In the film, a retired bachelor (Dustin Hoffman) falls in love with his neighbour, a widow (Judi Dench) who keeps a tortoise as a companion after the death of her husband.

[3] It was seen by 7.86 million viewers, making it the ninth-most watched programme on BBC One and across all United Kingdom TV channels for the week ending 4 January 2015.

All the commercial music used in the show is that of New Orleans jazz singer and trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars, which includes Edmond Hall, Trummy Young, Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw and Barrett Deems.

The adaptation received praise, with Lucy Mangan in The Guardian writing, "An utterly, completely, inescapably beguiling adaptation of Roald Dahl's book by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, directed by Dearbhla Walsh, narrated by James Corden and starring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench.

And then it ripples through your film, or your play or your book, animating all and subtly transforming everything from a prosaic good – or even great – into a thing of wonder.