Watching a movie based on the work of Julia Donaldson has become a festive staple, although gathering the family around the television in between turkey and trimmings and the Queen’s Speech is absolutely not the writer’s own experience of childhood Christmases.
“We didn’t watch TV at all on Christmas Day when I was growing up,” says Julia. “We’d eat, drink and be merry, and we would play games together with the extended family – my parents, sister, aunts and uncles. My uncle would devise lots of word games.
“Television did not come into it at all. We weren’t a big telly-watching family, in fact. My dad liked Z Cars, I remember that, and I also recall him getting very excited one day about the first episode of Dr Finlay’s Casebook.”
She adds: “It is part of our tradition now, though. And it is lovely to think of families watching our films. It will be strange this year, having a King’s Speech, and not a Queen’s Speech, won’t it?”
It has not been confirmed yet that The Smeds and The Smoos, an alien love story created by the children’s literature dream team of Julia and illustrator Axel Scheffler in 2019, will air on Christmas Day itself but every other adaptation has, so it would be reasonable to expect this year will be no different.
This is Magic Light’s tenth animated adaptation of a tale by the award-winning creators (last year’s Superworm became the third most watched programme from Christmas Day, with eight million viewers across 30 days).
The Smeds and The Smoos, about two families on a far-off planet, stars Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh, Bill Bailey, Meera Syal, double Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins and Rob Brydon. It is the story of Janet and Bill, who meet and fall in love. Their families cannot accept the match after generations of division, but when the two elope, their warring relatives have no choice but to overcome their differences and work together to find the young couple.
“It’s the Romeo and Juliet story, except with aliens,” says Julia, adding quickly: “And a much happier ending.
“I’d been meaning to write this for ages, my notes stretch back five years previously, at least,” she says. “I like to give Axel something different each time, and he’d done woodland, and the oceans, and the skies – so I thought of outer space.
“There’s a lot of literature about conflict and resolution, so I don’t claim this is an original storyline, but what makes it a bit special, I think, is the funny language, the adjectives, the odd names for planets and characters. It’s not meant to be preachy and hopefully it’s not too soppy.”
Julia admits seeing the films for the first time on the big screen, usually at a press preview event, is always a thrill.
“I don’t feel as though it’s letting go of my story,” she disagrees. “I have done that already, when it goes to the illustrator, or the director or set designer – that’s when it stops being just something in my head.”
Julia grew up in London and initially dreamed of being an actor. At the age of 12 she understudied for the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Old Vic, where the part of Hermia was being played by a young Judi Dench.
“I remember chatting to her in the wings, and about a year later, I went to see her at a poetry recital and as we walked in, she waved at me,” says Julia. “My mother told me not to be ridiculous, that she wouldn’t have been waving at me, but afterwards I introduced myself and asked her if she remembered me. She said: ‘Oh yes, of course – didn’t you see me waving at you?’”
Julia laughs. “She was very lovely,” she adds. “Perhaps she will have a role in one of the films one day.”
Julia and her husband Malcolm recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and starred in a live show based on Julia’s book The Scarecrow’s Wedding.
“I love the live shows, particularly when it’s a book we haven’t really done before,” she says, with relish. “This was my favourite, as Malcolm and I got to get married again on stage. I do still enjoy acting, but we recently did a run of 25 sell-out shows, and I think that got it out of my system. How proper actors do those huge runs, I have no idea. That was enough for me.”
Julia also enjoyed a cameo in the TV adaptation of her stories for older children, Princess Mirror-Belle.
“I play a children’s writer, so it was quite easy to get into character,” she says. “We were filming in Greenock, and in between takes I was sharing a dressing room with Elaine C Smith. She had done the Glaswegian version of The Gruffalo, so we just nattered away. It was really lovely.”
Julia and Malcolm now divide their time between West Sussex and Edinburgh, and they have nine grandchildren, some of whom feature on the audio version of Rock-a-bye Rumpus, a new poetry anthology compiled by their gran.
Julia dismisses any suggestion she must be the best grandmother in the world to have around at bedtime.
“I don’t know about that. I tend to shy away from reading them any of my own stories, in case they say they’d much rather read the Star Wars annual and I’d get upset. I prefer reading other people’s stories to them.”
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