Aardman releases films inspired by unscripted audience voices

The first three films will broadcast on BBC One on Friday before The One Show

A series of 30-second films voiced by unscripted BBC audiences from across the UK are being released.

The six films Things we Love, are produced by Aardman studios and BBC Creative, inspired by Aardman Animations' Creature Comforts films.

Audience members' voices and unscripted conversations about what they love on the BBC are matched with Aardman's famous stop-motion clay characters.

Three of the films are to be screened on BBC One later.

Aardman, which has been in Bristol for more than 40 years, is famed for creating shorts and feature films including Morph, who featured in children's programme Take Hart, Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run.

The choice of animal is inspired by the voices the team gather and what they are talking about

The three 30-second films being released include mad hamsters from Port Talbot and a family of foxes from Birmingham who can't get enough BBC News, Sport and MasterChef.

The third film features a father and son canine duo, from Paisley, who want to take part in the BBC's Race Across The World together.

On making the films, Aardman animation director, Rich Webber said: "We interview in people's homes so it's relaxed and we do a sound edit and get a nice 30-second piece."

He said on choosing the animals for the animation, it is usually informed by what the families are saying, so it is a surprise to them when they see the final film.

Speaking of the voices behind the hamster family, Mr Webber said: "With these guys it was lovely they all watched TV together, so we thought hamsters in a living room, in a cage in the corner of a living room, watching TV."

Mr Webber said he watched a lot of YouTube videos of hamsters crawling into toilet rolls for authenticity

Mr Webber said the family loves the film. "They laughed, which was a big relief," he added.

"All the voices we managed to gather are fantastic. They're really lovely, wholesome, warm voices with little bits of humour which is perfect for us."

Families in the films were found through the BBC's audience engagement programme which interviews hundreds of people across the UK every year on their views about the BBC.

Sarah Cox, executive creative director at Aardman, said: "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… that's where so much of the warmth and the humour and the storytelling comes from."

Producer Danny Gallagher said everyone involved was "really happy with how they all turned out"

Producer Danny Gallagher, said narrowing down the material they gather can be "quite a challenge".

First, he said it is about letting people speak on what they love in a "really authentic and natural way".

And because they were relaxed, "we had a lot of incredible audio and you just start picking through to find themes and also things that make you laugh."

"You don't know what you're going to get until you get in the edit suite and start reviewing the hours and hours of footage and finally you're like phew, we've got something that's great," Mr Gallagher added.

The first three films will broadcast on BBC One before The One Show later.

The One Show will then take a look behind the scenes of the films.

The films will also run in cinema, on You Tube and across social media and will appear across the BBC throughout 2024.