Concept and creative process
‘The Old Men at the Zoo’ was a dark, dystopian comedy set in a pre- and post-nuclear apocalyptic London. It was adapted from Angus Wilson’s novel by Troy Kennedy Martin. A beautifully drawn stylised animation sequence of the zoo animals was filmed from drawings on a rostrum camera. Mainly quick dissolves between key frames were used in its narrative. It ended on an enigmatic and ominous note, as the five silhouetted figures that had come over the horizon, their shadows stretching out before them, were vaporised, leaving only their shadows burned into the landscape.