when i was six, somebody gave me a copy of hurrah for st trinian�*s, a collection of cartoons by ronald searleeat thing about searle is that he was — apart from being a great draughtsman — he was a fantastic observer, and his style of drawing influenced my style. ifact, my handwriting, to this day, is influenced by ronald searle�*s style of handwriting. and what was he doing? i mean, just to evoke a sense of his style? well, there are two things, really. one is his — his observation of character, and his expression of character. but the other is his line. you know, he had a great... ..he had a range of different kinds of line, but he had a great facility to allow the pen marks to be themselves. in other words, it was polished in his own terms, but it wasn't — it didn't affect to have a kind of gloss finish. you think about the characterisation that ronald searle comes up with in those drawings, those kind of quite spindly characters. they're sort of etiolated figures. is there a link, do you think, in those characters, between those characters and some of the characters that you create in your

when i was six, somebody gave me a copy of hurrah for st trinian�*s, a collection of cartoons by ronald searle he was, apart from he was a great draughtsman, he was a fantastic observer and his style of drawing influenced my style. in fact, my handwriting to this day is influenced by ronald searle�*s style of handwriting. and what was he doing? i mean, just to evoke a sense of his style? well, there are two things, really — one is his observation of character and his expression of character but the other is his line. you know, he had a great — he had a range of different kinds of line, but he had a great facility to allow the pen marks to be themselves. you think about the characterisation that ronald searle comes up with in those drawings, those kind of quite spindly characters, they're sort of etiolated figures. is there a link, do you think, in those characters, between those characters and some of the characters that you create in yourfilm? i think the important thing about searle being an inspiration — or, if you like, an influence on me — it's not so much about specific characters, it's