Vivi-Sec UK

Why don’t these people say anything? I suspect they are working class, Winona. Many people below a certain level of breeding just point at each other and fight.

You may well have missed I Am Not an Animal when it was originally broadcast, as it was done so in 2004 on BBC2 and only lasted six episodes. The programme takes its name from a quote from The Elephant Man and the premise put simply is: talking animals. Though that alone doesn’t really flesh out fully how (animal) crackers the show is.

It features six main characters – a horse, a dog, a monkey, a rat, a sparrow and a cat – who can all speak thanks to the meddling of Project S, conducted at Vivi-Sec UK headquarters. Unfortunately, they are all fucking demented and spend the time squabbling, reading lifestyle magazines and cultivating obsessions with Tim Robbins. They all view London as some kind of highbrow haven, with their ultimate goal being to live and work there, somehow.

I won’t spoil the major plot points, because it’s honestly very much worth a watch. That’s if you can stomach the horribly jarring animation, which is effectively built on badly cut-out collages of already-existing photographs (it probably isn’t that, but it certainly looks it). Personally I love it. The more disturbing the better.

Vivi-Sec UK’s logo is visible in the show, but briefly and outside the main laboratory. I’ve tweaked it slightly but the whole thing is so fragmented and obscure, there was never any doubt I wasn’t going to do it.