Channel 4 Commissions Quentin Blake’s Clown

Eagle Eye Drama has been commissioned to produce Quentin Blake’s Clown, based on the classic children’s book, as a prime-time family special for Channel 4.

The animated Christmas special is based on a popular book by Sir Quentin Blake. The half-hour animation brings to life the adventures of a little toy clown, thrown away with a load of old discarded toys, as he goes on a journey to find a new loving home for himself and his friends.

Created with traditional hand-drawn animation techniques to capture the unique style of Blake’s artwork, the program will be narrated by Helena Bonham Carter (The Crown, Harry Potter, Alice In Wonderland).

Accompanying the program will be a short ‘making-of’ special feature with contributions by Blake, Bonham-Carter and the key animators and executives, giving insight into the creative process.

Blake said: “Clown has always been one of my favorite characters, and it’s wonderful now to see him off the page and running about on his own.”

Channel 4’s head of drama, Caroline Hollick, said: ”We’re delighted that this Christmas, Channel 4 will show this enduring tale of a box of once much-loved, now discarded toys and Clown’s impassioned journey to find them all a new home. Quentin Blake’s unique style of drawing has been delightfully realized in animation form by the extremely talented team at Eagle Eye Drama. I’m excited to be part of such a dynamic European collaboration, and we’re very pleased that Helena Bonham-Carter has agreed to bring her distinctive, rich voice to the story.”

Executive Producer Massimo Fenati commented: “Quentin Blake’s Clown is a charming and heartwarming story, and bringing to life Sir Quentin’s exquisite, inimitable style for the screen is an inspiring creative task. An exciting jigsaw-puzzle of incredibly gifted animators from all over Europe have embraced this creative challenge enthusiastically and everyone on the team feel privileged to be working from such wonderful source material.”

Eagle Eye Drama’s chief creative officer, Jo McGrath, added: “Eagle Eye Drama’s core mission is championing and creating unique and inspiring scripted projects—across all genres and forms. We are delighted to be adding Quentin Blake’s Clown to our growing production slate and hope this will be the first of many animation projects we can bring to life.”

Jackie Edwards, head of fund from the BFI’s Young Audiences Content Fund, commented: “We’re so proud of the range of projects we’ve funded this year, nurturing stories and concepts we feel will enrich television for young audiences. The Young Audiences Content Fund exists to support the creation of stories that represent, reflect and inspire the U.K. and we’re so excited to be able to help bring the uniquely special talents of Sir Quentin Blake to screen this Christmas.”