A co-pro deal between Abu Dhabi-based twofour54 ibtikar and the UK’s 3Line Media will bring a new educational Arabic/English children’s series to the UK’s CBeebies.

Driver Dan’s Story Train is a 52 x 11-minute animation/live-action series created by British author and illustrator Rebecca Elgar. Animated animal characters introduce preschool viewers to the joy of reading by exploring a children’s storybook in each ep.

twofour54 will be developing and producing the series for the Arabic-speaking region, along with sourcing and producing original stories from Arab authors as it looks to bring the series to the Middle East and North Africa region. The format has been developed specifically to enable the program to be localized for its audience in each country. Instead of re-formatting or dubbing into Arabic, the twofour54 will produce live-action footage of real children responding and play-acting to the story.

The series is slated for its CBeebies debut in spring 2010.