A Forest Hill writer and a dyslexic Beckenham illustrator are making two pilot episodes of Terry's Travelling Trousers, a cartoon for 4 to 8-year-olds.
A children’s cartoon co-created in Forest Hill is moving from picture book to screen. Teresa Mahoney-Bostridge, a Forest Hill actress, writer and producer, and her best friend Kate Sweeney, an illustrator from Beckenham, say work is under way on an animated proof of concept and two pilot episodes of Terry’s Travelling Trousers, an animated series for children aged 4 to 8.
They chose International Dyslexia Awareness Week, which runs from 5 to 11 October, to tell the story, because Kate is dyslexic and the project began with her drawings. The two are directors of Sweeney & Mahoney Ltd, the company making the series, and they are now looking for female animation students and emerging female animators to join the team.
Writing to Lewisham News, Teresa said:
“Kate is dyslexic herself, so International Dyslexia Awareness Week felt like the perfect time to share how something that began with her drawings and an idea for a little boy in a pair of magical trousers has continued to grow.”
Who Terry is
In the pair’s press release, Terry is “a hard-working, kind-hearted and resourceful 13-year-old whose magical trousers take him from the launderette to extraordinary and imaginary places.” He travels with Freckles, described as “his unlikely travelling companion, a Scottish crab.”
The series has a catchphrase, which the release calls Terry’s promise:
“Whenever there is chaos and despair! Terry’s Travelling Trousers are always there!”
From a film set to Christopher Little
The two women met on a film set 14 years ago. Kate had the original idea, drew the illustrations and turned them into a picture book. When she showed it to Teresa, Teresa passed it to her friend Alla’s husband, the writer David Little, who sent it on to his brother, the literary agent Christopher Little.
The release is candid about how that first read went. Illustrated children’s books were not Christopher Little’s field, and in an early email to David he called the picture book “a bit mad and disjointed,” while wondering whether that was part of its joy. He called Kate’s illustrations “beautiful” and suggested simplifying some of the longer and more obscure words. The release adds, in capitals: “What Christopher didn’t know was that Kate was dyslexic.”
Teresa then wrote the first full manuscript from Kate’s picture book, building up the characters of Terry, the trousers and Freckles, and writing their sayings and the series tagline. Christopher Little’s verdict on that version, as quoted in the release, was:
“You’ve created a charming book, David would be so happy and proud to see the final edition.”
His agency did not handle illustrated books, but the release says he sent the pair a list of specialist children’s agents to approach and wished them “the very best of luck.” Both brothers have since died. The release ends that section with a thank-you: “To the late Little brothers, thank you for championing two unknown female writers, one an illustrator, and Terry.”
During Covid, Teresa wrote a second manuscript and Kate kept drawing.
A gift for John Bishop
Kate’s first self-published book, Oh Well What The Hell, draws on her experience of dyslexia, school and growing up in South America. The release puts her attitude in a line: “she was never going to let Oh Well What The Hell, I can’t spell, stop her!”
This year she was in the audience for John Bishop’s BBC One series Wisdom of the Crowd, hoping, the release says, to win money towards developing Terry’s Travelling Trousers. She took a copy of her book as a gift for him, not knowing that John Bishop is dyslexic too. She can be seen in the audience throughout the series, which airs after Strictly Come Dancing.
The children who tested Terry
Teresa’s son Theron Mahoney and Kate’s daughter Holly Poulton were aged within Terry’s 4 to 8 target audience when their mothers started developing him during Covid, and both contributed ideas. Teresa told us:
“There is also a lovely local family story behind Terry. Our children, Theron Mahoney and Holly Poulton, grew up alongside the project and contributed ideas when they were within Terry’s target audience of 4-8-year-olds.”
The release says “their ideas mattered because they were the children Terry was being created for.” Holly and Theron have since been named We Do Ethical Child Award winners for 2024/2025, in a section of the release headed “Planting Trees, Litter Picks & Helping the Homeless”.
A female-led team, and a call for animators
Two other women are already working on the series. Singer-songwriter, producer and performer Yasmin James wrote Terry’s original theme tune. Abbey O’Neil (Lollie-Bow), a 2D animator and caricaturist, is animating Kate’s original illustrations to “make Terry move.”
The pair link the next step to dyslexia. Dyslexia has historically been identified more often in boys than in girls, and the release cites Dyslexic Help for research suggesting the gap may come partly from the way dyslexia presents, is recognised and is referred for assessment, not only from how common it is. For Kate and Teresa, that makes backing female and neurodivergent creatives “particularly important.” In the release’s words:
“Because women shouldn’t feel threatened by other women’s ambitions. They should back them! Champion them! And make room for the women coming next.”
What it means for you
- If you are a female animation student or an emerging female animator, Sweeney & Mahoney Ltd wants to hear from you while it works on the proof of concept and the two pilots. The project is on Instagram at @terrystravellingtrousers, and Teresa can be emailed at tmbostridge@gmail.com.
- If you want to see Kate, she is in the audience throughout Wisdom of the Crowd on BBC One, after Strictly Come Dancing.
- If your child is 4 to 8, that is who Terry is being made for. No broadcast date has been announced; the series is at the pilot stage.
The project was covered earlier this year by South London News for International Women’s Day.
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