?Shaun the Sheep? Flocking to CBBC

November 2004 -- One of the stars of the Wallace and Gromit films, ?Shawn the Sheep,? is getting his own program on CBBC.

Shawn stole the show when he appeared in the film, ?A Close Shave,? with Wallace and Gromit. Now TV viewers will get the chance to see some of his pals, too.

Episodes lined up for the 40-part series on the CBBC channel in 2006 will include synchronized swimming in a sheep dip.

The wait for the show is due to the fact that each episode takes a long time to make. The company behind ?Shaun the Sheep? is called Aardman Animations, which makes its films through the use of plasticine models. The models have to be moved by hand for every single frame of the show. With 24 frames for every second seen on screen, it can take ages to finish an episode.