Meet the Dumfries and Galloway duo providing a soundtrack to Christmas

A Dumfries and Galloway musical duo have provided the soundtrack for Christmas across the world.

The Bookshop Band, from Wigtown, have composed and performed the music for Robin Robin, a seasonal film for Netflix produced by Bristol-based Aardman Animations - best known for the Wallace and Gromit films.

The husband and wife duo Beth Porter and Ben Please, who are originally from Bath, also coached the film’s stars Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant and Bronte Carmichael to sing their compositions.

"It was an interesting challenge"

The 30-minute animated short tells the tale of a small bird raised by a family of criminal mice, Robin, who sets out to steal a Christmas sandwich so they can all enjoy a real festive feast, finding adventure along the way. It is the first time the studio has made a musical.

This is the first time that the pair have created music for a project of this scale - normally their work revolves around literature, though they have also done work for short animations too.

Ben is the older brother of one of the film’s directors, Mikey Please, and this is their 10th professional collaboration.

He said : “Mikey has an excellent appreciation of music, so he knows what we do and whether it’s right for a project, and we know exactly the sort of thing that he will like.” 

Mikey added: “Because we know each other really well, and also have a strong working relationship, we were able to develop the music alongside the story, from the point we pitched it to the point it was made.” 

Robin Robin is available to stream now.