ABSTRACT
In the late 1970s, a new approach to animation was used at the BBC in Bristol (England), when a series was produced by Colin Thomas called Animated Conversations. Real conversations were recorded in their natural setting – for example, a hippy commune, a pub or a dentist’s surgery. Pete Lord and David Sproxton at Aardman Animations chose a Salvation Army hostel – they then developed characters from this dialog and animated to it. Their fi lm Down and Out created a lot of interest and the idea was then taken up by Channel 4 – a new series, called Conversation Pieces, was commissioned. Aardman directed a total of 10 pieces for this and the following Lip Sync series. It was for this series that their new animator, Nick Park, made one of his best and most memorable fi lms, Creature Comforts.
