Celebrating 50 years of Aardman, we are delighted to be joined by Aardman co-founder David Sproxton in conversation with Susannah Shaw and guests. Sledgehammer Revealed documents the making of the groundbreaking stop-motion music video for Peter Gabriel. Including extensive interviews, behind the scenes stories and a fully restored version of the legendary stop-motion video. Sledgehammer won a record-breaking 9 MTV awards and was the most played in MTV history.
David Sproxton is the co-founder of Aardman. Alongside Peter Lord, he has overseen the development of the company from a two-man partnership to one of the pre-eminent animation houses in the industry. Their first professional creation was the character ‘Morph’.
David was Director of Photography on Peter Gabriel’s 1986 Sledgehammer pop video and produced and directed the documentary on the making of the video “Sledgehammer Revealed.”
David co-produced many of Aardman’s feature films including “Chicken Run”, “Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”, “Flushed Away” all made in association with DreamWorks. “Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists” and “Arthur Christmas”, produced in association with Sony Pictures. “Shaun the Sheep: The Movie”, “Early Man” and “Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon,” produced in association with STUDIOCANAL.
In 2006 Peter and David were awarded CBEs in the Birthday Honours and in June 2026 were ennobled as Knights Bachelor in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Susannah Shaw spent several years working at Aardman Animations as a camera assistant on commercials and features, and later set up the Bristol Animation Course at the University of the West of England, with support from Aardman. In 2004 she wrote a successful book: Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation. More recently, Susannah was CEO at the Curzon, retiring in 2023.
David and Susannah will be joined by four of the original team; Nigel Ashcroft (Editor of Sledgehammer), Dave Riddett (Cinematographer), Sara Mullock (Production Manager at Aardman), Michael Wright (Writer, Producer, Director).
*The film is an hour long, followed by an hour’s conversation and Q&A.
Starring:
Peter Gabriel
Running time:
120 mins