For many families in the U.K., sitting down on Christmas Day to watch the BBC’s annual adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s children’s books has become as much a holiday tradition as tinsel and mince pies.
The eleventh book to be turned into a star-studded animation by London-based production company Magic Light Pictures is “Tabby McTat,” which was originally published in 2016. Written by Donaldson and illustrated by Scheffler, it tells the story of an unhoused busker named Fred (voiced by Rob Bryden) and his cat Tabby (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù), who earn their crust as a singing duo on the streets of a big city.
After Fred and Tabby lose each other one day, the melodic moggy finds love with a family-oriented cat called Sock (Susan Wokoma) – but he still longs to see his old friend Fred again, and soon embarks on an adventure to find him. “Doctor Who” star Jodie Whittaker also joins the cast as the narrator.
“It’s the most complex [story] in a way because it is about a character who’s torn between two completely different lifestyles which can’t coexist,” Donaldson said of the tale during a press screening in London. “When I first wrote it, it was suggested to me by the publisher that I could rewrite the whole thing and it just be about two cats — I think they were worried about the homelessness thing as well — and I said ‘No, no, no. That’s how it had to be.’”
Donaldson was inspired by her own experience of busking as a student in Paris some 55 years ago. “A girlfriend and I used to sing things like ‘Plaisir d’Amour’ and ‘Greensleeves,” she recalled, adding another friend called Malcolm (now her husband) flew out to join them. “We took the Champs-Elysees by storm.”
A key plot point in “Tabby McTat” — when a thief runs off with Fred’s collection hat and the busker gives chase – is loosely based on an incident when the hat Donaldson used to gather coins was swept by a gust of wind into the River Seine and Malcolm “nobly dived in” to rescue it.
Adding to the publisher’s woes over the sensitive subject matter was the fact that in one scene, which shows two people sleeping under a bridge, Scheffler quietly drew in a discarded syringe. It was spotted not long before going to print and, unsurprisingly, hastily airbrushed out. After Donaldson mischievously shared the anecdote with the fifty or so journalists at the screening, Scheffler nonchalantly replied with a shrug: “I think that’s part of modern city life.”
Donaldson admitted it’s always emotional watching the adaptations of her books for the first time: previous instalments include “The Grufallo,” which featured Jamed Corden and Helena Bonham Carter, and last year’s “The Smeds and the Smoos” with Adjoa Andoh and Sally Hawkins. But she doesn’t hold back criticism either and when discussing the song Fred and Tabby sing in the book she said the cat is supposed to miaow and purr on the words “me” and “perfect,” which isn’t reflected on screen (instead Dìrísù’s Tabby duets melodically with Brydon’s Fred). “That’s my own minor criticism,” she said.
Wokoma, who joined Donaldson and Scheffler at the screening, said she had leaned into the miaowing while recording her dialogue for Sock. “The main thing that I was [told] was: ‘It’s to do with your voice so you don’t have to put on a cat voice,’” Wokoma said. “Although I did do a lot of miaowing and it made it in the final cut.” When asked whether she had shadowed any feline friends to prep for the part of Tabby’s love interest, she replied: “Not too much studying of cats was needed.”
Wokoma, who said she had fond memories of reading Donaldson and Scheffler’s books as a schoolgirl, particularly connected with “Tabby McTat’s” more grown-up themes. “This is about family, and also about loss and searching and loneliness,” she said. “Tabby loses his parent [Fred], he finds somebody else and then there’s that kind of back and forth and that conflict there of ‘Do I stay?’ and ‘Am I happy?’ and ‘I am happy’ and ‘I miss home but I don’t miss home and I love this.’”
“I think Sock’s part of that is it’s all about change,” said Wokoma. “And about embracing change and not being scared of change and allowing it to happen and allowing yourself to grieve — and to find a new family.”
