Aardman Creates Film Based on a Stoppard Play to Celebrate 40th Anniversary of 'Dark Side of the Moon'

Pink Floyd's seminal album "The Dark Side of the Moon" celebrates its 40th anniversary, and the BBC has created a new radio play, "Dark Side," written by Tom Stoppard, to mark the occasion. Aardman Animations was behind the film created to support the drama, which stars Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell and Adrian Scarborough, with "Misfits" star Iwan Rheon and "The Garbage King" actress Amaka Okafor taking the leads. It is based on themes from the album.

The three-minute piece, directed by Darren Dubick, features images, lyrics and dialog from the play while evoking the main themes of greed, conflict and consumption, and touching on its eventual morbid message: Life is futile, and destined to descend into madness.

The film acts as a promo for the play. It It will also compliment the audio experience on the radio and will be played on a loop on the BBC Radio 2 website, BBC Big Screens and a number of third party sites when the drama is broadcast live on August 26.