BBC to show short Aardman animations voiced by viewers from Wales

The BBC has announced it will broadcast a host of short films created by Aardman Animations which have been voiced by viewers from across the UK – with one featuring a family from Port Talbot.

Three of the six films will air on Friday and feature unscripted dialogue from audience members matched with stop-motion clay animal characters created by the studio behind the Wallace And Gromit and Shaun The Sheep films.

Port Talbot hamsters

The first of the 30-second films features a family from Port Talbot in Wales, transformed into hamsters, who talk about the TV shows they like to watch, and a family from Birmingham, reimagined as foxes, talk about their love for MasterChef.

There will also be a father and son from Paisley, near Glasgow, depicted as dogs in the back seat of a car, who will discuss how they related to a son and father team who appeared in Race Across The World.

The three films will air on BBC One on Friday before The One Show and will appear across BBC coverage throughout 2024, as well as in cinemas and across social media platforms.

“Things We Love”

The shorts, with dialogue from audiences’ descriptions of BBC content, form part of the corporation’s Things We Love campaign, which aims to provide an entertaining insight into the UK’s favourite BBC content.

The collaboration between the broadcaster and the animation studio is a return to Aardman’s Creature Comforts’ format, which originally appeared as a short film in a documentary style and applied it to the lives of wild animals and pets.

The families in the films were discovered through the corporation’s audience engagement programme, where thousands of people are interviewed each year about their opinions on the BBC and its coverage.

Three more films created by Aardman Animations, representing other parts of the UK, will be released later in the spring.

The independent studio is also known for 2000 film Chicken Run, which was recently followed by a sequel, Dawn Of The Nugget, released on Netflix in late 2023.

Charlotte Moore, BBC chief content officer, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with Aardman, and as ever their brilliantly distinctive creative flair is stamped all over these charming films.

“I think Aardman have perfectly captured the essence of the affection we know audiences across the UK feel for our programmes, and I hope they make everyone smile.”

Creature Comforts revival

Sarah Cox, chief creative director at Aardman, said: “Aardman is very proud of our long-standing relationship with the BBC so we were delighted to revive our much-loved Creature Comforts format for its Things We Love campaign.

“The magic and joy of this type of animation is that all the dialogue is unscripted and selected from real conversations with members of the public from across the UK – and that’s where so much of the warmth and the humour and the storytelling comes from.

“The interviews inspire the claymation animal character scenarios. We hope that viewers love these new creatures as much as we do.”

“Chuffed”

The family from Port Talbot said: “We are so chuffed seeing our family in this film! It’s captured our everyday laughter, banter and chit chat.

“I’m sure every family can relate to times like these. Enjoying every moment, all from a place of love.”

The One Show will take a behind-the-scenes look at how the films were made and introduce the voices behind them when the show airs on Friday at 7pm on BBC One.