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| Calon | |
| Industry | animation |
| Predecessor | Siriol Productions Ltd (1982-2005) |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Robin Lyons |
| Headquarters | Cardiff, Wales, UK |
Key people | Robin Lyons |
| Subsidiaries | Sali Mali 2 Ltd. |
Calon (Welsh for 'heart') is the trading name of Mount Stuart Media Ltd., a British animation television production company based in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, which primarily produced Welsh animated series for S4C. The company was formerly known as Siriol Animation and Siriol Productions.
Calon was set up following the management buy-out from Entertainment Rights of Siriol Productions, when Entertainment Rights moved its head office to London. Most members of staff stayed in Wales to help re-establish Siriol as an independent production company. [1] The deal included all rights to current productions and a few older titles, but the rights to most of the older series are now held by Entertainment Rights. [2]
The company eventually employed over 40 people and was a developer of talent in the Welsh animation industry for more than 30 years. [3] Calon continued working on animation production, but expanded into live-action content for both the UK and international markets, and to co-produce with major networks outside the UK.
In March 2009, the company re-acquired its animation catalogue from S4C International. [4]
In July 2010, the company filed for voluntary liquidation when hoped-for investment to expand the company failed to materialise. [5] Shortly afterwards it was Incorporated into Mount Stuart Media Ltd. [6]
Two series of Hana's Helpline were produced for Channel 5's Milkshake block for preschool children in co-production with S4C and German broadcaster ZDF. One series of Igam Ogam was made for S4C, Channel 5, ZDF Enterprises and the Gaelic Media Service on BBC Alba, and also a puppet series called The Zoo Factor for CBBC. Calon's live action drama credits included Help! I'm a Teenage Outlaw for ITV and Nickelodeon. In 2011, ITV asked Calon to create a new sitcom for the channel, [7] and Calon worked with The Osmonds on develop a film based around the wild west. [8]
Hana's Helpline is a stop-motion animation series for pre-school children, about Hana, a duck who runs a telephone helpline for animals with problems. The principal voices are provided by Arabella Weir, Jonathan Kydd, Joanna Ruiz, Boyd Clack and Caroline Harker with most of the other voices being provided by children.
There are 52 episodes, each 10 minutes long. Its first broadcast was in Wales under the Welsh title Holi Hana, on 2 April 2007. Its first English broadcast was on Five on 12 June 2007. It has also been broadcast in a selection of other countries - for example it began broadcasting on TVB Pearl, starting 10 May 2007. Books are available from Random House Children's Books from January 2008. A line of character toys was also developed by Golden Bear Toys along with the first DVD of the show which was released in November 2007. A second compilation was released in Spring 2008.
| Founded | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mike Young Liz Young |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Fate | Renamed to Calon. |
| Successor | Calon Mike Young Productions Splash Entertainment |
| Products | SuperTed |
Siriol Productions (also known as Dave Edwards Studio, "Siriol" means 'cheerful' in Welsh language) was founded in 1982 by Mike Young, his wife Liz, animator Dave Edwards and producer Robin Lyons and based in Cardiff. The company was originally created when the three men approached the newly formed Welsh TV channel S4C and secured a commission to produce an animated series of SuperTed (which Mike Young created). With support from S4C, the partners set up an animation studio, Siriol Animation. SuperTed was a highly successful with the company winning a prestigious BAFTA award in 1987. The show first aired in 1982 and started airing on S4C in Wales and on the BBC elsewhere in the UK. It ran for three series and 36 episodes.
Following its success with SuperTed, the company was commissioned by S4C to produce another series called Wil Cwac Cwac which was based on a series of children's books that were first published in Wales in the early 1930s about a little duckling who is always naughty and lives in a farm village with his family and friends. This, in turn was followed by further commissions from S4C for half-hour specials created for the animated series Fox Tales . Lyons and Young have also been involved in working on a children's stop motion animated series, Fireman Sam in 1987, except it was produced by Prism Art and Design Ltd and Bumper Films. In its early years, the studio worked exclusively for S4C, and Robin Lyons (managing director) decided to broaden its customer base and to move into co-productions to form Siriol Productions in 1988. In 1989, Mike Young left the company and moved to the United States to set up his own company, Mike Young Productions. Young also teamed up with Hanna-Barbera to develop a cartoon called Fantastic Max (which was originally called Space Baby) and to create a sequel series to SuperTed entitled The Further Adventures of SuperTed .
