When Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray last month, he left a giant hole that we thought would remain empty forever – a hole that only a nutbag running round the outback grabbing poisonous snakes and waggling them around could fill.

However, just six weeks after Steve Irwin's death and that hole has already been plugged – by Steve Irwin's eight-year-old daughter Bindi Irwin. It's been reported that Bindi Irwin has signed up to star in Bindi, The Jungle Girl, a 26-part series for the Discovery Kids network. And don't worry if you think that an eight-year-old child won't be able to hold together a high-profile documentary show like Bindi, The Jungle Girl – Bindi Irwin's co-star in the series is none other than her father Steve Irwin… from beyond the grave.

The death of Steve Irwin sent ripples of shock around the world, shock that someone so young and enthusiastic as Steve Irwin could have his life so cruelly taken away from him, shock that – after a lifetime of holding his face millimetres away from the planet's most dangerous animals – Steve Irwin was killed by something as girly as a stingray, shock that slack-jawed Australians started going on a vengeful stingray killing-spree and shock that Russell Crowe thought that starring as Steve Irwin in a biopic would be in bad taste.  

However, Steve Irwin's death wasn't entirely without hope – at his memorial service the star of the show was his eight-year-old daughter Bindi, who read Steve's eulogy with all the slick professionalism of a hardened stage-school starlet. And the unnerving ease in which Bindi Irwin spoke to a televised audience of millions didn't go unnoticed – Discovery Kids has given Bindi Irwin her own TV show entitled Bindi, The Jungle Girl. Read what Bindi Irwin has to say about Bindi, The Jungle Girl and remember that she's only eight years old:

"I'm trying to get across the message that don't be afraid of animals, they're just put on this earth to help the environment and everything like that. Bindi, The Jungle Girl is really lucky because she lives in a tree house and she gets lots of animals in and out. She hangs out with lots of wildlife. She just loves kissing a koala or hugging a snake. Some people think that I would be afraid of them, but I'm never ever afraid of an animal. I just get excited, and some that are dangerous I just think, 'Ooh! What's going to happen?' and things like that."

Given that if we were in Bindi Irwin's place we'd have been furiously pitching a show called The Bindi Irwin Goes Apeshit At Some Animals With A Clawhammer Hour, her enthusiasm for conservation should be applauded. As for the decision to keep slipping old footage of Steve Irwin into Bindi, The Jungle Girl without ever acknowledging that he's dead… well, that probably deserves a little less applause, even if Bindi Irwin's manager John Stainton thinks it'll all be fine:

"We'll never refer to the fact that Steve's no longer with us. The way that it works is that Steve plays costar to Bindi."

And also, some people might think that getting a child of such vulnerable age like Bindi Irwin to quickly fill in the death of her father so quickly and in such a high-profile way during his memorial service might be harmful to her somewhere down the line. But John Stainton's got words for those people too:

"Bindi was a contender because, you know, she's quite comfortable talking out in front of a crowd and was quite composed, so she was going to be a starter. I think she was probably the star attraction of the whole memorial service. I think they don't understand that this little girl is very much enjoying what she's doing. It's part of her life. The sort of psychologist or psychiatrists or child counsellors or whatever that jumped on the bandwagon and said it was harmful to her, don't understand the situation whatsoever."

There's no news on when Bindi, The Jungle Girl will go to air yet, but it's sure to be a popular draw, especially to the all-important 'fans of watching preternaturally mature infants kissing poisonous snakes and interacting with their dead relatives in a tree house' demographic.

Read more:

Croc Hunter's Daughter Welcomed To The 'Jungle' – E! Online

[story by Stuart Heritage]