Unadulterated joy encapsulated in the marriage of stunning animation and music which for many fans is a personal and treasured song. Think along the lines of Disney meets Mr Benn, see details below re the making of the video, an animated vision painstakingly made over the last nine months with nothing but tenacity and sheer will power to present it here.

My huge thanks to Jan Govey and Kayley D’Aguiar-Roberts

Jan says ‘I’d been musing about creating an unofficial This Boat video when the Captain contacted me for advice. Seeing Kayley’s brief and storyboard I jumped on board willingly, abandoning my ideas without a backward look.
It was to be series of animated scenes inspired by the song’s abstract lyrics, however it put me in mind of a Victorian Paper Theatre – a toy I’ve long been fascinated by. I wanted to attempt the look digitally, and having the graphics software (Kayley was in lockdown in Cyprus) offered to do the artwork based on her designs. We’d present them as if entering the world of a toy theatre come to life. The three of us also swapped ideas creating a darker, overarching story.
I’ve used After Effects for quite a few years, but never in this way or set to music. I complicated it further by then hand painting everything (resulting in three folders full of dismembered characters and scenery, and an unforeseen eight month timescale!), but I wanted to invoke the look of traditional animation, albeit with some contemporary twists.
I won’t deny there have been some hair-tearing moments (try getting Ganesh and eight elephants off stage in a hurry), but I think it was so worth bringing Kayley’s ideas to life. I hope you will too.’

Kayley says – ‘I was approached by the Captain after taking part in the Captain’s Karaoke competition on Facebook; he wanted to know if I’d be interested in working with him to create a video for This Boat, similar in style to the paper puppets I’d made for the competition. I jumped headfirst into thinking of ideas, and eventually settled on what seemed the most impressive to me, that being stop motion. There were a few big problems though, the biggest of which being I’d never done anything stop motion related before. Just as these doubts started surfacing, though, Jan joined the project and I couldn’t have been more excited. With her animation, rich colours and paper theatre aesthetic, my characters were going to be able to come to life in ways I’d never imagined before. It was the missing piece of the puzzle, and we started brainstorming all sorts of ideas and inspirations together. Many sketches, storyboards and suggestions later, we’ve finally ended up with an end result that I never would’ve thought I could have been a part of eight-ish months ago. It’s been a journey befitting of a voyage on the sea — what started as a planned-out course turning into something unpredictable and exciting. I really hope you enjoy This Boat as much as we’ve relished creating it.’