Jerry the Tyke

The cheeky dog appeared across UK cinemas within British Pathé’s news-magazines. It was first produced in 1925, by Cardiff-based animator Sid Griffiths and photographer Bert Bilby, who both worked as projectionists at Cardiff’s Capitol Cinema. They were later joined by London-based co-animator Brian White. Inspired by the American animation Felix the Cat, Jerry the Tyke was a mixture of live-action sequences and animation, 40 animations were created between 1925 and 1927.

In 2002, Welsh actor Rhys Ifans worked with BBC Wales to provide narration to several of the original Jerry the Tyke episodes, with music provided by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Later ‘lost’ episodes were discovered by the Welsh Animation Group in the vaults of British Pathé at Pinewood. They have been shown on channel BBC 2W in the United Kingdom since 2002 and featured at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2005 and the British Silent Film Festival in 2010. Today the films form part of the collection of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.

In 2018 the  National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales and Arad Goch teamed up to provide young audiences a taste of Jerry the Tyke, with a zany live score by musician and composer Simon Lovatt. Performed for the first time at the 2012 “Opening Doors” Performing Arts Festival for Young Audiences at the “Drum” in the National Library of Wales.

Jerry’s mischief and Lovatt’s musical trickery combine to make an exciting, fast moving and hilarious show, where audiences are able to view these archive animations, which have lost none of their spark, thanks to Lovatt’s live soundtrack, with includes a range of instruments from guitar and keyboard to kazoo and percussion.