Peter Lord on Plasticine
24.02.22. Internet
Peter Lord founded Aardman Animations, with his school friend David Sproxton, in 1972. The Bristol-based company rapidly became known for its witty, character-driven, stop-motion work in Plasticine, giving the world characters such as Morph, Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, as well as working on a dizzying array of feature films, shorts, TV shows, adverts, music videos, computer games, TV idents… Frankly the list goes on.
The studio has won Oscars for the likes of Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. While Peter himself has been nominated himself on several occasions, including for The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!. Aardman recently picked up yet another nomination for its short, Robin Robin.
Peter was awarded a CBE in 2006 and received a Blue Peter Gold badge, no less, in 2015.
In this bumper episode we talk about: meeting his partner David Sproxton at the age of 12; why Bristol became so important to Aardman; picking up Plasticine for the first time and why it’s a transformative material; creating Morph; working with the legend that is Tony Hart; the genius of Nick Park; cracking Hollywood and wearing a jacket bought from Oxfam to the Academy Awards; the role technology plays in the studio’s output; and turning the company into an employee-owned business.
Find out more about Peter Lord and Aardman
Morph was the iconic character that Peter Lord created when Aardman was commissioned to work on BBC children’s show, Take Hart.
Creature Comforts was the brain-child of Nick Park, who Aardman hired while he was still finishing off his graduation project. It won an Oscar in 1991.
Peter founded Aardman was his school friend, David Sproxton, in 1972. The studio has recently become employee-owned. (All images courtesy of Aardman)