Irish TV Animation ROY Scoops Best Children’s Drama at Royal Television Society awards in London
The Irish animated series ROY was awarded the Best Children's Drama at the Royal Television Society awards in London last week.
ROY, which was directed by Alan Shannon, Ian Bevitt and Alan MacMillan, is set in modern day Dublin but tells the story of Ireland's only living animated character born into a live-action family. The film charts the progress of this 11-year-old boy as he struggles to grow up as a cartoon character in an ordinary environment.
Roy's attempts to blend in are complicated by the fact that he can squash and stretch, involuntarily turn blue when sad, green when jealous and produce a flock of twittering birds when he gets a bump on the head. Roy is truly a fish out of water.
The children's TV drama was produced by Mark Cumberton, John Rice and Sue Nott for Jam Media. It originated as a short animation film called Badly Drawn Roy, funded by the Frameworks scheme which is co-financed by the IFB, the Arts Council and RTÉ, before being developed into a 13-part television series. ROY aired on CBBC last year and became the 4th most popular programme across all children's digital channels in the UK and became the most popular on the CBBC iPlayer.
ROY was up against strong competition as MI High from Kudos Film & Television and The Sarah Jane Adventures from BBC/BBC Cymru Wales were also nominated in the same category.
The Royal Television Society awards celebrate all genres of TV programming, from history and soaps to children's fiction and comedy performance, aiming to recognize the work of exceptional actors, presenters, writers and production teams.