It’s been synonymous with Christmas for years, but how much do you really know about Raymond Briggs’ timeless animation, ‘The Snowman’?
It turns out there's a lovely tale behind Bowie's warm neckwear.
The short film adaptation of writer/illustrator Raymond Briggs’ picture book ‘The Snowman’ has been a perennial Christmas TV favourite for almost 35 years, and in its earliest broadcasts featured a filmed introduction by none other than David Bowie. Speaking to the BBC on World Book Day earlier this week, Briggs recalled, “I did an introduction to the Snowman film, and the Americans wanted somebody more important than me, quite rightly. Briggs has long voiced mixed feelings about the enduring Christmas classic status of ‘The Snowman,’ admitting he doesn’t much like the holiday, and objecting to the film’s addition of Father Christmas (another character Briggs explored in two picture books) in a bid to make the unforgettable climax – in which the young boy finds the Snowman melted – seem a bit less bleak.
It’s been synonymous with Christmas for years, but how much do you really know about Raymond Briggs’ timeless animation, ‘The Snowman’? The animation classic is based on the book by Raymond Briggs, released in 1978, but there are some wholesale differences between page and screen. For starters, the book has no mention of Christmas whatsoever, it’s just a simple winter’s tale.