Girl or boy? Peppa Pig and her family prepare for a huge gender reveal party as they count down to the birth of new baby
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Gender reveal parties have become hugely fashionable in recent years, and now the most famous animated family on the planet have joined the trend.
Peppa Pig's parents Mummy and Daddy Pig will reveal the gender of their third piglet at London's Battersea Power Station on Friday night, with the landmark's chimneys lit up in pink and blue in anticipation.
Mummy Pig, whose job involves doing 'very important work' on her computer, and her husband Daddy Pig, who 'takes big numbers, transmutes them and calculates their load-bearing tangents', first announced their surprise pregnancy in February.
Mummy Pig broke the internet when she revealed live on Good Morning Britain that she is pregnant with her third piglet a little brother or sister for Peppa, four and George, two.
Good Morning Britain's showbiz correspondent Richard Arnold landed the exclusive, as Mummy Pig showed off her ultrasound and baby bump and revealed she was due in the summer.
Gender reveal parties have become hugely fashionable in recent years, and now the most famous animated family on the planet have joined the trend
Mummy Pig broke the internet when she revealed live on Good Morning Britain that she is pregnant with her third piglet a little brother or sister for Peppa, four and George, two
Peppa Pig first aired in 2004 and has since been broadcast in 180 territories and translated into 40 languages. It's spawned books, toys and even two theme parks, with the global Peppa empire now worth over £1billion.
Creators Neville Astley and Mark Baker admitted they were worried the idea would never get off the ground, and that people were initially bored of the idea.
People in the pub would ask us, “What are you drawing?” We’d say, “A pig, called Peppa, it’s going to be big.” They’d lose interest and wander off’, explained Astley.
The pair created Peppa and her family working in each other’s houses or at the local pub.
They told the Radio Times they were inspired by 1970s cartoon classics including Roobarb and Pingu, after realising that children ‘like stories about animals’.
We’d made this little trailer for Peppa but hadn’t got anywhere,’ recalled Baker.
‘It’s very difficult to sell your own creative work. The good thing about Phil is he’s quite thick-skinned.’
They soon found an energetic little girl, Lily Snowden-Fine, to voice Peppa - despite her being only four years-old and unable to read, instead repeating lines spoken by her mother.
Peppa Pig's parents will reveal the gender of their third piglet at London's Battersea Power Station on Friday night, with the landmark's chimneys lit up in pink and blue in anticipation
Peppa Pig first aired in 2004 and has since been broadcast in 180 territories and translated into 40 languages
When her family moved to Canada, the job went to Cecily Bloom, followed by current incumbent Harley Bird.
The creators explained that the secret to Peppa’s long-lasting appeal is the show’s simplicity, as well as ensuring the piglet is never the butt of the jokes.
‘We put a lot of work into making everything look as effortless as possible, said Baker.
‘We can laugh at the adults, but children don’t like it if we laugh at the children in the show.’
