Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Executive producer Jack Cheshire reveals the history of Hounded and why he picked Rufus Hound to save the world.

"What's so exciting about Hounded is that we can do anything, go anywhere, perform impossible feats, travel impossible distances in impossible spaceships and meet impossible monsters and villains and it's mainly shot on a couple of soundstages and the effects put together in our production office," reveals Jack.

Hounded is the first joint production between CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Comedy, which almost came about by chance. "I produced a 10-minute taster tape which became a sketch show called The Wrong Door, for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three," explains Jack.

"I played a few clips at an internal Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ event and got talking to the CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ controller, who was interested in developing the narrative element. And so the original project took on two lives. It was the first time CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Comedy had worked together but I teamed up with Melissa Hardinge at CΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and the collaboration has worked fantastically well."

What is it about Hounded that makes it stand out so much?

"Well, Rufus's performance for starters. He had to put up with an incredibly tight and extremely physical filming schedule and he is absolutely fantastic in it - hilarious. And the evil Dr Muhahahaha is a great character. You can't beat an incompetent evil genius for comedy and Colin McFarlane completely owns the role," he reveals.

"But it's also about the stories. With Dr Muhahahaha's hair-brained attempts to take over the world – launching an evil pizza chain, creating an army of evil toasters, making an evil gameshow – you can start with something that's very ordinary in the real world and then twist and exaggerate it to create a fantastical plotline.

"And the visual effects give you a whole new take on physical comedy – as well as hopefully transporting the audience into the amazing landscapes and environments of the parallel worlds of Hounded."

The show's special effects are spectacular, but what work went into making them?

"We used the same VFX setup for Hounded as we did for The Wrong Door, and we're really lucky to have such a talented team. Hugh Johnson, Chris Taylor and the team won an RTS Craft Award last year and for Hounded they have produced more than 1800 shots. That's a phenomenal achievement. That's more than Star Wars!

"We use the visual effects in several different ways. There are the fully CG sequences set in outer space. Then there are the landscapes and environments in the parallel worlds, which are a combination of establishing shots created entirely in CG, and live action sequences with the actors, with bits of set, props, dressing, filmed against greenscreen, with the CGI backgrounds dropped in afterwards.

"Then there are the physical effects – smoke, flames, laser beams, lightning bolts, explosions – as well as the transitions when characters transport themselves between universes. We built 3D digital models of all of our main cast members so we can make them perform seemingly impossible feats and slapstick stunts. We can throw our characters around in a way that you usually only see in cartoons or feature films.

"Then there's the 3D character animation, like the Brocolli Monster and Sockalufacus (a monster made of old pants and socks) in the Rufus vs Rufus episode. Once the team were up and running, we were creating over 100 shots a week, which is a phenomenal achievement with such a small team working in a relatively lo-fi environment. They've done a stunning job, at a preposterous value for money. And you can really see the results onscreen."