BBC orders The Borrowers for Christmas

The BBC has ordered a new version of the classic children’s tale The Borrowers for Christmas.

The classic tale is about a “small” family who life under the floorboards and “borrow” things from the humans above. The novel was written by Mary Norton and it has been adapted several times before – previously by the BBC in the 1990s. Media Guardian reports that Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood will lead the cast although they won’t be playing borrowers themselves but the family who life above them. Also amongst the cast will be Christopher Eccleston, Sharon Horgan and Robert Sharman. The new adaptation will be written by Ben Vanstone.

The previous BBC adaptation was in the early 1990s starring Penelope Wilton, Ian Holm and Rebecca Callard. The series was hugely popular at the time and since has been named as one of the BFI’s “100 Greatest Children Programmes”.  A film version was produced in 1997 starring Celia Imrie and Jim Broadbent and met with mostly positive views. It lost out on a BAFTA for Best British Film of 1998 to Nil by Mouth. The classic 1990s BBC children’s series is out on DVD.