The BBC has commissioned six new animated specials from London-based prodco Eagle Eye Drama based on writer and illustrator Quentin Blake’s picture books.

Collectively titled Quentin Blake’s Box of Treasures, the specials will each be 30 minutes long and feature stories from book titles such as Zagazoo (pictured), Loveykins, Jack and Nancy, Snuff, Angel Pavement and Mrs Armitage on Wheels. Eagle Eye will produce hand-drawn animation for the specials, with Belgium’s Creative Conspiracy on board as a co-pro partner. Additional animation services are to be provided by Spicy Acorn (Belgium), Tchack (France) and Kong (UK).

Aardman has been tapped to handle international distribution for the specials, which don’t have fixed broadcast dates on the Beeb yet.

Gerrit Bekers will direct, with Eagle Eye’s Massimo Fenati and Tess Cuming and Creative Conspiracy’s Luc Van Driessche producing. Jo McGrath and Walter Iuzzolino are overseeing the project at Eagle Eye.

Blake is a British publishing institution, and has illustrated more than 300 books for children and adults over the course of his career, including 18 penned by Roald Dahl.

BBC Children’s has been stocking up on kids book adaptations lately, teaming with Toronto’s 9 Story Media Group last fall to turn A Kind of Spark into a TV series, and lining up a new show based on the Tracy Beaker book series in August. The Beeb has mined this particular publishing IP for multiple coming-of-age shows since it first hit shelves in the ’90s.