Moving into co-productions has proved successful for Siriol, resulting in productions such as The Princess and the Goblin an 80-minute film co-produced by Hungary's Pannonia Film Studio and Under Milk Wood , a 50-minute TV special using the 1950s voice recording by Richard Burton. These productions have enabled Robin Lyons to develop extensive contacts throughout the animation industry, both with broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, and with other leading animation studios.
In 1989, Siriol, together with three other animation studios in France, Germany and Belgium formed its own distribution company, EVA Entertainment, headed up by Steve Walsh, the former head of co-productions at Goldcrest Films. Its co-productions were grouped under the EC's CARTOON programme as part of its MEDIA initiative. EVA was the first grouping company established under this initiative. The group set up co-productions with major European broadcasters, typically with the BBC in the UK, FR3 and Canal+ in France and ZDF and WDR in Germany. It also made co-productions with other European partners as well as with US and Canadian co-producers.
In 1995, EVA received a substantial private investment and attracted two top executives from BBC Children's International, Mikael Shields and Tony Stern. EVA Entertainment has made many series and specials, (the group's major productions were controlled creatively by Siriol) which were sold to over fifty different countries on five continents, including Robert Creep, Tales of the Tooth Fairies, Billy the Cat (the group's largest project) and Romuald the Reindeer . The later two programmes were produced by Robin Lyons. When EVA was sold to Pearson PLC, Siriol formed other alliances with Scottish Television and SKD Media Plc.
In 1998, Siriol was brought over by Sleepy Kids [9] (renamed Entertainment Rights in 2000), with Lyons expanding his role within the new company. In 2005, a management buyout led by Lyons took place for Siriol Productions, and was renamed Calon. [10]
Siriol set up two subdivisions. The first was Blunt Pictures, which produced animation aimed at older audiences. Blunt Pictures has produced a short film for Channel 4, Dee’s Dish of the Day and developed the series, Stonehouse Reunion for Channel 4 and Days of Deliverance for S4C. Blunt has also developed a low budget feature, 360, which has attracted funding from the Film Panel of the Welsh Lottery, and several web-based animation projects including Once Upon A Morgue and Deadenders . The second subdivision was a web design subdivision called Piczled, which has designed the official Basil Brush website and theme park attractions for Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey and Alton Towers in Staffordshire. Piczled has also worked on other websites such as those for Siriol and Entertainment Rights.
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Knife and Wife is a British one-off half-hour animated Comedy programme screened on Channel 4 in December 2001. It was created by Blunt Films, the adult animation division of Siriol [12] and written by Paul Rose.
The voice of Knife was provided by former Monty Python member Terry Jones, whilst the part of his wife, Janine was voiced by actress Jessica Stevenson. Kevin Eldon, Ruth Jones, Paul Putner and Brian Murphy also did voices for the series. The programme was part of the Channel 4 Comedy Lab try-out project, which had spawned several successful series including Trigger Happy TV and That Peter Kay Thing . No full series followed.
Kalisto Ltd. is a short lived co-venture between the directors of Siriol Animation and Booker Group. [13] Launched in 1986, the company has developed a show called Space Baby (which eventually became Fantastic Max , which was co-produced with Hanna-Barbera), along with another series called Satellite City (co-produced with Fairwater Films) and the 1991 animated film adaptation of the children's book The Little Engine That Could . Kalisto barely lasted a year before Booker bought the rights back.
S4C is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience. S4C's headquarters are based in Carmarthen, at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David's creative and digital centre, Yr Egin. It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2024, S4C had an average of 118 employees. S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.
Cosgrove Hall Films was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, headquartered in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films, which are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc, on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series Danger Mouse, The Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula.
HIT Entertainment Limited was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turner Laing. Orton alone took over the company in 1989 after learning Henson intended to sell the company to The Walt Disney Company. HIT owned and distributed children's television series such as Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Barney & Friends, and Angelina Ballerina.
