THE Lake District’s best-known children’s characters have undergone a 21st Century makeover – more than a century after Beatrix Potter unveiled them to the public.

The new-look Peter Rabbit and friends like Squirrel Nutkin and Jeremy Fisher, launched to a national television audience today (Christmas Day) at 9.25am on BBC1, and later on CBeebies at 4.10pm.

A further 50 episodes of 11 minutes long follow in spring 2013.

Programme makers say they took great care in trying to accurately represent the Lake District landscape first seen in the The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published by Frederick Warne & Co in 1902.

However, opinion is always likely to remain split between those who prefer the books to the celluloid version.

The cast of 2012 is strikingly different from the originals, which were sketched and then painted in watercolour.

With the brushstrokes smoothed by the latest CGI wizardry, the series still features the Lake District landscape but swaps the character’s stiff children’s dress of the late Victorian era for the more casual fashions of today.

Beatrix originally holidayed in the area and bought the now four star hotel and restaurant Lindeth Howe at Longtail Hill, Bowness, and Hilltop at Near Sawrey, now run by the National Trust.

She regularly explored the woods and fields, caught and tamed wild animals and sketched and painted them.

In order to build the 3D sets and backgrounds, the creative team involved took over 3,500 photographs of the Lake District’s forests, hilltops, farmyards and lanes.

The images were then used to reference Potter’s watercolour painting style. They feature representations of Sawrey and Esthwaite Water and the entrance to Peter’s burrow is a real tree near Sawrey.

Real buildings and farms from the area also feature.

It was a double boost for Beatrix Potter and the Lake District’s image on Christmas Day, with the showing of the 2007 Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter on BBC2 and then on ABC1 in Australia on Boxing Day.

Ian Stephens, managing director of Cumbria Tourism, hailed the ‘prime time exposure’ for the area over Christmas and into spring.

“The revisioning of these classic tales and the introduction of new characters will bring Miss Potter’s tales and our beautiful county to life for audiences across the globe.

In early January, Sean Wilson’s brand new series The Great Northern Cook Book will be on Channel 5 showcasing some classic Cumbrian treats, and ITV1 will also show off the Lakes in Rory Bremner’s Great British Views.”

“All of this film and TV activity both nationally and internationally will help keep the Lake District, Cumbria, in the spotlight as one of the UK’s premier visitor destinations in 2013.’’