Artwork from my 1997 Channel 4 film The Broken Jaw returns home after being on display for twenty odd years at the National Science and Media Museum.

The museum in Bradford had the cels on display in their animation gallery. The animation gallery came about as part of the BFI/Museum of the Moving Image/Channel 4 Animator in residence scheme moving from the Southbank to Bradford in 2000. Seems like yesterday to me but that was 25 years ago. Bradford have revamped their museum and now these artefacts have returned home.

I made The Broken Jaw thanks to the BFI/Channel 4 MOMI scheme. In 1993 I was a living exhibit in the Museum of the Moving Image. I sat in a glass booth in the centre of the museum while school kids pressed their faces against the glass. Thanks to the brilliant and much forgotten producer, Lisa Beattie, I later set up a production company called Polkadot and made the film. it was released in 1997.

I was very proud as the film played Sundance. I remember it getting big laughs in Salt Lake City. Its won a load of awards including Gold Plaque at Chicago Film Festival, 1997, Fold Award for Best Animated Short at Charleston Int. Film Festival, 1997, Best Short Film at Everyman Animation Festival, 1997, Grand Prix du Jury at Cinematographique d’Automme de Gardanne, 1997, Best Animated Short Film Cleveland International Film Festival, 1998, Trophy of Menixon at Bilbao Int. Documentary and Short Film Festival, 1997. Those were the days!!

After making The Broken Jaw I became the consultant producer for the scheme from 1998 to 2003. I helped to develop many classic Channel 4 animations including Robert Morgan’s The Cat With Hands, Brian Wood’s School Disco and Bunny Schendler’s The World of Interiors which was nominated for a BAFTA.

If you would like to watch The Broken Jaw. Check out this link. The TV version is 85 widescreen in letterbox but this wasn’t how the film was made. It was proper 85 widescreen on 35mm. But at that time C4 didn’t transmit widescreen. I did have the low con print televised at 1080 but I’ve never put it together. Perhaps now is time? Perhaps even it’s time to scan it at 4K?

I think this film is pivotal in the creation of my book Anfield Road. In my debut graphic novel I changed the mood by using colourised palettes as I did with The Broken Jaw – all those years ago.

A massive thanks to the National Science and Media Museum for displaying my art and keeping it safe for all of these years.