Biographic's A Cat is a Cat and Gold Whiskers

The name of Biographic is associated primarily with co-founder Bob Godfrey, but we should not forget the work by other members of the group. Here are some stills from A Cat is a Cat, made in 1971 by Vera Linnecar; the short is a lighthearted documentary about cats in both nature and human culture, narrated by two children.

And while we're at it, some stills from Keith Learner's 1964 short Gold Whiskers. Unfortunately, this cartoon hasn't aged well - James Bond parodies have been rather well-trodden in the intervening decades, and this one in particular is now all too reminiscent of the later Danger Mouse. Still, some interesting design work.

Incidentally, I'm not entirely sure why these two films are credited to "Biographic 3" and "Biographic 2". The Biographic group appears to have become divided into units at some point, but I have no idea what the full story is there.

Black and white TV adverts by Biographic and others

These stills are taken from clips shown as part of the BBC4 Animation Nation documentary. I know very little about the adverts that the clips come from, beyond the fact that the first few were included in part of the documentary talking about Bob Godfrey's Biographic studio.

(In the case of this commercial, I don't even know what product is being advertised)










The next ad is for Glenryck pilchards.












Next is a commercial for Shippam's meat paste. I showed stills from a stylistically similar Shippam's ad here; meanwhile, it is known that the Larkins studio made an advert entitled Shippam's Guide to Opera. BCDB identifies that commercial's characters as Canned Meats, Pilchard and Tomato, which sounds rather like the cast of this one.

















The last of the adverts to be shown in the section on Biographic is this rather experimental Kit-Kat commercial.
















This very sixties Spam advert was shown later in the documentary. In case you're wondering, the lyrics to the band's song are "Spam, Spam, Spam, there is only one Spam, Spam, Spam".









And finally, an advert for Rowntree's Cocoa. This was shown in the documentary to provide a contrast with the more sensitive portrayal of Africans in Larkins' Put Una Money for There.