Lionel Pearce
Studied Commercial Art at Chelsea School of Art. Worked at Kodak in the Display Department. Went on to Gaumont British Information in the late 1930s. In the early 1940s GBI was evacuated to Moor Hall near Maidenhead in Berkshire. This was where the effort continued to produce information content towards the War effort. Along with Smith-Morris Lionel set up and ran Polytechnic Films at Taplow in the late 1940s. He then set up Eagle Studios with Henry Stringer in St James' Place, London. They were doing graphics for television advertising and were part of Rayant Pictures, a documentary film company. In 1951 Lionel set up Pearce Studios with Susie Pearce while continuing for a while to run Eagle Studios. In 1951 Lionel set up Pearce Studios with Susie Pearce while continuing for a while to run Eagle Studios. Lionel was an early member of the London Sketch Club which started in Marylebone and moved to Chelsea. He served for an annual term as President.
Susie Pearce
Susie Dean went to Harrow Art School and then ran a Draper's shop with her mother going on to became a camerawoman at Gaumont British in Soho. She was transferred out of London during WW2 to Moor Hall, near Maidenhead. Susie became Susie Pearce and set up Pearce Studios with Lionel at the start of the 1950s.
Maurice Cannon
Started at Polytechnic before working at Pearce Studios in Slough. Went on to become a Senior Animator at Industrial, Commercial and Educational Macmillan (ICEM) in Richmond. My first proper job was 3 days a week as an assistant to Maurice. When ICEM closed down Maurice seemed to have had enough of animation and got a job as a Postman.
Lela Stanley
At the end of senior school Leela was attending an art class taught by Lionel. She was taken on as an assistant at the Slough studio and trained by Li. Trained so well that she was then employed in Richmond by Industrial, Commercial and Educational Macmillan (ICEM) as head of the Animation Department and a bit later employed me in my first proper job.
John Percy
Graduated from Ravensbourne College in 1967. When they met later John and Dave Hall discovered they were at Ravensbourne at the same time. John had been working with Lionel at the Slough studio for 3 years by the time I dropped in for "a couple of weeks" in 1970. By then John was fully trained and working on his own jobs independently of Lionel although of course as the boss Li had an oversight. I think I remember that for a while John cycled down from Hammersmith every day and back. He took on a huge amount of projects and kept jobs going through during the Hitch Hikers time in 1980-81. He also created a couple of the H2G2 sequences. As well as missiles turning into a whale and a bowl of Petunias the Disaster Area sequence was entirely his. John continued to work at Pearce Studios till 1984. He continued with his own clients and projects combined with competitive cycling and training and gradually became more focussed as a Fine Artist creating abstract paintings. This is still so and you can see John's work here - www.johnpercy.co.uk
Rod Lord
St Martin's Art School - Graphic Design and Illustration. 8 weeks summer vacation work experience at IBM Audio-visual who funded and supported a 10 minute animated piece during final year. After leaving did freelance book jackets and illustration until print of IBM piece was complete. Employed by Industrial, Commercial and Educational Macmillan (ICEM) as an assistant animator. Went on for a "short stint" at the Slough studio which turned into 14 years. Worked at Athos House till 1984 then reverted to a sole trader based in a barn in Berkshire.
Val Pearce (Lord)
Worked at Halas & Bachelor in London then at World Wide Animation, before going on to Industrial, Commercial and Educational Macmillan (ICEM) in Richmond. Left ICEM to work at Slough when things got very busy and continued there when most of the Studio moved to Hanwell. It made possible working with 2 young children. After Hitch Hikers Val commuted to London again to work for Mike Hickin at Medi-Ciné where she met Carol Pike who later did a short stint of trace and paint for us. As digital technology gathered pace Val changed career direction to get a Horticulture qualification. She is still in Horticulture to this day.
Dave Hall
Dave came from Ravensbourne College to St Martin's where I met him in First Year Graphics. We also shared a house behind Olympia circa 1967-1970. During the final art school year Dave very generously gave a lot of time to help me churn out the mounds of trace and paint needed for my IBM project. While at St Martins he had been doing part time back-stage work for theatres and after leaving this became full on. Dave got a reputation within the Theatre world and worked for many Theatres and many productions including ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘The Ruling Class’ amongst many others. When the Studio was in need of extra talent I naturally turned to Dave hoping he could spare a bit of time to lend a hand. Although I knew Dave was doing Theatre work on ‘The Canterbury Tales’ at the Phoenix Theatre I didn't have a grasp on his exalted status in that world ! I later discovered that on the day I phoned him he had been offered the job of set designer at "The Young Vic" ! The reason we managed to grab his time was because we were offering more dosh. Who would have thought ! The "bit of time" stretched to about 14 years ! In 1979 Dave spent a lot of time on research and found the computer system we eventually purchased and installed in 1981. From 1978 onwards Dave worked mostly on Norwegian North Sea Oil projects. When the studio shrank in 1984 Dave continued with his own clients in some of the space, still travelling back and forth to Norway, until 1999. He later moved on to other things including some fascinating business ventures.
