Gruffalo coming to TV screens

Much-loved children's book The Gruffalo will be brought to the screen this Christmas as an animation.

The film will be voiced by Robbie Coltrane as the Gruffalo, Helena Bonham Carter as the narrator, Rob Brydon as the snake, James Corden as the mouse, John Hurt as the owl and Tom Wilkinson as the fox.

The Gruffalo, which has become a modern classic, tells the magical story of a mouse who walks though the woods in search of a nut.

Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him - a fox, an owl and a snake - the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive, creating an imaginary monster who turns out to be only too real.

The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's best-selling book, will be broadcast as a 30-minute show on BBC1.

Scheffler's artwork is being brought to life with a mixture of model and computer-generatedI animation.

Donaldson said: "I'm very excited by what I have seen of the animation, in particular by how faithful it is to the original story, while incorporating lots of imaginative touches to bring the deep dark wood alive."

The Gruffalo celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and more than four million copies of the book have been sold worldwide.