Peppa Pig has been on television for 22 years. That is the headline fact about Neville Astley and Mark Baker’s preschool series, and it is also the thing that makes it hard to review. Nine seasons. 492 episodes. A first broadcast on 31 May 2004 and a ninth series that began airing in 2025. The show has been broadcast in more than 180 countries. Whatever else is true, this is one of the most durable children’s properties Britain has produced.
Neville Astley, Mark Baker, and the long run
The premise has not moved. Peppa is an energetic piggy who lives with Mummy, Daddy, and little brother George. She loves to jump in mud puddles and make loud snorting noises. That is the whole engine: a family of anthropomorphic animals, a narrator, and small domestic trouble resolved inside five minutes.
John Sparkes narrates. Morwenna Banks voices Mummy Pig and Madame Gazelle. Richard Ridings is Daddy Pig, Frances White is Granny Pig, and Brian Blessed turns up as Grampy Rabbit. Peppa herself has passed through several performers — Lily Snowden-Fine in series 1, Cecily Bloom in season 2, Harley Bird from “Peppa’s Christmas” until “Christmas at The Hospital,” Amelie Bea Smith from “Valentine’s Day” to “House Rules,” and Harriette Cox since “The Big Announcement.” Bird was five when she started.
A franchise Hasbro bought for $3.8 billion
The business is the story now. On 31 December 2019, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One, which included the Peppa Pig franchise, for US$3.8 billion, putting the pig among Hasbro’s main brands. On 16 March 2021, the series was renewed until 2027, with Astley Baker Davies replaced by Karrot Animation. On 17 November 2022, Hasbro said it would sell eOne’s assets, with Peppa Pig staying with Hasbro.
That is a lot of corporate weather for a show about puddles.
What 766 voters settled on
The TMDB audience score sits at 6.5 out of 10 across 766 votes. That is a fair reading of the thing. Peppa Pig is not a masterpiece of the form, and it does not pretend to be. It is efficient, cheap-looking on purpose, and built to survive repetition, which is the only test that matters when a two-year-old controls the remote.
Where it slips is ambition. The palette is flat, the pacing is uniform, and the show rarely risks a real feeling. Peppa Pig entertains. It does not surprise.
The mud puddles are the tell. A gag that good should have been pushed further than it ever was.
Where the show lands
Six and a half is right. Peppa Pig earns its place through endurance and a genuinely strong central character, and it loses the rest on craft. Nine seasons in, the show has not gotten worse. It has also not gotten better, and with the franchise now sitting inside Hasbro’s portfolio and a renewal running to 2027, nobody involved has an incentive to change it.
That is the part worth watching: not whether Peppa Pig survives, but whether Karrot Animation, handed a property this large, ever gets to do anything interesting with it. The early evidence says no.
Key facts
– Created by: Neville Astley and Mark Baker
– Network: 5
– First aired: 31 May 2004
– Ninth series began: 2025
– Seasons: 9
– Episodes: 492
– Broadcast in: over 180 countries
– Hasbro acquired eOne (including Peppa Pig): 31 December 2019, US$3.8 billion
– Renewed until: 2027
– TMDB audience score: 6.5/10 (766 votes)
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