At the end of 2023 we finished production on our first major UK kids’ series, The Sound Collector. Narrated by Keira Knightley, this beautiful live action and stop frame animation series was commissioned by ITV in the UK and Rai in Italy. Made with the support of the Young Audiences Content Fund through the BFI, our co-producers are Enanimation in Turin, and UK studio Mackinnon & Saunders created the puppets, models and animation. The show has now sold to many broadcasters across the globe - our distribution partner is Serious Kids.

We are the creators and showrunners of the show, but also bring the character and production design of the animation sets and props, the music, sound design, foley and sound post production – not forgetting the character voices! We also wrote many of the storylines and sourced most of the live action locations.

All 60 episodes are available to watch now in the UK on ITVX - CLICK HERE TO WATCH

“As a viewer and a parent, The Sound Collector is a welcome relief for me. It’s a real hit with my own family – something 3 generations can sit down and enjoy together. I love the space it allows – every time we watch an episode, we feel soothed” - Keira Knightley

We are super proud to be partners with The Evelyn Glennie Foundation. The Sound Collector is all about finding, recording and creating sounds that we may take for granted, and perhaps have never experienced before. This whole project aligns so well with The Foundation's mission to 'Teach the World to Listen'.

Evelyn says "Whenever I watch The Sound Collector, I feel the world really is an orchestra where we can be the composers and the performers. There is no end to the bridges that can created when we observe even the minutest detail. It is wonderful to be able to enter his gentle and fascinating world that ignites so many emotions. We can all learn so much from him (and, of course, Mole too)!"

"For as long as I can remember I have loved collecting things - stones, pebbles, coins, shells, daisies, clovers and finally sounds. Sounds are all around us, free and alive in space. When we engage with sound, our listening intensifies and suddenly we discover that all our senses speak to each other as we look, smell, touch, taste and feel sounds. Our body becomes a huge ear! All boundaries, walls and expectations come tumbling down; only listening bridges, patience, wonderment and never-ending curiosity and learning shines through. The Sound Collector animated children's TV series completely embodies my fascination with sound and my mission to Teach the World to Listen. This brilliant series is testament to how we can learn about the world we live in and our relationship to what is all around us. We learn so much about ourselves and each other. Sound is not a thing or object but an experience. With sound we can be ourselves" - - Dame Evelyn Glennie

The Sound Collector is very small, and very good at not being seen. He lives with his friend and pet, Mole, in a tiny house on the banks of a river. He is fascinated by sounds, and spends his days collecting and using them. He has a huge collection of tapes in his house, and every day he packs a little bag with a selection of them, both pre-recorded and blank to take out with him.

There have always been Collectors, but they have become very rare, and humans hardly ever see them, much like pixies or fairies. Our Sound Collector is ageless, he might be 100s of years old, but has the heart and spirit of a child. He has carved out the perfect life for himself – spending each day doing what he loves, endlessly fascinated by the world around him.

The Sound Collector is hard of hearing, and his hearing aids, mic and headphones are integral to his appreciation of sound. He also has the superpower of being able to remove these and escape from a noise he doesn’t like, or to create complete peace for himself. While he’s aware that he can listen to the world around him with more than just his ears, he can occasionally become frustrated as certain sounds make things much harder for him.

Whether he loves sound because of, or despite his hearing, it is the focus of his life in an incredibly positive way.

Mole is a rescue mole who has lived with the Sound Collector since she was a puppy. She is loving, chaotic and hilarious, and the best friend a Sound Collector could hope for.

Many of the places the Sound Collector visits are inhabited by humans - but he has become very adept at not being seen. A family live in a cottage near the old watermill and the Little Girl of the family is one of the only people who might know that the Sound Collector exists. There was once another little girl who lived very near the Sound Collector and thought he might exist - the Narrator of the show!

The only other Collector to feature in this series is the Seed Collector, whose passion and purpose is re-wilding. She lives near the Sound Collector with her own friend and pet, Hebe the bee.

Sound is integral to this show on a fundamental level. We have planned and created the sound from scripts onwards, much earlier than this work is usually undertaken. The sound design leads over the music, in a reversal of the usual process. The music is simple, real, and true to the classic feel of the show. All the music is written and performed by Tom, with the help of some fantastic musicians to help bring the songs to life, including James Righton and Dame Evelyn Glennie.

It’s very important to us to accurately portray the sounds that our character hears once wearing hearing aids. However, in order to explain it we have chosen to exaggerate the stages either side of this - the silence as he wakes, and the clarity with his microphone. Our advisors have championed this idea, in familiarising viewers by experience - especially for the children in the audience.

We hope that our show’s concentration on the tiny and real detail of the immediate world in our eyes and ears, and the lack of complex issues, will leave our audience feeling relaxed and meditative, whatever their age.