Zig and Zag, the larger than life characters from The Big Breakfast, are due to return to television in animated form.

As first reported by industry news website C21, CBBC has ordered a 26-part animated series featuring the loveable characters.

The episodes, which will be 11 minutes each, will be aimed at 6 to 9 year olds. The series will start with the alien duo crash landing on Earth and then observe as they adjust to human life in "humdrum suburbia".

The "bright, vivid and funky" sitcom has been co-written by Zig and Zag's creators, Ciarán Morrison and Mick O'Hara.

The writers, who also voice the aliens, first launched Zig and Zag as puppets in 1987 on The Den, Irish channel RTE's popular children's show. However, it was when Zig and Zag became regulars on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast in 1992 that they became famous.

They were dropped from The Big Breakfast in 1998, but retained cult status and returned in 2002. Their other TV appearances include The Zig And Zag Show on MTV and ITV, Big Brother's Little Brother, and - most recently, from 2011 to 2013 - as hosts of RTE's Zig & Zag's Superbloopers.

The new animated series is being developed by CBBC and RTE in conjunction with JAM Media, the production company that also makes CBBC's semi-animated sitcom Roy.

Zig And Zag will be shown on CBBC and RTE in 2016.

Below is a video featuring the characters appearing alongside Chris Evans on The Big Breakfast to interview an at-the-time relatively unknown Ant & Dec about Byker Grove: