A touching story of an unusual friendship between a sheep dog and a lamb. Despite having prize-winning parents, Ben is a hopeless sheepdog. Whenever he goes near the sheep, they just run away. When Ben makes friends with a lamb things go from bad to worse as the sheep just laugh at him for being soppy! But when a storm frightens the whole flock of sheep away, Ben’s friendship with the lamb brings him an unexpected triumph.
A heart-warming tale about nature and farming With high-flying, prize-winning parents, Ben the sheepdog has got a lot to live up to. However, he is the most hopeless sheepdog on the farm. He tries so hard to get it right, but keeps getting everything wrong. One day he makes friends with a lamb and they have a wonderful time together playing 'sniff and seek'. However, this unsuitable friendship makes him the laughing stock of the farm. One evening, a storm comes and scares all the sheep away onto the hill. They are lost and visibility is poor, so the farmer sends Ben off to find them because of his good nose. Something amazing happens when the sheep see Ben - they follow him back to the farm and earn Ben a well-deserved place in the farmer's heart.
Pinny Grylls is a documentary filmmaker living in East London. The Very Hopeless Sheepdog was inspired by her short documentary, 'Peter and Ben', which told the story of an unusual friendship between a man and a sheep. The film won her several international awards including FourDocs Best Documentary and the Shooting People Werner Herzog Competition. Her other films 'Mr and Mrs Smith', 'Who Do You Think You Were?', 'Hearing a Smile, Seeing a Song' and 'Bravo!' have been broadcast on Channel 4 and the BBC, and at the end of 2010 she was featured in the Observer as one of a crop of daring and innovative young directors working today.
She is married to actor Sam Crane, has two young children and lives in Hackney.
