“Our £1.6m didn’t stretch far enough,” he says. Stick Man, explains Rose, is the largest and most technically complex of the four films – with lots of sets, characters, water and snow. Magic Light’s Michael Rose said he tried to make the film in the UK and Europe again, but couldn’t get the £1.6m budget to work – despite the existence of the UK animation tax credit which has revitalised the UK sector. This time, however, Magic Light chose South African animation studio Triggerfish to do all the prep work and production. Animation for the previous films was outsourced to Germany’s Studio Soi. For a start it has a new director, London-based Jeroen Jaspaert, whose credits include CBeebies’ Bing Bunny. But the production of Stick Man was very different. Stick Man has the same quirky look and rich tone as its predecessors, and is again produced by Michael Rose and Martin Pope of indie Magic Light Pictures.

First published back in 2008, it’s the story of a happy-go-lucky father stick who is separated from his family and struggles to get back to them in time for Christmas. Since 2009, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child and Room on the Broom have all premiered on BBC1 on Christmas Day. The animated films based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s books have quickly become something of a Christmas viewing tradition for British families.

South African artists were instrumental in creating BBC1’s very English Christmas animation Stick Man

Best stick figure clay animation