WHEN you go behind the scenes at Cosgrove Hall, it's like walking into the north west's very own Lilliput. This is a world in which small is not so much beautiful, but essential, at a studio that has produced some award-winning animations.

The various departments include a puppet hospital, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase micro surgery' and a mini wardrobe room, where the costumes worn by the various CH characters are washed, ironed and mended by two sharp eyed staff.

At the time of writing, Cosgrove Hall was producing early episodes of a series of Rupert the Bear, and what is immediately striking is just how small the set is, with the famous and much loved bear enjoying his adventures on something about the same size as your average office desk.

Richard Haynes works as a model animator and explained how the puppets move.

His role involves moving the various puppets around the sets and it's painstaking work, with Richard and his six colleagues producing just 13 seconds of animation a day.

"It's all done with tiny moments at a time and there are 25 separate moves of animation per second," he said.

"It's so rewarding when you see the end result.

"You can see it there and then, unlike in the old days when animators used to shoot on film and you had to wait to see the results."

Chris Bowden is the studio's executive producer and it's his job to oversee the production process.

Some shows, like Postman Pat, are produced for external clients, while others are conceived and produced by the staff at Cosgrove Hall, based in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy.

The studio receives around 10 ideas a week from people who think they have a hit show on their hands and Chris says only two per cent of the ideas they receive make it beyond the drawing board.

So what criteria do they use when it comes to accepting an idea as the basis for a future production?

"First and foremost, we want to know that we love the show and we think it's going to be entertaining for the audience we're going to be aiming it at," he said.

Cosgrove Hall productions can be seen in 100 countries worldwide - bearing this in mind, do they need to guard against cultural differences?

Chris said: "We very purposefully make our shows as cross cultural as possible. You can have shows like Postman Pat which are obviously very English but do very well around the world and you might have a show like Enjy Benjy which is very specifically designed to exist in a unique world, whether you're in America or Saudi Arabia."

Graham Hall works for McKinnon and Saunders, the animators who provide the puppets for Cosgrove Hall's stop motion projects.

He's currently working in the studio's puppet hospital - the correct name for the puppet maintenance department.

Some repairs can be carried out within 10 minutes, while others can take up to two days.

Graham said: "Sometimes you get a puppet back and you think, didn't I carry out the same repair yesterday?

"But when you get to see the footage of it walking around, it is fantastic.

"We're not as mad as the animators - they have to stay in a dark room all day, staring at tiny little people."