A TALE OF TWO KITTIES
Julia Donaldson’s bittersweet story about busking felines comes to life in a personal tale
Julia Donaldson’s children’s stories have become Christmas Day staples on BBC1 — and this year’s tells the bestselling author’s most personal tale yet. It’s the deceptively simple story of busker’s cat Tabby McTat who gets parted from his beloved owner, but it echoes the story of every human growing up, torn between their parents and moving on. And it’s particularly personal for Julia because she met her husband Malcolm when they were buskers and it was written in the dark period after their son Hamish, who had schizoaffective disorder, took his own life aged 25.
One day, after Tabby flirts with another feline, his owner Fred, a busker, has a fall and ends up in hospital. The pair, who sing together, are parted, and by the time they’re reunited Tabby has become a dad.
‘It’s a classic story of someone being separated from their parent, finding the parent again, but coming to the tricky realisation that things have moved on,’ says Rob Brydon, who’s starred in every adaptation of Julia’s books and voices Fred in this short film. Tabby is voiced by Gangs Of London’s Sope Dirisu, and their single The Tabby McTat Song is available to download for charity.
Former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker is the narrator. ‘There are big themes in the film — there’s a sense that something that feels like a loss is often a gain,’ she says. ‘There’s so much warmth and celebration of family in it, but there are also moments of fear and grief. It’s a tear-jerker for sure.’
Certainly the ending is not what you might guess. ‘It’s about a character who has two different lives that can’t co-exist,’ says Julia. ‘With most picture books you know what the principal wants and where they will end up but in this one there is more uncertainty. But I think there are probably a lot of children who do have to make choices and are torn; there will be children whose parents are separated and they’re torn between two homes. I think this is something they will relate to.’
But Tabby is also a nod to the happy times Julia shared with Malcolm. ‘We’d camp or stay somewhere cheap and earn enough to live by singing. We’d spend the morning practising, swimming, sightseeing and in the evenings we’d go busking. It was a brilliant way to make friends. At one point we got paid to perform a regular slot at the Lido in Venice.’
Both Julia and her illustrator Axel Scheffler own cats and the story taps into that friendship between humans and felines. ‘I have two, Tabitha and McTat, and they blow hot and cold,’ says Julia. ‘I feel they’re much nicer to visitors.’