About Event

Join Aardman’s co-founders David Sproxton and Peter Lord for a rare 40th anniversary screening of Channel 4’s 1986 cult animated shorts programme Sweet Disaster which includes their rarely screened Babylon, amongst other bold experimental work from Aardman alumni and beyond.

During the 1980s, Channel 4 executives Jeremy Isaacs and Paul Madden greenlit the production of a bold, experimental collection of contemporary animations which evolved from the Channel’s collaboration with Aardman on the shorts series Conversation Pieces.

The result was Sweet Disaster, showcasing five animated short films that explored Cold War anxieties through “animated visions of the apocalypse.” Babylon, directed by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, which focused on the thin line between human definitions of war and peace, was also the first project Nick Park worked on when he joined Aardman. The speechmaker in Babylon (the only character with dialogue) was voiced by Tony Robinson, also then living in Bristol.

Paradise Regained and Conversations by a Californian Swimming Pool were directed by Andrew Franks, longtime Aardman collaborator and the writer, composer, voice-actor and editor for Aardman’s series Rex the Runt. And David Anderson, who created Dreamless Sleep for the programme, worked for Aardman on the iconic Stephen Johnson music video Sledgehammer released the same year.

With the exception of Dreamless Sleep, the Sweet Disaster films were animated and shot by the Aardman team in their Clifton studio and written and produced by David G Hopkins (1940 – 2004) in Bristol through his production company OCCAM.

Running order:

• Babylon (1986, 13 mins) – dir. Peter Lord & David Sproxton
• Dreamless Sleep (1986, 9 mins) – dir. David Anderson
• Paradise Regained (1986, 10 mins) – dir. Andrew Franks
• Conversations by a Californian Swimming Pool (1986, 6 mins) – dir. Andrew Franks
• Death of a Speechwriter (1986, 5 mins) – dir. David Hopkins

This event, co-curated with Heather Bradshaw and Samuel Fraser of KinoFolk, forms part of Other Ways of Seeing supported by National Lottery. With thanks to the BFI National TV Archive.