Where were we. Oh yes, 2005 or 6 or thereabouts. Our little show didn’t get picked up by HIT entertainment. No Matter, Simon the writer knew some more people…

We managed to get a meeting set up with Millimages as Simon knew their UK person. A chap by the name of Johnathan Peel (no, not that one). We went along to see him, had a very long liquid lunch and he loved the idea. And optioned it!! BOOM! We were over the first hurdle. I learned something in that experience. Something that I have used in my University lectures many times. When that option happened I was back into the London animation studio that I had been working in when we first came up with the idea for the show. A second gig working on an animated movie and a TV series. After our successful option with Millimages I went back to the studio and told the person who was the current director that my little show, Jeff the Chef had just been optioned by Millimages. Now, ya have to remember that I was pretty new into kids TV. I had been a comic book artist and games concept artist but hadn’t been in TV long. So his question was, “How did you manage to get a show optioned when you have no background in TV? You need some background in TV to get a show optioned. It’s just not possible”. The answer to that one was pretty straight forward really, which was, “I didn’t know it wasn’t possible” And that really is the case. And it’s actually the reason why most people don’t dare tread into new territory with any confidence. They feel like the ‘shouldn’t’. That it’s not heir place.
Now then, back in the day the show was always seen as a ‘stop motion’ show. Like Postman Pat or the original Bob the Builder or any number of traditional UK kids pre-school shows from Camberwick Green onwards. It simply had to be done that way. After a couple of meetings, Jonathan mentioned that that was all fine from a creative point of view but from a financial point of view it was a tough one. Stop motion is expensive to produce. Very expensive. And to sell it to a broadcaster on that basis would be very difficult as it requires raising a lot of funds to make the show. He suggested we consider doing it as CG. “No way”, said I. I didn’t see it as that and to be honest, back then TV CG was, well, a bit naff. My thinking was that good CG is ok but budget stop motion is at least ‘real’. It has that lovely tactile quality. Kids love it because it looks like toys coming alive.

‘Cromarty’ (looking remarkably like John Grace) from the show, Portland Bill

My old college tutor back in 1981 when I was doing a degree as an illustrator at Leicester Polytechnic was a chap by the name of John Grace. As well as being knows as the co-creator of Reboot John had made a stop motion show called Portland Bill. It was pretty basic but a really sweet show. John was a great tutor and a very inspiring man and I wanted to follow his example. John was the inspiration for the ‘Pop’ character in Jeff the Chef. A father figure. Anyway, Johnathan agreed to pitch the show to the BBC as stop motion. They liked it, but not enough to sign it up on the spot, but they liked it. It went through various rounds of consideration, reached a short list, was almost there… but fell at the final hurdle. That whole process took the best part of a year and in spite of Johnathan’s industry credentials and best efforts it didn’t quite make it. So when the year was up Millimages decided not to continue with the option. We were high and dry and out on our own again. So where to next? We were (literally) running out of options. Or as far as we could find. So things were iced for a while. Simon went back to scripting other TV shows, I went back to some comics stuff and we let it sit for a while.

I have said many times that life is about the people you meet. Sometimes those fruitful meetings come up when you least expect them. Sometimes a dip into a new area can provide something new or sometimes it can loop you all the way back to where you were, but with a new energy and intention. That’s what happened next.

Be back soon 😉

Back of the Oven! Part4