Animation Magazine just published my article How the ‘Small Prophets’ Team Crafted the Show’s Handmade Homunculi, which ventures behind the scenes on Small Prophets, the charming six-part comedy series about an unassuming man who makes alchemical magic in a quiet corner of English suburbia. Created, written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, Small Prophets was produced for the BBC by Blue House Productions and Treasure Trove Productions, and started streaming on Apple TV from October 7, 2026.
As a firm fan of Crook’s earlier show, the wonderful Detectorists, I had high expectations for Small Prophets, which was broadcast in the UK by the BBC earlier this year. I wasn’t disappointed. Small Prophets oozes Crook’s trademark warmth, wit and sense of wonder, as it encourages you to invest your emotions in a delightful ensemble of fractured characters valiantly navigating the challenges of their ordinary lives.
Not so ordinary are the steps taken by the main character Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley) to solve the mystery of his girlfriend’s disappearance. Encouraged by his father Brian (Michael Palin), he sets about growing three gargoyle-like ‘homunculi’ inside glass jars in his garden shed. This trio of tiny humanoids — the King, the Queen and the Seraph — are supposedly capable of prophecy, and will answer any question asked of them with the absolute truth.
Will Michael pluck up the courage to ask these peculiar creatures the one question that keeps him awake at night? You’ll have to watch the show to find out.
In the meantime, why not check out my new article on the stop-motion animation techniques that were used to bring the homunculi to life. The animators were Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, who employed a hybrid approach combining stop-motion with digital animation, while the physical puppets were fabricated by UK animation studio Mackinnon & Saunders.
I spoke at length with two members of the Mackinnon & Saunders team, co-founder Ian Mackinnon and workshop supervisor Richard Pickersgill, plus freelance concept designer Glen Southern. Between them, they told me exactly how they created the homunculi, taking initial artwork by Mackenzie Crook himself and developing it into a set of fully functional stop-motion puppets.
Here’s a brief extract from the article:
At one point in the story, the King escapes from his jar and rampages through Michael’s shed. Mackinnon & Saunders fashioned a loosely-jointed stunt puppet for the live-action shoot. “The tentacles had wire in the tip so we could get some shape,” says Pickersgill. “There were no joints in the cape — it was just the weight of the silicone that gave it movement.”
For shots of the King attacking Michael, Richard Pickersgill and Ainslie Henderson became puppeteers. “We attached rods into the King’s palms,” Pickersgill relates. “Pearce Quigley held the puppet while myself and Ainslie clawed away at him with the rods.” Freshly emerged from his jar of liquid, the King is a slippery customer. “Between every take, we used lube and Vaseline to make him look more slimy. By the end of the day I was covered in lube!”
To learn more about the intricacies of fabricating the stop-motion puppets for Small Prophets, visit the Animation Magazine website now and read the article in full. The article will also appear in the December 2026 print/digital issue of Animation Magazine (No. 363).
Main photograph: Lauren Patel as Kacey and Pearce Quigley as Michael Sleep in “Small Prophets” – Copyright © BBC, Treasure Trove, Blue House Productions. Homunculus image courtesy of Mackinnon & Saunders.
