A childhood crush on cartoon character Marine Boy has led Christine MacKay to becoming one of the UK's most celebrated entrepreneurs.

Christine is the founder and CEO of the animation and design studio Salamandra.uk which is based in Eton High Street.

It specialises in animations that can be used by companies to promote their services.

But a partnership with Slough based Resource Productions recently saw the company widen its remit - contributing the animation to a short film for Channel 4 titled Their, They're and There.

The film is about a boy sitting an exam, whose frantic doodles on the paper come to life - which is where the animation comes in. It touches on themes such as children's mental health, learning disorders and the stigma that surrounds them.

Christine and her husband Lochmar recently moved from Windsor to Bracknell. Their children both worked on the film - Zander, 19 as stills photographer, Cara, 17 as an actress in the film's live action sequences.

The film has been nominated for an award at the Cardiff Animation Festival, a particular triumph for Salamandra.uk’s spectacular animator, Marcus Bowler who lives just outside Windsor in Virginia Water.

Marcus grew up on a narrow boat without access to internet and had to find hotspots where he could use his Nintendo DS to create his first animations.

He went on to study animation and gain a first at Cambridge.

He said: "I’ve been with Salamandra.uk for over four years now. Before I joined, I studied for my degree at Cambridge, and moved back onto the boat for a while. I was looking for jobs and building a portfolio before getting contacted by my boss, Christine”.

Working on Their, They're and There posed many challenges.

He said: "A student sitting in an exam room wouldn't have access to paintbrushes so the tools available had to be marker pens, highlighters, biros and coloured pencils. My favourite parts were the whiteboard segments. The smudges had to be exact during the wiping transitions. Oh, also the dog was modelled after my own dog, Holly the collie.”

Christine and Marcus must wait to find out if the film wins its award - as the Cardiff Animation Festival has been postponed because of COVID-19.