Rob Flowers' BBC Three pilot Thames View reimagines 90s East London in vivid colour

Rob Flowers, an illustrator and director, has produced Thames View, a 13-minute animated sitcom pilot for BBC Three that challenges the dreary, brutalist stereotypes of London. Instead, it portrays his 1990s childhood on the Thames View Estate as a vibrant and cheerful environment. The narrative centers on the Potts family, featuring a father with uneven tan lines, a chain-smoking mother, a peculiar daughter, and a mob boss grandmother. Combining kitchen-sink realism with Loony Tunes antics and 90s crime comedy elements, Flowers spent a decade developing the concept, even creating a 40-page glossary of early 90s East London slang. The voice cast includes Tom Davis, Roisin Conaty, Joe Wilkinson, Laura Smyth, and Alan Ford as Edna. Directed by Zac Ella from Temper Temper TV and animated by Plus 3K in three months, the pilot also involved collaboration with writers Dan and Stu to efficiently introduce characters and visual humor. Should the series be greenlit, Flowers intends to explore the marshland, city farm, and abandoned factories surrounding the estate. Thames View can be streamed on BBC iPlayer.