This Charming man
Comic reveals why he’s putting a modern spin on popular fairytale .. with a feminist edge
WE ALL know the story of Cinderella – the enslaved stepdaughter who finds her fairy tale ending with the dashing Prince Charming.
But what happens after they skip off into the sunset?
David Walliams aims to find out with his latest festive offering, Cinderella: After Ever After.
Turning the classic tale on its head, the anarchic Sky One special begins where the fairy tale ends. For Cinderella, who has just married her Prince Charming, has a rude awakening when she realises married life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when you have an imageobsessed, floss-dancing, hip-hop rapping husband.
Perhaps a glass slipper fitting your foot is not enough for a lifelong commitment after all?
“When you read a story to a child and it ends, ‘They lived happily ever after’, the child often asks what happened next?” said Walliams, 48, who co-wrote the 60-minute film with comedy tour de force The Dawson Brothers.
“Now, for the first time, we will reveal what happened next for Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Wicked Stepmother. What happened ‘After Ever After’?”
So why go for Cinders, over other fairy tale princesses?
Walliams said: “It’s probably one of the most famous ones and there was just a big movie of it as well, wasn’t there – Kenneth Branagh?
“So we thought it was fresh in people’s minds.
“It’s certainly the first one I think of,” he added. “And because of the marriage at the end, it all being so sudden, there was probably something to do about that.
“In the past, people just accepted that part of the story but I feel now people are much more likely to question whether it’s a good idea to meet someone at a ball and immediately marry them, just because their name is Charming and they’re kind of good-looking.”
On that note, Londoner Walliams – quick to protest “not in this version, but normally” – will play none other than Charming, with Sian Gibson playing Cinderella as she fights to save The King (Sir Tom Courtenay) from the traps of her evil step
The great thing with these stories is we can reflect the time we’re in DAVID WALLIAMS ON THE NEW TWIST IN THE TALE
mother Madame Blackheart (Celia Imrie) and stepsisters. “I was desperate to work with Sir Tom again,” Walliams said of his all-star line-up. “We’d done Grandpa’s Great Escape together and we had such a good time – and Sian and I only met socially through Peter Kay, a mutual friend, and she seemed like the perfect Cinderella. “There was an idea I should play Prince Charming and I was like, ‘I’m really too old’, so forgive me.”
Having learnt a rather energetic MC Hammer routine for the part, he added: “I [also] realised I’m one of the world’s worst dancers.
“People always say, ‘Oh when are you going to do Strictly?’. Well, I’ve found out the answer is, ‘Never’.” he said.
Cinderella shunned traditions too – but rather than have her pull off some extravagant moves, Walliams was keen to rework the traditional “princess” tropes to speak to a modern feminist audience.
“We wanted to make Cinderella a strident, strong woman and not a victim of her circumstances,” he said. “But also while making it entertaining, so it wasn’t something we were bashing the audience over the head with.
“But it’s got to be modern and, interestingly, kids are questioning those things, aren’t they?” he asked. “There’s also this thing about Sleeping Beauty with the Prince waking her up with a kiss.
“That’s the great thing about these stories, you can reflect the time that you’re in,” he said. “This is a fairy story, it’s been retold so many times but you don’t have to be slavish to the version of it. And, in fact, this is a sequel, so it gave us even more licence to go wherever we wanted with it.”
The festive offering will mark Walliams’ return to Sky One after two hugely successful adaptations, The Queen And I (based on Sue Townsend’s book, in which he played a power-mad Prime Minister) and the Emmy award-winning Ratburger (which he wrote and starred in as burger seller Burt) – both achieved a combined audience of more than four million over the festive period.
It’s fair to say he has become a holiday season staple.
Walliams said: “The thing is, if you do something that kids like, kids like to watch things again and again, so people tell me about Ratburger, ‘My child has watched it every day over half term’, or whatever.
“My son has asked to watch The Aristocats twice in one day,” he said of six-year-old Alfred, whom he shares with ex-wife Lara Stone. “It’s also nice to do something for kids that’s got a bit of an edge to it,” he added. “I always think the best things for kids work for the grown-ups too but don’t exclude the kids.”
So which classic is he eyeing up next?
“Jack and the Beanstalk? Little Red Riding Hood?” he teased. “I think Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty have similarities, perhaps?”
“So it might be more interesting to go for ones with different protagonists.”
• Cinderella: After Ever After is on Sky 1, 8pm Christmas Eve