CMC 2018: Report – The Making of ‘Gudrun: The Viking Princess’
The session opened with a showreel from Children’s Media Network Scotland followed by a conversation between Alix Wiseman from 9 Story Media Group and the programme’s writer and producer at Maramedia, Simon Parsons. Simon explained how the commission came about after a casual conversation with Kay Benbow, CBeebies Controller at the time. Natural History producers Maramedia were making a series for PBS about the Vikings. They were able to piggyback a pilot shoot for Gudrun during some PBS filming scheduled with a Viking boat and the show was commissioned from the pilot. Kay explained that she “liked the idea of a strong female lead who was a princess but not the princess you might expect". It was a…