Animation

“Writing for animation is such a blast. Even for pre-school audiences where most of my work has been, it requires all the skills and obeys all the rules of screenwriting and storytelling, but in microcosm. Also, children are wonderfully savage critics, they don’t do ‘polite’ - if it’s not funny they leave the room!” - RE

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“Mr. Men Christmas special”

Jack's Christmas Letter

“This was so enjoyable, especially working with Adam Hargreaves, son of Roger Hargreaves who created this delightful world of iconic characters.

The challenge was to get as many of the Mr Men and Little Misses involved as possible and at the same time make it a good adventure.

I think we did. Flying on the back of a bird Jack meets most of his Misterland friends and also visits Nonsenseland, Mr Mean’s House, and of course Father Christmas himself – in rather unusual circumstances!

I loved working on it – several months of being a total kid again.”

-RE

“This was so enjoyable, especially working with Adam Hargreaves, son of Roger Hargreaves who created this delightful world of iconic characters.

The challenge was to get as many of the Mr Men and Little Misses involved as possible and at the same time make it a good adventure.

I loved working on it – several months of being a total kid again.” -RE

“This was so enjoyable, especially working with Adam Hargreaves, son of Roger Hargreaves who created this delightful world of iconic characters.

The challenge was to get as many of the Mr Men and Little Misses involved as possible and at the same time make it a good adventure.

I loved working on it – several months of being a total kid again.” -RE

"Joseph"

“This was a fascinating project and huge challenge to compress the sweeping narrative of the Joseph story into half an hour.

It was beautifully made by Christmas Films, an animation studio in Moscow which I visited.

Using hand made and incredibly complex puppet figures, it was filmed in ‘stop frame’ animation – an incredibly painstaking process shooting just a few seconds a day and taking 8 months to create a 30 minute feature.

It was regularly screened by the BBC as part of a series called ‘Testament’ and was nominated for a BAFTA which was immensely pleasing.” - RE

“This was a fascinating project and huge challenge to compress the sweeping narrative of the Joseph story into half an hour.

It was beautifully made by Christmas Films, an animation studio in Moscow which I visited.

It was regularly screened by the BBC as part of a series called ‘Testament’ and was nominated for a BAFTA which was immensely pleasing.” - RE

“This was a fascinating project and huge challenge to compress the sweeping narrative of the Joseph story into half an hour.

It was beautifully made by Christmas Films, an animation studio in Moscow which I visited.

It was regularly screened by the BBC as part of a series called ‘Testament’ and was nominated for a BAFTA which was immensely pleasing.” - RE

“Nellie The Elephant”

“This was my first commission in animation and an exciting departure into a new discipline where I learned a huge amount very quickly, in particular that simplicity is the key.

Based on a concept from director Terry Ward, which in turn was based on the original song, it chronicles the adventures of Nellie the circus elephant as she takes trains, planes, ships, rockets and even a UFO to try and get back to her family in the jungle – because the head of the herd is calling!” RE

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"Timbuctoo"

“This was such fun to work on! Roger Hargreaves (of Mr Men fame) wrote the original series of books but they needed re-working to make into a TV animation series.

I was asked to adapt them by Terry Ward and I wrote all 26 episodes.

The series ran very successfully with continuous repeats, and all the voices and narration are by Ronnie Corbett – wonderful!” -RE

“Dig and Dug with Daisy”

“This was a fun project! Dorling Kindersley, famous for their beautiful children’s learning books, asked me to come up with an animation concept involving two experts showing us round trucks and machinery etc. I said: “Okay but that all sounds pretty boring and unfunny and it won’t make a series. How about two blokes who make a mess of everything because they think they know what they’re doing but don’t?”

And so ‘Dig and Dug’ was born. The only ingredient missing was someone who DID know what they were doing and could always be there to save the day – enter Daisy.

The scripts have a simple repetitive feel to them which young children love and which George Layton’s voice masters wonderfully.

Terry Ward of Flicks Films (Mr Men & Little Miss, Bananaman and Nellie The Elephant), produced and directed the series and it was very popular, I still get people asking about it and it gets thousands of hits on YouTube.

It also paved the way for the massively successful ‘Bob The Builder’ a year or two later – how did we miss that?” -RE

This was a fun project! Dorling Kindersley, famous for their beautiful children’s learning books, asked me to come up with an animation concept involving two experts showing us round trucks and machinery etc. I said: “Okay but that all sounds pretty boring and unfunny and it won’t make a series. How about two blokes who make a mess of everything because they think they know what they’re doing but don’t?”

And so ‘Dig and Dug’ was born. The only ingredient missing was someone who DID know what they were doing and could always be there to save the day – enter Daisy.

The scripts have a simple repetitive feel to them which young children love and which George Layton’s voice masters wonderfully.

It also paved the way for the massively successful ‘Bob The Builder’ a year or two later – Now, where did that idea from, I wonder? -RE

"Busy Buses"

“Written in 2001 and developed with director Terry Ward, it was narrated by Brian Conley. I helped create all of the characters and wrote most of the 39 episodes. It was broadcast in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.” - RE

The series is set in Chumley, the home of Sammy the school bus, Susan the shopping bus, Colin the country bus and a collection of lively and loveable friends.