Five Fables, five years on

One of the last projects Seamus Heaney ever collaborated on was adapting his translations of a series of 15th-century animal fables into a series of short animated films. The original fables were the work of Scottish poet Robert Henryson and, admiring the inventiveness and delicate humour in Henryson’s writing, Heaney set about translating them with the hope of bringing the work to a new audience. They were published in 2009 as The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables.

When approached a couple of years later with the idea of adapting these charming tales into animations, Heaney had the idea to approach the actor and comedian Billy Connolly to narrate the films. Connolly agreed and the result was a series of five short films – The Five Fables – made by Belfast-based animators Flickerpix and first broadcast on the BBC on the 13th March 2014, five years ago today. The animations are introduced by Heaney himself, who sadly did not live to see them completed, but who would have been gladdened to see them brought to life for a new generation.

Five medieval Scots fables, translated by Seamus Heaney, have been brought into the 21st century as enchanting animated tales for BBC Two Northern Ireland. Narrated by acclaimed comedian/actor Billy Connolly and with a specially-composed score by internationally renowned pianist Barry Douglas, Five Fables, made by local animation studio Flickerpix, is an ambitious re-telling of stories written 500 years ago by the medieval Scots poet, Robert Henryson. Beginning on BBC Two Northern Ireland on Thursday 13 March at 7pm, each of the five programmes in this series contain an introduction by Seamus Heaney, who was very much involved in all aspects of the project from its inception, and includes his final television interview before his death last summer; a fully animated fable, and some documentary elements about how these morality tales made it to the television screen.

The complete animations are available on the BBC iPlayer. They also featured on the Five Fables app, produced by TouchPress, Faber and Flickerpix, along with the original Scots versions and detailed academic analysis.