Where did the idea for the programme come from, and how did you get involved?
We’d been working with the BBC Children in Need team on the notion of bringing Pudsey to life through animation for a little while and about halfway through 2024 the team asked if we might be able to produce an animated special in time for Pudsey’s 40th anniversary, which they were planning to celebrate in conjunction with their live fundraising television event mid-November 2025.
In my role as the production creative director for animation, I jumped at the chance and with our development team, started to explore what the project might look like and if it was even possible in that timescale. Animation takes a long time, typically 18 months from script to delivery and we had a lot less than that. At this stage, we really didn’t know what the show would be, other than it would have Pudsey in it.
Why did you decide this was the ideal opportunity to bring Pudsey to life via animation for the first time?
The support to improve children’s lives that BBC Children in Need provides seems to be needed more than ever and, as Pudsey is such a well-known and much-loved touch point for the charity, we felt marking his 40th anniversary was a fantastic opportunity to develop this cherished character and national treasure in animation, a medium that really resonates with children.
Did you use any of Pudsey’s previous incarnations for inspiration? (eg the waving Pudsey 2D animation often used on Children in Need)
We knew from the beginning that the audience needed to recognise our animated version as being Pudsey straight away. Obviously, his spotty bandana helps with that, but it was more than that. We wanted our animated version to feel cuddly, tangible and more teddy bear-like—our hearts are always warmed when seeing children running up to and interacting with the full-size Pudsey or cuddling a Pudsey teddy bear toy and we wanted to capture that joy. Our inspirations therefore, came from the Pudsey soft toys and Pudsey himself more so than the existing animation.
Please talk us though the process of creating the animation for Pudsey and the Thread of Hope.
We had to work quickly as we knew the timeline was going to be tight. However, there is one part of the process where you really can’t do much else until you have it, and that is the script. The script is the foundation of everything and without that it’s very difficult to move forward. We were lucky of course that we knew at least who our lead character was going to be—Pudsey—but really that’s all we had. Before we did anything else though we contacted several animation companies to gauge if it was even possible to achieve what we wanted in the time we had. Thankfully the answer was yes, so long as we had a script.
We knew we wanted a story that involved children whose lives would be enriched by being with Pudsey. We also knew we wanted the story to be set in modern times in the real world, but with a sprinkling of magic and adventure too. With these few initial thoughts, we set about finding someone to write the story, someone we could entrust with Pudsey. That’s when Tom Fletcher came to mind. I knew from the beginning that we would also want a fantastic song within the animation and so, as a highly talented musician and children’s author, Tom was the perfect fit. He has supported BBC Children in Need for many years, and I was so thrilled when he said yes to writing the story for us, despite his incredibly busy schedule touring with McFly and writing Paddington the Musical. A few weeks later, because that’s all we had, Tom sent us Pudsey and the Thread of Hope, an amazing and uplifting story about a young boy dealing with the loss of his father.
While Tom was penning the story, I gathered the rest of the team including our wonderful series producer, Mel Taylor and animation writer, James Henry, who would adapt the story for animation. We have definitely been blessed with good luck and goodwill on this project—that’s the power of Pudsey—as it just so happened James had a small window of time between other projects to write our script for us. After a few short weeks (it would normally be months) we had our script and that’s when things really started moving. Luckily, we had a great team on it and during the scripting process we engaged Creative Conspiracy and their animation company, Spicy Acorn, and began discussing the animation style and what Pudsey would look like in this iteration.
We chose 3D animation for flexibility but with a 2D texture to make the world softer and Pudsey cuddlier. Once the animation stages were underway, we refined the script to tie more closely to real projects BBC Children in Need support and began the process of casting authentically. Most of the core cast are children and we found the most wonderful children to voice the characters. The adult cast are equally brilliant, and we were thrilled when Jessica Gunning, Ashley Banjo, Nikesh Patel and Blue Peter’s Shini Muthukrishnan came on board.
Another significant element is the music, both the song and the score. Tom very kindly agreed to write the song and again delivered a masterpiece. The first time we heard it, we were just blown away. We loved Tom’s vocals, but Tom wasn’t sure, he felt strongly that it would be better with a child’s voice. In the end we landed on a duet with Tom and his son, Buzz, and so got the very best of both worlds. Given the story is so driven by Jai and his relationship with his dad, having father and son sing the song is just perfect. We also wanted to tie the song and the score together to create a cohesive and distinct sound for the piece and Tom asked us to consider Matt Brind who he was working with on Paddington the Musical. This was not only because Matt is a brilliant composer but also because it meant they could work together on Pudsey in the snippets of spare time they had while working on Paddington. Clearly both Tom and Matt are now the go-to people if you have an iconic bear character whose name begins with. ‘P’!
The musical icing on the cake was finding time with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to record the score and the song. It was wonderful to see and hear the orchestra, Tom and Buzz come together for BBC Children in Need’s night of TV this year and to see a sneak peek of the animation.
What technology did you use on the animation?
