The Rubbish World of Dave Spud and ITV team up to bring workshops and animation to local children

Grimsby’s Festival of the Sea returns for a second edition to a new location this summer, featuring the screening of a special episode produced by the award-winning animators of CITV’s The Rubbish World of Dave Spud working in conjunction with local school children.

With support from ITV, Festival of the Sea and creatives from London-based Illuminated Films have worked with local school children to create a themed animation entitled ‘Where Do All The Boats Go.’ It focuses on the traffic on the busy River Humber and the story behind the hundreds of ships seen on the horizon daily.

The Dave Spud team hosted assemblies for Year 7, 8 and 9 students at Cleethorpe Academy and encouraged them to apply for the opportunity to create a cartoon shown at this year’s festival. Those selected for the workshop took part in script writing, recording lines for the voice-over in the film and drawing the boats for the designs to be used in the film. The animation will then be screened at the festival on Saturday 16th July, along with one episode from the series, Top Town of the North.

The Dave Spud team which recently won an RTS award for Best Children’s Series, includes Producer Iain Harvey, Director Edward Foster, Writer Dave Ingham and Art Director Sue Tong, as well as Production Manager Hodan Abdi who recently won the Lamb Award at the British Animation Awards, recognising upcoming future talent in the industry. 

The Festival is produced by Grimsby-based events organisation The Culture House in partnership with one of the UK’s leading outdoor arts organisations, Walk the Plank.

This year, it takes place in a new location  – Heritage Square, between the river Freshney and Alexandra Dock. Looking out onto the water, Festival of the Sea will host vibrant street theatre, dance, and live music. Stalls offering the chance to sample delicious seafood will while learning more about Grimsby’s heritage. 

Nick Harvey, The Rubbish World of Dave Spud Executive Producer, said: “One of the reasons we were so keen to do this is that we really believe, as a team, that the animation industry should be open to anybody, and we hope the workshops gave the brilliant students an insight into the production process of animation, and hopefully inspired some of them to bring their talents to the creative industries in future.”

Iain Harvey, The Rubbish World of Dave Spud Producer, said: “We’re really proud to be taking part in this. When the Festival of the Sea approached us, we knew it would be a great opportunity to go to different parts of the UK and introduce them to the wonderful world of animation – and shipping. It might seem like a small feat but I’m almost certain we’ve got some brilliant future animators in the making.”

ITV’s Paul Mortimer, who commissioned The Rubbish World of Dave Spud for CITV said: “The Rubbish World Dave Spud is an award-winning CITV commission and we are pleased to support this workshop at the Grimsby Festival of the Sea. ITV spends more out of London than any other commercial broadcaster and we are proud to have deep roots in the nations and regions.”

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About The Illuminated Film Company

The Illuminated Film Company is a London based studio with several successful series under its belt, including the 4-time BAFTA nominated Little Princess series, the CITV series The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories, plus TV specials including Michael Foreman’s War Game and Michael Morpurgo’s On Angel Wings.