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C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ continues its commitment to educating and entertaining young minds with two new science series.

Space Hoppers is a brand new seven x 30-minutes interplanetary adventure featuring physicist Professor Brian Cox and, following the success of the first season of Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, there will be a further 26 x 30-minutes of the popular science-based gameshow.

Anne Gilchrist, Controller of C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, who commissioned both series, said: "It's great for C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to have two such powerful science series. It is perfect inspirational material for an audience which is constantly curious about the world around them and how it works."

These programmes are part of C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s commitment to producing 550 hours of factual programming in 2009/10.

Space Hoppers will launch in 2010, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Year of Science, and is being made in conjunction with ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Science's series Seven Wonders Of The Solar System, which will also be presented by Professor Cox.

In Space Hoppers, our intrepid travelers Dan and Steve team up with Brian to investigate worlds beyond our planet and try to find out exactly what you would need to do to take a holiday in outer space and do a bit of space hopping.

They will delve into the wonders of the Solar System, blending global adventures with explosive experiments, and quirky animation with state-of-the-art CGI.

In each episode, Dan, Steve and Brian will explore a holiday-related theme, from holidays in (or on) the Sun to volcano-spotting. Their search will take in extreme environments, wild weather and the best places in the Solar System to "enjoy" a bit of snow and ice.

Space Hoppers is a collaboration between the London Factual department and C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. It will be executive produced for C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ by Peter Davies and for Factual by Andrew Cohen. The Series Producer is John Piper.

The first series of Richard Hammond's Blast Lab, broadcast earlier this year, was a huge success for C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, peaking with a 23.3% share with 6 to 12-year-old viewers.

The series is set in a fictitious underground laboratory in the grounds of his supposed stately home. Richard invites two groups of three friends into his lab to take part in his crazy experiments and compete against each other to win prizes.

Each show focuses on a different scientific theme and experiments are designed to have true 'take away' value, so children can seek to replicate these at home if they wish.

Richard said: "I can't wait to get back in the lab and get on with some science. I had to give my Lab Rats a bit of time off after the last series, but if they have too long away from the lab they forget important stuff, like putting explosive chemicals away safely and washing. Actually, it's the forgetting to wash that's the worst.

"But I am over the moon that we'll be making another series; it turned out to be everything we wanted it to be and more and I think we really are bringing science to life and making it available to kids everywhere.

"I loved science at school but quickly felt that, as someone who was probably going to end up as a writer or a painter, science really wasn't for me after all and so I kind of dropped out after a while.

"I think that happens to a lot of kids and now Blast Lab is all about letting them feel that, whether they want to be a scientist when they grow up or painter or an astronaut, science is about explaining why things do what they do, from paint drying to spaceships flying."

The second instalment of the first series of Blast Lab will begin on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two on Saturday 20 June 2009 at 8.30am, repeated on C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ on Monday 22 June at 4.30pm.

Richard Hammond's Blast Lab is executive produced by Alison Gregory for C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and by Peter Wyles for DCD-owned September Films.

Notes to Editors

C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ won the Children's Channel of the Year Award at the Children's BAFTAs in November 2008.

Figures show that C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is one of the most-loved channels for children, reaching more six to 12 year olds than any other children's channel, and it is 7% points ahead of nearest competitor, Disney.

The success of the relaunch lives on with the C³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ channel reaching almost a third of all six to 12 year olds in digital homes in the UK (based on weekly reach).

TD