NODDY is likely to gain new friends in Toy Town after his owner, Chorion, revealed it was trying to acquire the rights to the Mr Men characters.

The company has entered exclusive talks with the Hargreaves Organisation to purchase the 79 Mr Men characters and is also negotiating a separate deal to buy broadcast rights.

The combined deals are expected to cost in the region of £25m to £35m as Chorion expands its investment in its children's portfolio - six months after it put the division up for sale.

They also come a week after Chorion rebuffed a takeover approach from rival group Entertainment Rights, home to Basil Brush and Postman Pat.

The company described that approach as "unwelcome and unsolicited" and the latest in a series of hostile efforts by Entertainment Rights to take control of Chorion.

Speculation in the City said the takeover bid was an attempt to gatecrash the talks between Chorion and the family of Mr Men creator Roger Hargreaves.

More than 100 million Mr Men books have been sold since 1971, making them the second most popular children's books after Harry Potter.

The Mr Men empire was born when seven-year-old Adam Hargreaves asked his father what a "tickle" looked like.