We wanted to make a 3D animated film which has the advantages of modern animation techniques using realistic lights and shadows, detailed characters and real three-dimensional sets, but combining that with a very stylised look—a look nearer to traditional, hand-drawn animation. With this approach the animation company came up with a fresh and unique style that has a lot of personality and fitted the show and the story really well. To facilitate the feeling of traditional animation, they also animated on fewer frames than they normally do in modern 3D animation, giving it a less fluid motion. This was combined with a special paintbrush treatment their art department developed especially for Pudsey, giving the final image the look and feeling we all fell in love with.
Design: software is Adobe Photoshop
Animatic: software is Storyboard Pro + editing in Adobe Premiere Pro
3D asset creation: software is Maya 2024 (in addition for the colour we use Substance Painter and Photoshop)
Layout + Animation: software is Maya 2024
Lighting: software is Maya 2024, render engine is Arnold
Compositing: software is Fusion 20, with home-made plugins for the paint look
Windows 11 computers
Animation is done on 2s. This means the characters move on each 2nd frame instead of every frame.
Final paint texture is done in post production. Flat colour layers are rendered out of the 3D software with realistic lighting and then manipulated in compositing (software fusion) to add the paintbrush effect, using proprietary tools which allow the paint brush effect to stick to the correct character layer even if the camera is moved or rotated.
How long did the project take to complete?
The first conversations were had in June 2024, and we did make some headway on a few elements but didn’t get the full go ahead until Nov/Dec 2024, giving us about a year to deliver the sneak peek for BBC Children in Need’s night of TV, mid-November 2025, and just a little over a year to deliver the full episode for Christmas transmission. That is an incredibly tight turnaround for an animation, particularly of this scale.
What was the biggest challenge?
Logistically getting everything we needed in place to be able to deliver in the timescale was a big challenge but creatively there have been a few more challenges, the most significant of which deciding whether Pudsey should talk or not. This is a huge decision, given Pudsey has never spoken, and we had to make this decision very quickly because it impacted on the scripting, the story telling and the animation. Telling stories with a non-verbal character requires a different approach but our instinct was that he shouldn’t speak as, whilst he is the main character, we really wanted to give the children in the story as much agency as possible.
We had to make a decision and live with it and now, just over a year down the line, I absolutely know we made the right decision. Pudsey does make a few sounds, but his whole loving and caring personality really shines so strongly through the stunning character animation. The difference I think that decision has made to the end result is that we set out to make a story about Pudsey but actually we have ended up creating a story about children, with Pudsey as the glue that connects them all and that just seems absolutely right and reflective of the work done by BBC Children in Need.
What are you most proud of achieving?
Whilst the film is very magical and fantastical we wanted to steep it in reality. We wanted our locations and characters to feel very real and authentic; people and places that our audience would feel that they recognised and felt familiar, and so the casting of our voice actors was really important. We wanted to cast individuals who had an element of lived experience of the characters they would be voicing so that they could bring that experience and authenticity to the roles.
As a few examples: we have a character in the film who has a lower limb difference and so we cast a young actor who also has a limb difference and could bring that experience and robustness of spirit to the role. Jessica Gunning voices a woman of a similar age to her who is also from the same area of West Yorkshire as she is from. Our character Ricky is a young boy with Down Syndrome and so we cast a brilliant young actor who also has Down Syndrome to bring the character to life in a wonderfully authentic way. Ashley Banjo embodies the same sense of community and aspiration that his character the Boxing Coach does and so his performance really elevates the impact of that character.
This inclusive casting is so important to us and extends beyond the voice cast to members of the Habbit Factory Inclusive Theatre who formed part of the choir for the song. Whilst the characters Pudsey and Jai meet on their adventures are not based on real people, the vignettes closely align with and are inspired by real projects and initiatives supported by BBC Children in Need. Authenticity not only in the storytelling but also in the casting has been so important on this project and something I am immensely proud of.
What are your thoughts on the final product?
The goodwill and good fortune that comes from working with BBC Children in Need has made this animated special truly special with a capital S. Everyone without exception has pulled out all the stops to make this the very best it can be and really it demonstrates the power of Pudsey, who has such a warm place in all our hearts. The animated special looks and sounds beautiful but more than that it is a wonderful story which I believe will be remembered and cherished for years to come.
Our job as producers of content for young children is all about making memories and I am confident this delightful piece will stay in the memories of our audience for many years, bringing Pudsey to life for them in a new way and introducing Pudsey to new audiences. The story is about Jai who is navigating grief after losing his father but it’s also a celebration of the trusted and positive relationships we all need to navigate what life throws at us. It’s an uplifting adventure that really highlights the importance of connections and whilst it pulls on the heartstrings, it really shows that with a little bit of help we can overcome adversity.
Could we see more animated Pudsey in the future?
I really hope so. The character animation is so clever and beautiful that Pudsey in this iteration is just so wonderful. He’s charismatic, caring and cuddly so we would love to develop his character further and find new stories to tell with him. This animated special feels like just the beginning for Pudsey’s animated adventures and I’m looking forward to discussing what might be next for this wonderful character that touches so many lives already.
Pudsey and the Thread of Hope premieres on BBC One and iPlayer at 10.20am on Christmas Eve. It will also air at 5pm, Saturday 27th December on CBeebies and CBBC.