Tony Stead
Tony came from Leeds and was also at St Martin's. For the First Year Graphics he and I had an attic room each in a Rabbi's house in St Kildas Road in Finsbury Park. He also shared a house behind Olympia with Dave and me circa 1967-1970. After art school Tony was not short of employment and did a longish stint at Honey Magazine. I managed to twist his arm to step in for a bit at the Slough studio during one of his short gaps between jobs. He later went on to work for many different Design and graphic studios around the country.
Mike Hickin
To my shame I really can't remember how we knew Mike but he certainly did a few stints at Slough and at Athos House during the early 1970s. In the early 80s he was running Medi-Ciné and employed Val. In the 80s Mike started up his own company called Magic Touch. There was a time in the late 80s when I was having to use a lot of Paintbox and video facilities time in London and I used quite a few hours of Paintbox time at Magic Touch. Mike commuted to and from his home in South London by motorbike. One very late night he was knocked off his bike by a hit and run driver and very sadly never made it home.
Dave Kellehar
Dave was a freelancer who did stints of work in the early 1970s at Athos House. He went on to form his own company and we lost touch.
David Baird
Dave did some time as a freelancer at the Slough studio before the move to Athos House. Val knew Dave from the Troubador during her time living in a flat in Earl's Court and asked him to help out when things got really busy. Dave was a very talented illustrator with an interest in birds ... of the feathered type. Dave decided that he didn't want the stress of being a commercial artist to destroy his love of drawing so he went on to be a professional gardener and continued his art in his spare time.
Mike Sutton
Mike was the live action and rostrum cameraman at Industrial, Commercial and Educational Macmillan (ICEM) in Richmond. He very willingly co-operated with me doing experimental stuff with multipass in-camera opticals on a pilot project for the Jeff Hawke newspaper comic strip series. Mike went on to set up Wardour Motion Pictures in Wardour Mews near Wardour Street, Soho. He also dismantled one of the rostrum cameras at the Slough studio and re-commissioned it at Athos House. We did some work for Wardour Motion pictures for Arcade Records amongst others.
Maralyn Levett
Maralyn did Fashion Design at college then trained at Trinity House Lighthouse Authority as a Tracer-draughtswoman. She then moved on to the John Lewis Partnership doing lighting layouts for the stores but always really wanted to do something more arty. In the basement where we lived in Ceylon Road behind Olympia lived Pete the Surrealist painter with his partner Patsy. Maralyn is Patsy's sister and Pete suggested she apply for a job with us. So she came to work with us in the Athos House studio during the mid to late 1970s. Maralyn moved on to another job at the end of the 70s, back into the drawing office, working for Brown Crozier and Wyatt, consulting engineers at Kew Bridge, where she worked on new hotels in the middle east ! We have stayed in touch with both Maralyn and sister Patsy to this day.
Hattie Widgery
Hattie had a friend in common with Val. She worked as the studio PA during the earlier 1970s at Athos House. When Hattie moved on and Gigi took over we lost touch.
Betty Day
Betty went to Epsom Art School at 15, and went on to Heatherley School of Art to learn Animation. She later worked for Larkins, just off Berkeley Square, helping in the background department before leaving to do work in Television Advertising for Eagle Studios, a subsidiary of Rayant Pictures, in St. James' Place, London. Apparently she spent her lunch breaks jiving at the Two Eyes on Old Compton Street. Betty worked for Lionel Pearce at the Slough studio for a while before leaving to get married and have her children. When we found ourselves needing extra help at Athos House during the 1970s Li suggested contacting Betty. As her children were now older Betty came back to work but probably expected to do a 7 hour day through a 5 day week ! After Pearce Studios shrank Betty continued with Dave for a bit before going on in 1988 to do a four year course in Homeopathy and Transpersonal Psychology. She qualified as a Homeopath in 1993. Betty also studied at the college of Psychic Studies, and she still works at the age of 85 doing telephone counselling, mostly about psychic problems.
Carol Pike
Carol and Val were working together at Medi-Ciné in London in the early 1980s so when a short term need cropped up for artwork Carol helped out for a short while. Carol's husband was a film editor and they quite soon emigrated to Canada and we have since lost touch.
John Miller-Jones
During the 1970s at Athos House we did a fair bit of work for NATO through John's father for a Mr Henry Sandoz. John was a personable young man who came to work as a general assistant for a short time. My memory suggests that John did some rostrum camera work as well but I can't remember what those jobs were.
