We are beyond thrilled to announce that one of our amazing agents, Katie Fulford, is now an Emmy Award Winning Executive Producer for her work on last year’s festive TV adaptation of Judith Kerr’s beloved The Tiger Who Came To Tea! Katie co-produced the animation alongside Ann-Janine Murtagh and Mia Jupp for HarperCollins and in collaboration with Lupus Films.
The Tiger Who Came To Tea premiered on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve and attracted millions of viewers over the holiday period, becoming the network’s best-performing show of 2019. Bringing to life the delightful story of what happens when a monstrously hungry tiger turns up unannounced as Sophie and her Mummy are having tea in the kitchen, its illustrious cast included Benedict Cumberbatch, David Oyelowo, David Walliams, Tamsin Greig and Paul Whitehouse, and featured an original song, Hey Tiger!, written by David Arnold and Don Black and performed by Robbie Williams.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea fought off stiff competition from Ico Bit Zip from Brazil, Oddbods from Singapore and Finland’s Moominvalley to win the award. It follows a string of award victories at Oscar-qualifying festivals around the world including Best 2D Film at the Animayo festival in Spain, Winner of the TV Jury Prize at the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France and Winner of Animated Encounters Grand Prix at the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol.
The Guardian review of the adaptation:
They have captured and honoured the look and the feel of what is now a beloved children’s classic. It expands Sophie and her mother’s world very slightly by opening with us following a cat – ginger, of course, for foreshadowing purposes, but I like to think it is some distant relative of our much-mourned, egg-loving tabby – down that Platonic ideal of a local high street with which the book closes. Past the florist and butcher, with a hint of a romance blossoming there, into the fishmonger to nab a treat, past the bobby in his domed helmet and on to Sophie’s door.
Sophie (Clara Ross) and her mother (Tamsin Greig) were planning to go the park but are thwarted by rain and make cakes and biscuits for a tea party instead. After a couple of teases, the tiger (David Oyelowo) arrives and proceeds, with vital fidelity to the book – plus a few additional flourishes like Sophie taking him up to the bathroom to clean his teeth and sticky fur and a small musical number performed with rare restraint by Robbie Williams – to eat all the sandwiches, all the cakes and all the biscuits. And then, my friends, to drink all the tea, all the orange juice and – the best, most mind-blowing part of all to me on my first and every reading thereafter, including reading the book now to my next generation – all the water in the taps. Imagine!
And then he says goodbye and leaves. When Daddy (Benedict Cumberbatch) comes home to a victuals-free house, he takes them all out for sausage and chips instead. Wherein lies my only complaint about this charming, faithful-yet-unslavish adaptation: those portions were nugatory where they should have been lavish. Cold-looking, thin, hotdog-type sausages and a smattering of skinny fries when all should have been fat, lush and steaming. We need Platonic ideals all the way in this kind of venture, OK?