Ralph's Time-travelling Cartoon Duo Comes to Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon UK and Ireland has commissioned an interactive digital series from London-based creative agency, Ralph. Entitled Tinkershrimp & Dutch, the five minute, five-episode series will premiere across nick.co.uk, nicktoons.co.uk and Nick Play from 15th January with behind the scenes videos of series launching here at nick.co.uk/tinkdutch.

Starring the voice talent of John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Attack the Block) Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) Darren Evans (Submarine, The Fifth Estate) and Alex Lowe (House of Fools, My Week with Marilyn) Tinkershrimp & Dutch is the first Nickelodeon UK original series commissioned specifically for digital platforms.

“Tinkershrimp & Dutch is hilarious with brilliant characters and ingenious storytelling” said Suzie Adams, Digital Director Nickelodeon UK and Ireland. “We want to delight and surprise our audience and are committed to providing great content across all platforms. Tinkershrimp & Dutch is an example of our investment in high-quality entertainment for the digital space.”

The series follows Tinkershrimp (Evans) & Dutch (Boyega) a langoustine and slow loris who are best friends and time-travelling bodyguards for the eccentric monarch of New Great Great Britain, King Hunnybun III (Lowe). The team lives and travels around the country in the Royal Double Decker - a castle on wheels. The nemesis of the series is Michael The Fowl (Riley) a fun-hating headless chicken. Each episode will see Tinkershrimp and Dutch run back in time in order to stop Michael’s dastardly plots. The main theme and score of the series is written and performed by Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand, FFS). The primary character animation was executed at Mummu.

Gregor Stevenson, co-creator of the series said, "We wanted to create characters and a world where anything could happen, so spent a lot of time coming up with the most insane, hyper-British situations we could think of. At the core of it though, is basically a story about a group of friends who are trying to have a good time. Oh, and they can travel back in time to foil the schemes of Michael The Fowl, our evil headless chicken.”

Those who access the series on the network’s websites will be able to take part in interactive activities within the series such as helping Tinkershrimp and Dutch spot Michael the Fowl in order to thwart his latest devious plan and creating Michael The Fowl’s disguise. On Nick Play, the episodes will play as a linear narrative without the interactive elements. Created by Gregor Stevenson and Chris Stack, Tinkershrimp & Dutch was pitched as a response to brief from Nickelodeon UK & Ireland digital team. Nickelodeon UK & Ireland holds all broadcast rights for the series.