For Better, For Worse

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Contains racist characterisation

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For Better, For Worse

1 Jan 1961
Sound
12m

Married to your television? This cartoon gives you an opportunity to re-evaluate your relationship with the gogglebox

Are you married to the googlebox? This outwardly comic cartoon exploration of the medium of television is surprisingly honest on its virtues and vices - particularly as it was sponsored by a television manufacturer, Phillips. There is some great character design work by the Polish-born George Him, who was part of the duo that created the Guinness clock for the Festival of Britain. Peter Sachs contributes a magnificent sequence animated in bold marker pen strokes as a centrepiece to the film.

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Halas & Batchelor

Celebrating the vital and varied work of the pioneering British animation studio

Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Films were a defining force in British animation for more than five decades. Founded in 1940 by the Hungarian-born John Halas and Watford-born Joy Batchelor, the company progressed from producing cinema advertisements to creating vital public information films during and after the Second World War, before producing Britain's first animated feature film, Animal Farm, in 1954.

Whether working in advertising, children's television or independent short films, Halas and Batchelor championed animation as both a commercial enterprise and an art form. Though more than the story of John and Joy, their vision, advocacy and innovation helped shape the careers of generations of artists and practitioners, while bringing a broad range animated storytelling to audiences on screens both large and small.