BBC1 controller, Charlotte Moore, has announced that Roald Dahls’ classic children’s books, Esio Trot, will be getting an all-star cast for the TV movie adaptation that they’re working on for 2014. Set to star both Dame Judy Dench (My Week With Marilyn) and Dustin Hoffman, it’s already lined up to be a powerhouse of a production, following in the footsteps of other great adaptations of Roald Dahl’s work, including Danny the Champion of the World, the BFG and Matilda.
Filming has already begun in London, having been earmarked for Spring 2014, so we’re expecting the 90 minute TV movie adaptation to go on to be one of the BBC’s Christmas television productions. With the powerhouse of the writing duo of Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, the classic Roald Dahl story, M and Rain Man and the might of BBC1 and Endor Productions behind it, the Esio Trot adaptation should be an incredible endearing TV film.
The story, for anyone that hasn’t read the book, is pretty hilarious when you look at it in the cool light of day. Essentially, Mrs Silver, played by Dame Judy Dench, only has eyes for her beloved little tortoise Alfie, which makes life pretty difficult for Mr Hoppy, played by Dustin Hoffman (Little Fockers), who’s besotted by his neighbour. When his advances go unnoticed, he gets pretty desperate, and we’ve always thought that the subtext must have been that he loses it entirely, as he goes to the extreme lengths of reptile-rustling to get himself into Mrs Silver’s line of sight a bit more.
When he discovers that Mrs Silver would like nothing more than for her little Alfie to grow a bit more, the Hopster tricks her into thinking that he has a magic spell (the Esio Trot of the title, which if you haven’t worked it out is Tortoise backwards) that can make it happen, only to replace the tortoise with a slightly bigger one the next day to complete the illusion. Though he manages to pull off his trick, the farce builds as you start to wonder whether or not he can make it stick or get seen for the single-minded Lothario that he clearly is.
The story has been adapted by Richard Curtis (Notting Hill) and Paul Mayhew-Archer, who have worked together previously for the BBC on The Vicar Of Dibley. It’s being produced by Hilary Bevan Jones (Not The Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder and Red Dwarf) and directed by Dearbhla Walsh (Shameless), so all in all there’s a lot of big guns going into the production of the BBC1 Esio Trot TV film adaptation.
