three blank cheques to this address.
I’m of that age that grew up with Bob Godfrey cartoons on telly. The last five minutes of kids programmes before the early evening news at 5:40 and stuff got boring on the BBC. Roobarb, Noah and Nelly in… SkylArk and Henry’s Cat.
Godfrey died earlier this week along with the voice of a number of the Godfrey’s work, Richard Briers. My favourite of those 5 minute cartoons was one such, Roobarb.
You could always tell a Godfrey cartoon in those days, wobbly pictures and colouring that wasn’t quite exact. A style I wonder encouraged how many kids that they too could do it.
He certainly influenced the likes of Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python cartoon sketches with his cut out style from his early work such as the “DIY Cartoon Kit”. Narrated by the late great ex Goon Michael Bentine, with Godfrey also working on Bentine’s “It’s a Square World”.
So it wasn’t all kids stuff, certainly not films such as “Kama Sutra Rides Again” from 1971 which was initially banned and “Henry 9 ’til 5”. The former about the sexual proclivities of a middle aged suburban couple, Stanley and Ethil, the latter about the sexual fantasies of a bored and boring commuter. Godfrey being the voice of the leading male character in both. Along with “Dream Doll” about a bloke and his blow up doll it was a far more adult output.
“Kama Sutra Rides Again” and “Dream Doll” were both nominated for an Oscar as was “Great” about the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Done in classic Bob Godfrey style it won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 48th Academy Awards in 1975.