Child’s play creates a world without grown-ups

“It might sound rather Lord of the Flies but that’s not where I got the idea from,” says Alison, from York.

“I got the idea from the Large Hadron Collider. At the time, everyone was speculating what would happen when it was switched on. Would everything disappear?

“I thought ‘what would children want to happen’ and, of course, they would want the grown-ups to disappear.”

The Sparticle Mystery has proved very popular and follows on the BAFTA award-winning success of Alison’s children series, Summerhill, based on the school where the children make up the rules and decide what lessons to attend.

“I’d done it on a small scale in a school and I thought for this series what would it be like to do it on a much bigger scale; it seemed like a natural progression.”

As well as the ensemble cast of children, the series features a customised police van, the Spartavan, which has now taken up residence outside her Nether Poppleton home.

“I love it,” she says. “Although I’m not so sure the neighbours are too pleased about it.”

However, the programme itself is proving to have a good following, and Alison is hopeful it will be repeated on the BBC2.

One of The Sparticle Mystery’s fans just happens to be the daughter of the PR for the Large Hadron Collider.

“He saw me talking about The Sparticle Mystery on television and has now invited me to go and see it for myself in the very near future. I can’t wait.”

Alison’s own three children, aged 14, 12 and seven, were key in the development of The Sparticle Mystery.

“They really help me with ideas and I do run things past them and they will tell me if they’re rubbish. They are my biggest fans and my harshest critics.”

The Sparticle Mystery was made thanks to Alison’s own production company and money from the TV licence.

“All television is being squeezed at the moment, it is really tough out there. But, hopefully, as long as the licence fee is there, good quality children’s drama will continue to be made.

“CBBC is the last bastion of good quality children’s programmes

“There is a lot of choice out there for children, but they are very loyal when they find something they like. They also have more ways than ever of viewing things, such as through iPlayer.”

Alison is more than aware that her writing has to reflect the age in which today’s children live.

“In The Sparticle Mystery, when the adults go missing, the first thing all the children do is reach for their mobile phones. I decided that the explosion had wiped out all the signals, and it is amazing how liberating it is to live in a world with no mobile phones ringing all the time.

“I want to reflect the inclusive world we now live in. I really like writing children’s drama. There is so much more freedom.”

ALISON HUME: TV AND FILM CREDITS

ALISON Hume trained at the Northern Film School and on the Carlton new writers’ course before getting her first broadcast credit on The Vice.

Work since includes the award-winning Beaten (BBC1) about domestic violence; feature film Pure about drug addiction, her own BBC1 prime-time series, Rocket Man, starring Robson Green; the much-praised and Children’s BAFTA-winning Summerhill.

She is currently working on a new adult detective series.