Donaldson’s stories are the jewel in the BBC’S crown
At regular intervals I encourage my children to embrace the life-changing magic of tidying up. As part of the process, I suggest that they go through their bookshelves and pick out the stories that they no longer read, because they’re too old for them now. Every time, they put their Julia Donaldson picture books on a pile. And, every time, their father and I cry: “Nooo!” and put them straight back. Because there is something so wonderful about Donaldson’s stories and Axel Scheffler’s illustrations, including this year’s BBC One Christmas adaptation, Tabby Mctat, and we can’t bear to let them go. I imagine many parents and grandparents will feel the same.
Doing these stories every Christmas is one of the best ideas the BBC has had in decades. Scheffler’s drawings translate brilliantly to animation. The books have great stories (although, if we’re going to nitpick, they should really have done The Smartest Giant
in Town or The Scarecrow’s Wedding before the inferior Zog and the Flying Doctors or Superworm).
Tabby Mctat differs from the rest of Donaldson’s stories because it’s set in London, rather than the countryside or a fantastical land. It’s gorgeously rendered here, and somewhat cleaner than the real thing. The animators have left out one of Scheffler’s illustrations, in which Tabby wanders along a grimy canal, past graffiti and an abandoned shopping trolley and a homeless man sleeping under a bridge. Instead, they’ve made things more jolly and festive, all falling snow and cosy fires.
The story, if you don’t know it, is this: Tabby is a busker’s cat, and the pair sing together happily until one day they’re separated – a thief steals Fred the busker’s money, he gives chase and ends up in hospital, and a lonely Tabby is taken in by a couple called Prunella and Pat (relationship uncertain). But he pines for Fred, and after a quest through the streets of London they’re happily reunited.
There’s a slightly alarming moment when Tabby speaks to another cat in the human voice of Sope Dirisu, the Gangs of London actor, because he’s hitherto only miaowed. I suppose it has an internal logic, because humans hear cat noises whereas fellow cats understand the conversation. The narration is perfectly done by Jodie Whittaker, and when Fred finally speaks it is, of course, Rob Brydon.
Scenes are added, because the book itself couldn’t stretch to half an hour, but they bring extra joy: Prunella and Pat welcoming Fred into their home for tea and mince pies. It’s pretty much purrfect (sorry).
So-called “Christmas specials” stop being special when they feel as if they’ve been happening every year since records began. Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing, Mrs Brown’s Boys – it would be a special Christmas Day if they didn’t appear in the line-up. Wouldn’t it be great to watch something genuinely new?
Well, technically that something isn’t (BBC One), which has been doing festive episodes for four years. But this one does feel different – partly because the show is still fresh and partly because it’s the last episode, so this is a farewell to its characters. And it’s a great send-off. Ghosts is that rare thing: a good BBC comedy.
The premise is simple. A young couple moves into a haunted house filled with a motley bunch of spirits. Alison (Charlotte Ritchie), following a bump to the head, can see them; Mike (Kiell Smith-bynoe) can’t but accepts that they’re there. The ghosts are annoying, from a bumptious politician caught with his trousers down to a lovelorn Keatsian poet, and a Scout leader with an arrow still embedded in his neck after a camping accident.
In this finale, Alison and Mike have a new baby. They also have Mike’s mother outstaying her welcome and making “helpful” suggestions. This may be a comedy, but Ritchie gives a strikingly accurate depiction of new motherhood: washed out, bone tired.
There are laughs when mother-inlaw Betty (Sutara Gayle) calls in a priest to conduct an exorcism after spotting some ghostly goings-in, and when Regency ghost Thomas (Mathew Baynton) announces that he no longer loves Alison and has transferred his affections to Jennifer Aniston. But the real beauty of Ghosts has always been its warmth as well as silly jokes.
Families aren’t always blood relations, but can be people you’ve chosen – isn’t that the essence of so many good sitcoms, from Friends to Sex and the City? When the ghosts tell Alison and Mike that they should go their own way, it’s really quite moving. And a postscript supplies a Christmassy, feelgood ending. Goodbye to a show that has bowed out without the quality ever dipping.
Tabby Mctat ★★★★★ Ghosts ★★★★