With Turner Broadcasting’s preschool brand Cartoonito set to roll out across EMEA on Monday, the channel has announced its first pan-EMEA commission.

UK indie Adastra, creator of Grandpa in my Pocket, is producing 52 x 12-minute episodes of the live-action/animated series The Ha! Ha! Hairies, which is slated for a 2012 premiere. Turner has also secured all licensing and merchandising rights for the series, which will join a Cartoonito pan-EMEA line-up that includes Bananas in Pyjamas (Endemol), Jelly Jamm (Vodka Capital) and Baby Looney Tunes (Warner Bros Animation).

Aimed at kids ages four to six, The Ha! Ha! Hairies is being scripted in English and Welsh.  S4C is the commissioning Welsh-language broadcaster.

The commission marks another major investment by Turner Broadcasting in the UK kids’ production sector, including a second season of its own UK-produced series The Amazing World of Gumball and a Ben 10-based game show from UK indie Twenty Twenty called Ben 10: Ultimate Challenge.