To finish, Matt took questions from his hugely appreciative audience. He talked about his inspiration for the Simpsons � the bad sit-coms about families he'd watched as a kid. Although the Simpsons could be seen as dysfunctional in a way that those perfect families never were, they still love each other.

His family have had a few things to say about the show, though. All of the characters are named after Matt's own family.

'I thought it was a conceptually funny idea , and didn't tell my family that I had named the Simpsons after them. It's not thinking very far ahead, really, because if the show is a success, they then get kind of angry'. Matt's family have got used to it now, but there were a few ruffled feathers at the start.

One audience member asked why the Simpsons are yellow.

'Yellow wasn't my choice. You initially work in black and white, and one of the animators suggested that we colour them yellow, and it looked right. Then again, she also made the trees purple, which we didn't go for. It means the Simpsons look like no other cartoon characters, though. I don't like that skin colour they use in cartoons. I loved Mickey Mouse when he had a white face, not the strange pink Caucasian colour he is now.'