‘The Gruffalo’ Creator Julia Donaldson Says New BBC Adaptation ‘Tiddler’ Marked the ‘Best Moment in My Whole Writing Career’

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman A film about a fantasist fish isn’t the most obvious subject for Christmas Day – except when it’s based on a children’s story by prolific British author Julia Donaldson and her longtime illustrator Axel Scheffler. “Tiddler” is the twelfth of Donaldson and Scheffler’s collaborations to be adapted by U.K.

production company Magic Light Pictures and, in keeping with previous adaptations, boasts an all-star voice cast, including “Ted Lasso’s” Hannah Waddingham as the narrator. (Last month Waddingham was in attendance at a special screening of the film, held at an aquarium in London).

Speaking at a press event in November, Donaldson said the book, which is also called “Tiddler,” features one of her favorite plot devices, in which Tiddler – a naughty school-aged fish who is always late for class because he’s dreaming up “tall tales” – is accidentally kidnapped before finding his way home by tracing his own story through the various undersea creatures who have heard it. “I think actually it’s the best moment in my whole writing career when I thought of that idea,” Donaldson said. “That came in a flash, that he would find his way home by following his own stories through the ocean,” she continued. “So I was really proud of that idea because it’s kind of the opposite of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ You know, in ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ you’re taught ‘Don’t tell a story’ and it’s the downfall of the boy who cries wolf because no one believes him when the real wolf comes along.

And [in ‘Tiddler’], the moral is, do tell stories. Make things up. I wouldn’t say lie exactly but it is a celebration of the imagination.” In the film adaptation of “Tiddler,” which airs in the U.K.