Tiger Aspect productions, part of Endemol Shine Group UK, has been commissioned to make a one-off Christmas special of Aliens Love Underpants AND…. Packed with underpants loving aliens, action, adventure and catchy Christmas songs, Aliens Love Panta Claus will be perfect Christmas viewing. The special is based on the popular picture book of the same title written by Claire Freedman, illustrated by Ben Cort and published by Simon and Schuster.

The brand new festive episode, 1×30’, which will premiere in 2018 on Sky One, before being available on all Sky’s on demand platforms including the Sky Kids app and NOW TV, sees the aliens giving away underpants because it’s Christmas. But when they realise they have a famous pair of underpants that could halt Christmas for everyone, they jump in to action to save the day and help Santa deliver all his presents by spaceship.

This festive special follows on from the success of the shorts series of Aliens Love Underpants AND… which launched on Sky Kids last year and Disney Junior, in the US, at the beginning of 2018.

All animation will be produced in-house at Tiger Aspect, led by Head of Animation and Kids, Tom Beattie (Mr Bean, Charlie and Lola, Tinga Tinga Tales). David Schweitzer, whose credits include some of the best loved children’s TV programmes (Charlie and Lola, Mike the Knight and Q Pootle 5), will score and compose the songs. The episode is written by Henry Paker (Michel McIntyre’s Big Show BBC One, Josh BBC Three). Confirmed voice talent includes Matt Lucas (Santa Claus), Ashley Jensen (Mrs Claus) with the aliens voiced by Romesh Ranganathan, Joanna Page, Mathew Baynton and more to be announced soon.

Tom Beattie, Head of Animation and Kids at Tiger Aspect said; “With Santa Claus, spaceships, aliens and underpants, what more could you want from a Christmas special! It’s great news that we are able to bring such a fun story to life on Sky.”

Head of Sky Kids, Lucy Murphy said of the commission: “We pride ourselves on bringing viewers more of the content they love and having seen the success of the Aliens Love Underpants AND… song shorts, it was a natural fit for us to commission a Christmas special with both our animated friends and the team at Tiger Aspect. This is a joyously silly story with such lovable characters and we know the whole family will love it – and won’t be able to stop singing along.”

The Aliens Love Underpants AND… series is being distributed by Endemol Shine International with licensing through Endemol Shine Group.