Creature Comforts: Season 2, Part One

The original concept for Creature Comforts is delightfully simple - eavesdrop ordinary conversations on a bus and transfer them into the mouths of claymation animals/birds/insects. The result is a popular television show, stirring couch potatoes to whinny, "That Nick Park! Didn't he win prizes for Groom It And Wall Ice?"

Well, not exactly. Creature Comforts is the work of Aardman Animation, based in Bristol, created by Nick Park (and others), who did indeed win an Oscar for Wallace And Gromit shorts a few years ago. CC2: Part One was directed by Richard "Golly" Goleszowski and is an admirable example of the British tradition of observational, off kilter comedy that hides its ambition behind a self-deprecating wall of light hearted modesty.

The "ordinary conversations" that constitute the dialogue were not overheard by someone's aunt on the No 37 and scribbled down on the back of a betting slip, but conscientiously recorded by Aardman's roving young reporter. His "victims" are anyone from geriatrics in an old people's home to amateur wrestlers in a gym.

The subjects covered in Part One's six episodes are families, pet hates, sport, impressions, "animals in the 'hood" and country shows. The cast includes rabbits, pigs, cows, cats, scorpions, seagulls, snails, penguins and bats. There are mussels in their shells and beetles playing football. There are fishermen's grubs and a Geordie rat and flies in a spider's web, all gabbling away like crazy.

It is in the detail that the animators excel. Not only has the production team selected snatches of conversation that defy logic and express class stereotypes to a degree that appear too good to be true, but the animal characters are beautifully crafted and wonderfully funny.