Siriol Productions (also known as
Dave Edwards Studio, "Siriol" means 'cheerful' in
Welsh language) was founded in 1982 by
Mike Young, his wife Liz, animator Dave Edwards and producer Robin Lyons and based in
Cardiff. The company was originally created when the three men approached the newly formed Welsh TV channel
S4C and secured a commission to produce an animated series of
SuperTed (which
Mike Young created). With support from S4C, the partners set up an animation studio,
Siriol Animation.
SuperTed was a highly successful series with the company winning a prestigious BAFTA award in 1987. The series first aired in 1982 and started airing on S4C in Wales and on the
BBC elsewhere in the UK. It ran for three series and 36 episodes. Following its success with
SuperTed, the company was commissioned by S4C to produce another series called
Wil Cwac Cwac, based on a series of children's books first published in Wales in the early 1930s about a little duckling who is always naughty and lives on a farm village in rural Wales with his family and friends. This, in turn was followed by further commissions from S4C for a series of half-hour specials created for the animated series
Fox Tales, including the 1986 television special
A Winter Story. Lyons and Young have also been involved in working on a children's stop motion animated series,
Fireman Sam in 1987, except it was produced by Prism Art and Design Ltd and
Bumper Films. In its early years, the studio worked exclusively for S4C, and Robin Lyons (managing director) decided to broaden its customer base and to move into co-productions to form Siriol Productions in 1988. In 1989,
Mike Young left the company and moved to the United States to set up his own company,
Mike Young Productions. Young also teamed up with
Hanna-Barbera to develop a cartoon called
Fantastic Max (which was originally called
Space Baby) and to create a sequel series to
SuperTed entitled
The Further Adventures of SuperTed. Moving into co-productions has proved successful for Siriol, resulting in productions such as
The Princess and the Goblin an 80-minute film co-produced by Hungary's
Pannonia Film Studio and
Under Milk Wood, a 50-minute TV special using the 1950s voice recording by
Richard Burton. These productions have enabled Robin Lyons to develop extensive contacts throughout the animation industry, both with broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, and with other leading animation studios. In 1989, Siriol, together with La Fabrique in France, Cologne Cartoon in Germany and Sofidoc in Belgium formed its own distribution company, EVA Entertainment, headed up by Steve Walsh, the former head of co-productions at
Goldcrest Films. Its co-productions were grouped under the EC's CARTOON programme as part of its MEDIA initiative. EVA was the first grouping company established under this initiative. The group was involved in co-productions with major European broadcasters, typically with the
BBC in the UK,
FR3 and
Canal+ in France and
ZDF and
WDR in Germany. It also made co-productions with other European partners as well as with US and Canadian co-producers. In 1995, EVA received a substantial private investment and attracted two top executives from BBC Children's International, Mikael Shields and Tony Stern. EVA Entertainment has made many series and specials, (the group's major productions were controlled creatively by Siriol) which were sold to over fifty countries on five continents, including
Robert Creep,
Tales of the Tooth Fairies,
Billy the Cat (the group's largest project) and
Romuald the Reindeer. The later two programmes were produced by Robin Lyons. When EVA was sold to
Pearson PLC, Siriol formed other alliances with
Scottish Television and
SKD Media Plc. In 1998, Siriol was brought over by
Sleepy Kids (renamed
Entertainment Rights in 2000), with Lyons expanding his role within the new company. In 2005, a management buyout led by Lyons took place for Siriol Productions, and was renamed
Calon. Siriol set up two subdivisions. The first was Blunt Pictures, which produced animation aimed at older audiences. Blunt Pictures has produced a short film for
Channel 4,
Dee’s Dish of the Day and developed the series,
Stonehouse Reunion for Channel 4 and
Days of Deliverance for S4C. Blunt has also developed a low budget feature,
360, which has attracted funding from the Film Panel of the Welsh Lottery, and several web-based animation projects including
Once Upon A Morgue and
Deadenders. The second subdivision was a web design subdivision called Piczled, which has designed the official
Basil Brush website and theme park attractions for
Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey and
Alton Towers in Staffordshire. Piczled has also worked on other websites such as those for Siriol and Entertainment Rights.
Production Animation services •
S4C network ID (1987) •
Knightmare (1987, opening animation) •
MTV network ID (1988) •
Babar (1989, season 1 for
Nelvana) •
Body Beautiful (1991) •
Lava Lava (for La Fabrique) •
Hurricanes (1993, Series 1, for
DIC Entertainment L.P. and
Scottish Television Enterprises) •
Soul Music (1997, for
Cosgrove Hall Films) •
Toons from Planet Orange (1998, "Helmutt and the Killer Nose" for Cologne Cartoon) •
Lucky and Zorba (1998, for Lanterna Magica) • ''
A Monkey's Tale'' (1999) •
Albie (2002, 2004, for
Cosgrove Hall Films) •
Fireman Sam (2003, Season 5, for
HIT Entertainment,
Gullane Entertainment and
S4C) •
BB3B (2004, for
Tell-Tale Productions and
Entertainment Rights)
Knife and Wife Knife and Wife is a British one-off half-hour animated comedy programme screened on
Channel 4 in December 2001. It was created by Blunt Films, the adult animation division of Siriol Animation and written by
Paul Rose. The voice of Knife was provided by former
Monty Python member
Terry Jones, whilst the part of his wife, Janine was voiced by actress
Jessica Stevenson.
Kevin Eldon,
Ruth Jones,
Paul Putner and
Brian Murphy also did voices for the series. The programme was part of the Channel 4
Comedy Lab try-out project, which had spawned several successful series including
Trigger Happy TV and
That Peter Kay Thing. No full series followed. ==Kalisto Ltd==