Cartoon Carnival tells the story of the pioneering early days of the animated art-form and chronicles one film preservationist's quest to rescue pre-sound cartoons from obscurity and screen them to new, appreciative audiences.

BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.

In 1928, as the talkies threw the film industry and film language into turmoil, Chaplin decided that his Tramp character would not be heard. City Lights would not be a talking picture, but it would have a soundtrack. Chaplin personally composed a musical score and sound effects for the picture. With Peter Lord, the famous co-creator of Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit, we see how Chaplin became the king of slapstick comedy and the superstar of the movies.

A documentary covering the making of Chicken Run.

A documentary covering the making of Chicken Run.

Lights, camera... chickens! Go behind the scenes with the Aardman team and director Sam Fell during the making of this finely crafted stop-motion sequel.

A documentary film about Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton. This is a portrait piece that includes interviews with family, friends, colleagues, critics, and fans.

Konnie Huq celebrates the very best of British children’s television, with a dazzling array of clips from some of the most treasured programmes ever made and revealing chats with some of TV’s most beloved stars. But Konnie also tells a perhaps more surprising story: of how kids’ TV has frequently been at the forefront of social change, in terms of the stories it tells and the people who get to tell them.

Documentary behind the creation of Aardman's mascot for Lurpak.

Julie Walters tells the story of how Morph, Shaun the Sheep and that cheese-loving man Wallace and his dog Gromit first came to life.

This featurette from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) details the history of Wallace and Gromit, their Oscar-winning short films and how Aardman Animations and DreamWorks came to work together.

This addition to the acclaimed & award winning Classic Albums series tells the story behind the making of Peter Gabriel's 1986 album "So". It was Gabriel's fifth solo album and the first one to have a title (the others all having just been called "Peter Gabriel" ). The album spawned a number of hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic including "Sledgehammer", "Big Time", "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Kate Bush) and "In Your Eyes" which drove "So" to multi-platinum sales, the No.1 spot in the UK and No.2 in the US. So was very much an album of the MTV generation and the distinctive videos for tracks like "Sledgehammer", "Red Rain", "Big Time" and "Don't Give Up" were key factors in the album's success.

Walt Disney said “We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us.” Outside of Walt himself there are few people who have brought together and united more animators in the history of the genre than Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble, known to all as Spike & Mike. They created an animation festival that helped launch the careers of John Lasseter, Peter Lord, Will Vinton, Bill Plympton and Mike Judge to name just a few. Their Spike & Mike festival had an enormous impact on animation that was felt the world over. The festival was known as much for the breakthrough animation it presented as the outrageous antics of the founders.

The story of married animators, John Halas and Joy Batchelor. A Jewish emigre from Hungary and a working class woman from Watford, England, John and Joy fell in love, created cartoons that helped the allies to win the war, and produced the first feature-length animation in British cinema history, Animal Farm (1954).

The enthusiastic Pirate Captain, along with his rag-tag crew, sets out to beat his bitter rivals. The chaotic adventure takes them from exotic shores to Victorian London, and from a haplessly smitten scientist to a diabolical queen.

A modern day Walt Disney, Will Vinton picked up a ball of clay and saw a world of potential. Known as the “Father of Claymation,” Vinton revolutionized the animation business during the 80s and 90s. But after 30 years of being the unheralded king of clay, Will Vinton’s carefully sculpted American dream came crumbling down. Structured around interviews with this charismatic pioneer and his close collaborators, the film charts the rise and fall of the Academy Award and Emmy winning Will Vinton Studios.