In 1978, and fresh out of the National Film School, I was contacted by Colin Thomas, a producer at BBC Bristol, about a series of short animated films he was producing, based on real conversations. The idea had come up when Bill Mather, head of graphics at BBC Bristol had made a short film based on a recording of his young son auditioning for Bristol Cathedral choir.
In all, six films were made, mainly based on tracks recorded in Bristol but, because the sound recordist couldn’t get anything worth using out of the two places we tried, we finally went with a soundtrack recorded earlier by another student who had been making a documentary on free festivals, with something he captured the morning after a benefit gig.
Not only did I become great friends with Colin and Bill, I first met and made friends with Pete Lord and David Sproxton, the founders of Aardman Animations, who, at the time, were working out of one room in Clifton, Bristol.
The film was transferred to digital media a few years ago by the BFI, but it seems to have lost all its colour, apart from red, languishing in a can.
