''Tik Tak'' is a Belgian television series. The series aired on BRTN from 1 November 1981 to 1991 and

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

in 2020.

History

The program was conceived by Mil Lenssens when he saw some children fascinated by the broadcast of a lottery draw. The predictable, repetitive mix of colors, movement and musical rhythms he then developed in the program, along with Clien De Vuyst.

Concept

There were 366 episodes produced (enough for one year, with one extra episode for leap years). Each episode begins with sheep (and the occasional dog) at sunset on a rotating platform, and ends with a shadow figure (Ann Ricour), who has all kinds of adventures in five differently colored books. The first broadcast of the program took place on 1 November 1981 on the BRTN (originally called BRT). It was broadcast on Ketnet in Belgium until 2006. The program was sold to about 30 countries, among them Australia, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United States and South Africa. It is thus one of the biggest export products Belgian television has known. On 2 April 2000, '' Hopla'' was released as a

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue th ...

of Tik Tak. Though unrelated, Hopla was also made in Belgium, targeted the same infant demographics, and had little to no dialogue.

''Tik Tak 2.0''

In 2019, a new ''Tik Tak 2.0'' series was remade into 52 HD episodes, now broadcast on

Ketnet Ketnet is a Flemish public children's television channel in Belgium owned and operated by the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie, VRT, Flemish public broadcaster. It broadcasts a mix of locally produced and imported productions on the VR ...

NPO Zappelin NPO Zappelin is a Dutch television program block for younger children that launched as Z@ppelin in September 2000. The brand was created as a counterbalance to violent programming on its commercial competitors. Before Z@ppelin, the programmes w ...

as well as on BBC. The first series aired in 2019 on Ketnet, aired on

on 24 August 2020 and started airing on ABC Kids in Australia on October 7 the same year. A second series of 52 HD episodes began airing on Ketnet and CBeebies in 2020.

In popular culture

In July 2012, the German house duo Digitalism released the song "Falling" from which the clip consisted of fragments of ''Tik Tak''.

Sources

{{Reflist Flemish television shows Belgian children's television shows 1981 Belgian television series debuts 2006 Belgian television series endings Animated preschool education television series 1980s preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series 2010s preschool education television series 2020s preschool education television series 2019 Belgian television series debuts CBeebies VRT 1 original programming 1991 Belgian television series endings 2020 British television series endings