Vancouver: The first episode of children’s series Magician’s House – the international coproduction between Vancouver’s Forefront Entertainment, ctv and the bbc – brought in an impressive 6.1 million viewers when it aired Oct. 31 on BBC One.

According to Forefront, the figure reflects viewer numbers measured during three-minute sweeps; Forefront also says it’s 30% of available viewers during the children’s primetime hour of 6 p.m. The next best program in that time slot had a 22% audience share.

The large audience was accompanied by rave reviews from the conservative British critics, one of whom called the six-part fantasy series the best of the season, and others who praised the performance of Vancouver actor Katie Stuart. Veteran British actor Ian Richardson also stars in the weekly series.

‘We’re delighted,’ says creative producer Karen Troubetzkoy. ‘That’s a lot of souls watching a single thing. We thought it might go [that big], but we were in the thick of it. It’s an ambitious show with blizzards, talking animals, time travel and two time periods.’

Magician’s House is about three kids who go to stay with an uncle in an old house in Wales for the Christmas holidays. There, they discover a time-traveling magician and go on an adventure reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the current Harry Potter series of stories.

The characters travel from present time to 1599. Summertime Victoria was transformed into wintertime Wales for the production, and Prospero Imaging of Vancouver did the numerous visual effects.

Germany is the first international presale, says Troubetzkoy. And based on the early ratings success, bbc has given Forefront a development order for another six episodes to air next year at this time.

The critical and audience embrace of the show in the u.k. has also given ctv pause to think about its strategies to promote the series at home when Magician’s House airs at year-end. At press time, the Canadian network was to meet with Forefront to discuss the marketing options.

ctv will air the series in a condensed format. It will begin with a special 90-minute movie that only airs in Canada on Dec. 18 and then air the six episodes the week of Dec. 27, concluding on New Year’s Eve.