Mildred

Mildred

A future Beatles director and former Goon script a beautifully designed comic cartoon for BP

Meet Mildred. A delightfully dotty older lady who's carefree attitude means you need to be careful around her. Not the most obvious route into a sponsored film about BP's air fuelling operation, but these are not the most obvious scriptwriters. Michael Bentine was embarking on 'It's a Square World' and Dick Lester would go on to direct features with The Beatles, and films in the Superman franchise.

Co-directors Nancy Hanna and Vera Linnecar already had a couple of decades in the animation industry under their belts. Their time at the innovative Larkins Studio under the liberating guidance of Art Director Peter Sachs had put them at the cutting edge of cartoon design in Britain.

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From the collection

Women of Animation

Celebrating pioneers and boundary-pushing female artists

16 videos in this collection

Honestly It's the Story of My Life

  • 1990

Mildred

  • 1960

The Dirt Inside

  • 1998

Children of Wax

  • 1988

Pretend You'll Survive

  • 1981

Green Men, Yellow Woman

  • 1973

Two Faces

  • 1968

Slug Life

  • 2018
Worst. Parents. Ever. But a lovely animated tale using cut-out animation designed by Sunniva Kellquist

Little Tom Thumb

  • 1967

Childhood Memories

  • 2018
The animated short on the terrors of nuclear apocalypse that become a sensation when it played on the Ed Sullivan show, leaving middle America highly disturbed.

A Short Vision

  • 1956
An animated tale with a Lutheran message that's equal parts Christmas spirit and good old-fashioned guilt

The Candlemaker

  • 1957
No man is an island, but Charley represents his nation in this economical cartoon tale of Britain's economics

Robinson Charley

  • 1948
Long before the 'Charley Says' campaign of the 1970s and '80s, another cartoon Charley was used to demystify the newly created NHS.

Your Very Good Health

  • 1948
A cartoon fantasy brings fabric patterns to life in a literal soap opera - yet even here the reality of Home Front life creeps in

Carnival in the Clothes Cupboard

  • 1941
Santa's on strike! This charming animation for the GPO advises early posting to keep Father Christmas onside.

Christmas is Coming

  • 1951
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