The making of a supervillain - Coalfinger

Before you do anything else, watch Coalfinger. I’m just going to babble on about how much fun it was to make it which isn’t nearly as amusing as watching the animation. While you’re at it, share it with your friends because we need to expose the real coalfingers of the world and their carbon cronies and the threat they pose to our climate.

Back in the summer when the guys from TellyJuice brought the concept for Coalfinger to us John Hutton was the man who was going to make the decision about whether to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth. You couldn’t ask for better inspiration for the creation of a coal supervillian.

With E.on pushing ahead for a new plant at Kingsnorth that would waste more than half the energy put into it, and another seven in the pipeline behind that, we needed a hero who would expose the greedy coal villains and mobilise people to thwart their efforts. Graverson Green and his smart and sexy side kick were created.

My colleagues looked at me with amused disbelief.

We ploughed on with the script written by Niall Towl and Simon Fairhead from TellyJuice and along with Jason Attar overseeing the production they were able to pull in Brian Blessed to play the voice of Coalfinger and David Mitchell (C4’s Peep Show) as secret agent Graverson Green.

Along with his dopey sidekick Dr. Anthracite, Coalfinger plans to cover the world in coal-fired power stations and destroy the climate in Operation Browncloud. With a soundtrack by composer David Arnold (Quantum of Solace, Casino Royal) and the talented animators at Blue Zoo, it all came together feeling like Christmas has arrived early.

But the video does carry a very serious message. The government currently backs the plans for a new Kingsnorth despite the fact burning coal is recognised as the single greatest threat to our climate.

With coal trying to make a come back in the UK, stopping the forces behind this evil scheme is a mission we all need to turn our most creative energy towards. We're very grateful to all the extremely talented people who put this together and contributed, but now it is your turn to help spread the word and join our campaign to stop a new generation of coal-fired power plants.

And I will try to quell my desire to run off and join the CBeebies, I can probably do more good right where I am.