Gogs

Lore & Background

The series was created by Siôn Jones, Deiniol Morris, and Michael Mort. The name 'Gogs' derives from Welsh slang for 'Northerners'. The pilot episode was originally titled 'Y Cymro Cyntaf' ('The First Welshmen') and focused on cavemen discovering fire, but was reworked to include a family structure and dinosaurs as an homage to Ray Harryhausen. The pilot was commissioned by Welsh channel S4C and funded mainly by them. After its success, Aaargh! Animation was formed to produce two more series of five-minute episodes. The show aired on S4C in 1993, then on BBC Two in 1996, followed by a second series in 1997 and the finale special 'Gogwana' in 1998.

Reader's Guide

Gogs was well-received, winning a number of international awards. Its lack of spoken dialogue was a deliberate choice to avoid translation costs and lip-sync animation, making it a better commercial prospect. The high costs of claymation and the prime-time slot allocated to the show led to its cancellation after the 1998 special. Steven Spielberg, impressed by the first episode, offered the creators work in the United States for a potential theatrical film with DreamWorks, but no deal was made. DreamWorks later collaborated with Aardman on 'Crood Awakening', which became 'The Croods' in 2013. After the show ended, Aaargh! Animation was dissolved; Mort continued in animation, creating Chuck Steel, while Morris and Jones did not pursue further careers in animation.

Did You Know?

• The series has no spoken dialogue; characters communicate with grunts, roars, screams, burps, and farts.
• Steven Spielberg offered the creators work in the United States after seeing the first episode.
• The show aired in the US as a segment on 'The Three Friends and Jerry' on Fox Family in 1998.

From Welsh Slang to Claymation Icon

The name Gogs carries a distinctly Welsh flavour. In everyday Welsh slang, the term is shorthand for Gogledd, meaning North, and gogs refers to Northerners. Creators Deiniol Morris, Siôn Jones, and Michael Mort gravitated toward the single-syllable word Gog because its blunt, direct sound felt perfectly matched to the primitive cave family they envisioned. The project began as a pilot commissioned by Welsh broadcaster S4C, originally scripted under the title Y Cymro Cyntaf, or The First Welshmen. That early treatment centred on a group of cavemen who discover fire only to lose it almost immediately. When fellow Newport College alumnus Michael Mort joined the team, the concept was reworked to introduce a classic family structure that had been absent from the initial idea. Mort also brought in a dinosaur element as a nod to the legendary stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen. He went on to design and build the characters, storyboard, co-direct, and animate the pilot. The pilot's success prompted the three men to found Aaargh! Animation Ltd specifically to produce the full series.

A Silent Show That Crossed Borders

Gogs was structured as thirteen five-minute episodes plus a thirty-minute finale special, all built around slapstick and gross-out comedy with absolutely no spoken dialogue. That silence was no accident. The creators deliberately chose a wordless format so the show could be sold to broadcasters without the expense of translating, re-dubbing, or animating lip-sync, making it a far more attractive commercial proposition for commissioners like S4C. The first five-episode series debuted on S4C in late 1993, complete with Welsh-language titles and credits, reaching only a small domestic audience. The breakthrough came when Colin Rose at the BBC picked up the show, translated it for English-speaking viewers, and scheduled it during the 1996 Christmas season on BBC Two. That wider exposure led to a second series of eight episodes in 1997 and the Gogwana special in 1998, both also on BBC Two. The show even found a niche in the United States, appearing as a segment on The Three Friends and Jerry on Fox Family in 1998.

The Film That Never Was

Gogs was critically well-received and collected international awards, yet Gogwana in 1998 would remain the show's final instalment. The BBC declined to commission further episodes, citing the high cost of claymation against the rising sophistication of computer-generated animation, and the fact that the prime-time slot Gogs occupied could be filled more economically by conventional sitcoms. The show's most tantalising near-miss came from Hollywood. Steven Spielberg and his newly launched DreamWorks Pictures had initially tried to sign Nick Park and Aardman Animations for a stone-age feature, but Aardman resisted being absorbed by Hollywood. After that fell through, Spielberg watched the first Gogs episode, the one about the family discovering fire, and was so impressed that he offered Morris and Mort work in the United States. The two met at Spielberg's studio and acknowledged they would be tempted by a theatrical Gogs film, but no deal was struck and the project quietly evaporated. DreamWorks eventually returned to Aardman, producing Chicken Run and Flushed Away, and in 2005 announced a caveman comedy called Crood Awakening, co-written by John Cleese, which ultimately became the 2013 film The Croods.

After the Cave: What Happened to the Creators

When the BBC passed on a third series, Aaargh! Animation was dissolved and the creative partnership between Michael Mort and Deiniol Morris came to an end. Morris and fellow creator Siôn Jones, who had served as scriptwriter and set builder throughout the production, did not go on to pursue further careers in animation. Mort, by contrast, stayed in the industry. Before the studio closed, Aaargh! had already branched into other work, producing the animated segments for the 1997 film A Life Less Ordinary and crafting television commercials, including spots for Levi's jeans. After the split, Mort continued directing commercials and eventually created the character Chuck Steel, a figure who went on to star in the 2013 short film Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice and the 2021 feature-length movie Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires. Meanwhile, the Gogs episodes themselves continued to earn recognition, accumulating a number of international awards that cemented the show's reputation as a standout in the claymation tradition.

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