Anomaly’s satirical retelling of The Twelve Days of Christmas, narrated by Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge

What would really happen if your true love gave you a partridge in a pear tree, and the rest of the gifts from The Twelve Days of Christmas? According to the lead character in Anomaly’s short animated film The 12 Days Of Christmas: A Tale of Avian Misery, “a complete f**ing nightmare”. Written, directed, animated and produced in-house by Anomaly with illustrations by Rob Hunter, the film tells with wry humour the modern day repercussions of receiving 12 drummers drumming, six geese a-laying, etc. and its effects on a relationship.

The film is narrated hilariously by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, writer and star of the series Fleabag and Crashing, telling the protagonist’s tale with brilliant dryness and expert comic timing. On receiving the first gift she begins: “I didn’t ask for it and I have no room for it, not that I’m ungrateful but it seemed overly extravagant and maybe a bit weird.” Later, when the eight maids a-milking turn up, she recounts with increasing despair: “They say love is blind, but in this case love had made him blind to basic human rights protocol. I called Amnesty International.”

Oli Beale, executive creative director at Anomaly, says about the reasons behind making the film: “If we find something interesting or funny or entertaining or bird-related, we just like to make it. This is our gift of entertainment to the nation this Christmas.”