Gullane Entertainment PLC was a British independent production company which produced children's programming, including Thomas & Friends (1984–2021), Shining Time Station (1989–1995), and The Magic Adventures of Mumfie (1994–1998). The company was purchased by HIT Entertainment in 2002, and went defunct within the same year. As of today, most of Gullane's library is currently owned by toy company Mattel as a result of their subsequent acquisition of HIT Entertainment.
SuperTed is a Welsh superhero animated television series about an anthropomorphic teddy bear with superpowers, created by writer and animator Mike Young. Originally created by him as a series of stories to help his son overcome his fear of the dark, SuperTed became a popular series of books and led to an animated series produced from 1982 to 1986. An American-produced series, The Further Adventures of SuperTed, was produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1989. The series was the first British animation acquired by the American based Disney Channel.
The Blobs was an animated television series based on the books by DC Thomson, published in 1980. It tells the story of a community of colourful paint-splash characters who live in Paintbox Land. The 26-episode series, narrated originally by Jane Horrocks, was produced in 1996 by Siriol Animation in Wales, in association with DC Thomson & Co., Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) and Scottish Television. The series was purchased by TV Ontario in 1999, and was re-voiced by Julie Zwillich for the North American market.
Entertainment Rights PLC was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialized in TV shows and cartoons, children's media, films, and distribution. In May 2009, the company was acquired by Boomerang Media and merged into its own subsidiary Classic Media.
Myfanwy Talog Williams, known professionally as Myfanwy Talog, was a Welsh actress and the long-term partner of English actor David Jason.
Testament: The Bible in Animation is a 1996 British animated series that was produced by and shown on Sianel 4 Cymru (S4C). It was also shown on the BBC. It featured animated versions of stories from the Bible, each story using its own unique style of animation, including stop-motion animation. It ran for one series of nine episodes in the United Kingdom and won one Emmy, with three nominations, in the United States. It includes the song "Adiemus" as its intro.
Roger Williams is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter working in both English and Welsh. His work often examines aspects of modern Welsh life, such as the place of minority languages, the plight of declining industrial communities and the Cardiff gay scene.
Wil Cwac Cwac is a Welsh-language children's animated television series produced by Siriol Animation for S4C in 1982. It is based on a series of children's books written in the early 1930s by Jennie Thomas and J. O. Williams, including the famous Welsh-language book Llyfr Mawr y Plant. Both book and television series take place in rural Wales. An English-language version of the show was produced for the wider English-speaking market, and the show was successful on the international market. The first 20 episodes were dubbed in UK English and aired on Children's ITV in 1984, with the remaining 10 following in 1986. In both versions, all narration and characters were voiced by Myfanwy Talog. A US English dub was also made, with Liza Ross narrating, and aired in the United States on The Disney Channel as a segment on the program Lunch Box.
Michael Emlyn Young is a Welsh Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning producer. He is the founder of two animation companies in both the UK and the US. His company in 2015 changed its name from Mike Young Productions to Splash Entertainment, which also is a majority owner of Popular AVOD network Kabillion.
Fireman Sam is a British animated children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy. It was broadcast for the first time in November 1987 on Welsh TV channel S4C and is shown in more than 155 countries across the world.
Sali Mali is a popular Welsh children's book and television character, originally created by author Mary Vaughan Jones and illustrated by Rowena Wyn Jones during the 1960s and 1970s. Many Welsh-speaking children learnt to read by reading Sali Mali books.
Meeow! is a 2000 Scottish animated children's series based on the Maisie MacKenzie books by Aileen Paterson, and produced simultaneously in English and Gaelic versions. The series is about a young cat named Maisie Mac who lives with her grandmother in Morningside in Edinburgh as her explorer father is always away.
Wish Films is an animation and live-action studio, established by Will Brenton and Iain Lauchlan in 2006. It is the predecessor to Tell-Tale Productions, which was formed in 1994, first producing live shows, and later went on to produce TV shows.
Igam Ogam is a pre-school stop motion animated television series created by Andrew Offiler on by product calon.
Chris Grace (1946), MBE, is a British broadcaster, film director and founder and former CEO of The Shakespeare Schools Festival. In 2000, he was awarded an MBE and a BAFTA special for services to screen animation.
TV-Loonland AG was a German branding and management company that specialized in the production of children's programmes. The company's offices were located in Europe. The company's mascot is a sheep on a blue dome.
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