Daphne Clement
During a time of overload around 1982-84 Betty convinced her friend Daphne to come in to the studio to help out with artwork. I am ashamed to say that I don't remember how long Daphne was working in the Athos House studio but I have discovered that she went on to achieve local fame in her home town of Sunbury. She first came to Sunbury at the age of 10 in 1953 but only started drawing in about 1970 when her kids were little. She went on to draw and paint scenes in Sunbury for many years and was persuaded to create a book as a record showing how places have changed. She worked in pen and ink in the early days before developing her very recognizable style in water colours. Daphne is now such a star that she features in local community publications and listings. A Legend in her own lunchtime ! You can find out much more about her and her work by following these links -
Dapne-1     Dapne-2     Daphne-3
Gigi (?)
Once again my memory is pitiful and I cannot remember how Gigi came to be doing a stint as studio PA. I have a vague memory of her being involved in organising a studio party. I think Gigi did not stay long but I have no recollection of where she moved on to.
Elaine Page
Amongst neighbours and friends with children of similar age in Windsor in the later 1970s were Dave and Patsy Harris. When Dave closed his London Special Effects studio his PA, Elaine, was left without employment. So Elaine came to work with us for a short while. Our environment was not challenging enough for Elaine - she had been accustomed to working on major productions like "Superman" and "A Bridge too far". Before she moved on to a more exciting job she found and interviewed several potential successors and duly chose Pat Smith. I don't remember where Elaine moved on to and she did not stay in touch.
Pat Smith
Pat had already had an exciting and eventful career in the Film Industry as a Production Secretary on many productions and locations at home and abroad. Pat's CV included working as production secretary on several studio and location feature films including "Lawrence of Arabia" and stuff for Hammer Films. Thankfully Pat seemed happy to use her considerable skills in what must have been for her a much more boring environment. In addition to managing the time sheets, invoices, VAT returns and keeping the accounts Pat also used her considerable cullinary skills providing frequent in-studio lunches from a slow cooker. From 1984 Pat continued to come down to Berkshire to deal with the accounts and VAT returns. This went on till 2004 when I closed Pearce Studios Ltd and the associated VAT requirements. I used to very much look forward to her visits and our lunches at the local pub.
Kevin Davies
After time at Waltham Forest College of Art and the London College of Printing Kevin appeared in the studio one morning in the mid 70s saying he had been "sent" for an interview. Never did figure that one out but we gave him a test anyway during which he successfully managed to reasonably space Letraset in a straight line onto animation cel. The story of how Kevin was instrumental in Pearce Studios doing the animated graphics for the BBC's "Hitch Hiker's Guide" is covered in painstaking detail elsewhere on this site. Once the computer was up and running in the early 1980s Kevin was also responsible for the work done for "Terrahawks". Everybody of course knows that Kev went on to become a Guru, produce and direct "the making of ..." for the BBC and had a book or 2 published. While he was doing that he also worked at Passion Pictures and on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" amongst much other stuff. There is more related to Kev from external links
Theresa Whatley
Theresa did her art training at Hounslow and my memory suggests that Betty had some involvement in bringing her into the studio in 1981 (?). After completing H2G2 we were in the middle of installing the computer and learning how to make use of it and also trying to catch up with a load of jobs that had either been paused or had to take second place. We needed more talent to get through it and "Razor" was one of 3 who joined us at this time. After the shrinkage in 1984 she moved to Bristol and not only worked for Aardman and others but also formed her own business.
Shirley Brown
Shirley was a mate of Theresa and, if my memory is any good, joined the studio at pretty much the same time. I don't remember exactly when but Shirley left for foreign parts to do interior design projects. I will try to find out more from "Razor" and update this entry.
Tim Burgess
Tim says his initial connection with Pearce Studios was via one of our clients through John Percy. Tim was tutored at Nottingham Art School by Annabel Jankel of Cucumber Studios. I had dealings with Rocky and Annabel while working on "Max Headroom - the Movie" and later on a Water Authority commercial. Tim was one of only two people at Nottingham at that time to attempt some kind of 3D animation through the maths department. When he joined Pearce Studios we were beginning to turn out lots of stuff from the computer and the first job he worked on was called "Swindle" followed by "Sierra Man". Tim worked on several jobs for John, Dave and myself and also did the non-digital work on "Max Headroom". When I moved to Berkshire in 1984 Tim continued to come down to work with me for some time before going on to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit " in the matte and rotoscope department. After that he became one of the 3D animators at Ray Moore Animation before joining Touch Animation as a compositor and effects animator. Tim set up his own company in 2000 within Frontline TV, working mostly on 2D animation and TV commercials. He then joined up with Brian Larkin's The Animation People. Tim closed up shop in 2019 and moved to Devon with Janet and now spends all his time doing great Landscape photography.