"A body in the garden doesn't do much for the house prices," says the narrator, in an English-Dick-Tracy-style voice, for the opening sequence of Six Of One.

A sort of Ground Hog Day meets Sunset Boulevard, the 12-and-a-half-minute animation by Tim Webb was commissioned by Channel 4 Television and nominated for a BAFTA this year. Using the pencil and paper drawing technique and a colored Animo computer screen, Six Of One fuses Forties film noir with modern-life action references. It opens with the ending, runs parallel story-lines with interlacing twists and trysts.

Love twists: Infidelity, lies and passion ensue in this contemporary film noir. The short centers around a middle-aged businessman called Harry who is having an affair with his young secretary Janet. Unbeknown to his bored wife Linda, evenings are a guise for his illicit rendezvous with Janet. A stereotypical bored housewife, Linda discovers Harry's infidelity and decides to seek revenge in the best way only scorned women know. Not in retail therapy (although she could well do with a makeover) or by burning Harry's rumpled brown suits (but that would be doing him a favor). No, Linda surprises the audience by getting a little mattress action of her own and is flattered into bed with her old school friend John. John, of course, is everything that Harry is not - flattering, fast and flirtatious. "I like my women like my coffee," says John.

The characters revolve around Harry and the story is initially told through his eyes, then later the events are retold through the viewpoints of Linda, Janet and John.

"I really like Richard Chandler [writer] and Billy Wilder [director]," says Webb."I felt four characters were enough for a short film... I tried to write it, but I couldn't, so I storyboarded it."

Webb's short works because the audience can identify with the characters and their situation in one way or another. The script for Six Of One was based on a true story of what happened to a neighbor at a block of flats where he used to live. He has deliberately made the plot and ending self-interpretive and ambiguous.

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