-sold to MNet, Digiturk and RTP respectively, in addition to a Polish deal with Op Art.

In Malta, the series aired on PBS. In the United States, it was available for streaming on Netflix until 2023. It is also on Amazon Prime Video, where it is currently available. In the Middle East and North Africa, the series has previously aired on M-Net and Disney XD, as of now, it currently airs on Nicktoons. In 2014, Cartoon Network and Boomerang acquired the series for Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, South-East Asia, South Korea and Taiwan. In the MENA region, it is being aired on Jeem TV. In 2018, the series premiered in Canada on Toon-A-Vision.

In Wales, the series was dubbed in Welsh and aired on children's block "Stwnsh" on S4C and was titled "Henri Helynt". In France, the series was dubbed into French under the title "Lucas la Cata" and aired on Disney Channel. In Ireland, the series was dubbed into Irish under the title "Dónal Dána" and aired on TG4. In India, the series was later acquired by Sony YAY! and aired on that channel under the title Haste Raho Henry.

Horrid Henry: Unlocked!
It was revealed that a podcast entitled Horrid Henry: Unlocked! would be broadcast on Spotify and iTunes every Sunday and was presented by Lizzie Waterworth (as herself and Henry), and children's radio presenter "Silly" Sean Thorne. The series features a variety of fun and games, as well as short stories narrated by the title character. It was revealed that the podcast would have a second series during the Autumn, however, the series was postponed until a later date.

Episodes

 * 26 April 2020 - Not So Fun Run!
 * 3 May 2020 - Name Game!
 * 10 May 2020 - The Lost Dog!
 * 17 May 2020 - The Time Capsule!
 * 24 May 2020 - Sleepover!
 * 31 May 2020 - Favourite Day!
 * 7 June 2020 - The Big Dig!
 * 14 June 2020 - Champion Chef!
 * 21 June 2020 - Gone Fishing!
 * 28 June 2020 - Perfect Peter, Popstar!
 * 5 July 2020 - Pet Sitting Service!
 * 12 July 2020 - Smelly Stuff!