The family who lose their mouths inThe Twilight Zone.

The candy-striper vampire one inAre You Afraid Of The Dark?And the clown,The Ghastly Grinner!

The magician one inAmazing Stories.

Theres one about a pool and this horrible, fleshy skeleton came out of it and grabbed these kids.

Bede agrees, They didnt damage you, quite the opposite, they fired your imagination.

Isnt it funny, Bede continues, how certain shows from your youth stay with you your entire life?

Thats sure to be the case withCreeped Out, the first episode of which airs today on CBBC.

Im a grown-up with a mortgage and sciatica, and I havent been able to shake the stories yet.

And without being at all po-faced or didactic, theyre also satisfyingly sincere.

Things likeAre You Afraid of the Dark?

Thats something else that you dont get a lot of on kids TV now.

Its often a bit shiny or a bit happy.

One of the aims withCreeped Out, Bede and Robert explain,is to get its young audience talking.

I think kids will talk about these stories, I tell them.

Do you remember the one about the sinister old lady neighbour?

oneCreeped Outfan might say in the future.

What about the one with the evil phone!

Still makes me shiver to think of him.

Mr Blackteeth is the eerie Punch & Judy Show puppet inSlapstick, the first instalment in this thirteen-part anthology.

Some of the episodes have a happy ending, says Bede, but some dont.

They have ambiguous or twist endings, or endings you dont expect.

Theres an ambition for co-viewing withCreeped Out, says Bede.

One element designed to provoke speculation and conversation isCreeped Outs framework character The Curious.

Thats where The Curious came from, explains Robert.

Then that just didnt feel as fresh and was starting to distract from the actual stories themselves.

Whatever it is, its The Curious story-collector!

Its designed to be an evolving urban legend, says Bede.

Story-wise, hes not a threat to the children.

He has his name because he is naturally curious.

Hes not somebody out to do harm.

How does the show approach writing horror for a young audience?

The trouble you run into is if youre deliberately setting out to upset or scare or freak people out.

Eerie stories for children can sometimes fail, says Bede, if theyre approached solely in terms of shocks.

We didnt approach it simplistically in terms of freaking the audience out.

Beyond wanting to protect the audience, the ambition was to be as brave as possible, says Robert.

It was always surprising, Bede says.

One story involved a child falling into a swimming pool, which required delicate handling.

you’re free to only show so much with a child going into a pool, he says.

A creature gets in the ear and turns these girl guides into sort of zombie-punch in characters.

That was a weird one, we could have all these creatures, but we couldnt have an earthworm!

Its this tug of war between good drama and being responsible, Bede concludes.

On the subject of responsibility, the episodes available for preview all share a fable-style moral.

Was that a goal with this series?

We certainly didnt set out to do that, says Bede.

Fables that have an impact culturally often relate back to moral dilemmas, dont they?

Thats as true for kids as it is for grown-ups.

Its always a rich source of storytelling to have a moral or ethical dilemma at the centre.

For us, it was about finding whats an interesting arc for the characters, adds Robert.

A lot of the time, those fables or morals fitted quite nicely.

But we never thought, how can we preach to kids?

That was never the intention.

A lot of those things happened naturally, says Bede.

If youre representing kids in an honest way, these things are going to come through on their own.

Kids really react to that sort of stuff, when they know theyre being taken seriously.

As a format, anthologies are currently enjoying a resurgence on screen.

In addition toBlack MirrorandInside No.

9, theresElectric Dreams,Dimension 404,Channel Zero…

When the idea forCreeped Outwas first conceived four years ago though, that wasnt the case.

Ive rewatched every episode countless times, its genius.

9s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton chief among them.

We loveBlack Mirror,andInside No.

9in particular, says Bede.

Wed love a Japanese story.

Wed love a Mexican story.

Wed love a Scottish Highlands one.

That was our dream.

A globe-trottingTwilight Zonefor kids is a TV concept brimming with geek appeal.

Youll hear character names pop up that cross-populate the world, says Bede.

Look out for plenty of movie references and Easter Eggs too.

Which 1989 Joe Dante film gets a nod in the street name of episodeCat Food?

And in the Ear Worm episode, listen out for a quote from a certain 1980s time-travel classic.

Not all ofCreeped Outs Easter Eggs are movie-related.

The writer-producers received their own blessing of sorts from an unexpected source during filming.

A big inspiration for this was Spielberg in general andAmazing Storiesin particular, says Bede.

As we approached him, we realised it was Christopher Lloyd!

It must have felt like a benediction from an elder!

It did, says Rob.

Were still buzzing off that now.

It felt really weird that happened.

That is one of the series and episodes that massively inspired this.

So if he ever reads this, were not crazy, we reallydohave a show!

Creeped Out series one is available now on Netflix worldwide outside the UK and Canada.