''Gangsta Granny'' is a 2011 British children's comedy fiction book, written by

David Walliams David Edward Williams (born 20 August 1971), known professionally as David Walliams, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little B ...

, illustrated by

Tony Ross Anthony Lee Ross (born 10 August 1938) is a British author and illustrator of children's picture books. In Britain, he is best known for writing and illustrating his Little Princess books and for illustrating the Horrid Henry series by Frances ...

and published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. A sequel, '' Gangsta Granny Strikes Again'', was released in 2021.

Plot

Ben, a curious boy, hates having to stay with his old Granny every Friday because his parents go to see a dancing show named "Strictly Stars Dancing" which is a parody of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

''. He finds it boring and repetitive as his Granny always feeds him cabbage-related dishes, most commonly cabbage soup and cabbage chocolate, and they are constantly playing

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

, plus her television hasn't been working since the 1990s. Ben loves plumbing and is a long-term subscriber to the magazine ''Plumbing Weekly,'' which he buys every week from Raj's news-agency. Ben's parents disapprove of him being a plumber, as their ambition for their only child was to be a professional ballet dancer like the one they used to watch every Friday. One day, Ben calls his parents at Granny's house and asks them to take him home. Mum and Dad ignore Ben and disapprove of the proposal. Granny somehow overhears the conversation due to the indistinct sound made by Ben while he was talking. The next morning, his Granny seems somewhat upset and disappointed thinking that her grandson doesn't love her. That same morning, Ben is served boiled eggs by Granny, which he doesn't like and he flicks the runny egg gloop onto the window and empties it into the plant which is beside the breakfast table. But, as he was hungry, he starts searching for something to eat; with some pocket left luck, he finds a box of chocolate biscuits. To his surprise, the tin feels much heavier than usual. Ben unscrews the lid and finds many diamonds, rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings clustered together in the tin. Ben hears Granny approaching and quickly puts the tin back and sits back down at the table completely shocked! He goes home and now can't wait to see his grandma again to find out about these jewels. But when his dad rings Granny up, she says she's too busy that evening to have Ben sleep over.

Film adaptation

The book has been adapted into a one-hour film for

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, which aired at Christmas in 2013.

Theatre adaptation

The book has also been adapted into a 130-minute theatre performance by the

Birmingham Stage Company The Birmingham Stage Company was founded by the Actor/Manager Neal Foster in 1992, with Sir Derek Jacobi and Paul Scofield CH as patrons. It presents productions both on its home stage at The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham and touring throughou ...

. It toured the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

until July 2017. It then became a play at the

Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play ...

in the West End from 26 July to 3 September 2017.

Ride adaptation

On 21 March 2020, Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire, England launched David Walliams World, with the main theme of the area being focused on the Gangsta Granny book. The new area was to feature a 4D dark ride titled Gangsta Granny: The Ride, where guests embark on a crown jewels tour which is then sabotaged by Ben and Granny who persuade the guests to join them on a heist of a lifetime to steal the crown jewels. Gangsta Granny: The Ride finally opened on 17 May 2021. Gangsta Granny Ride Facade

References

{{David Walliams 2011 British novels British crime novels British novels adapted into films British children's novels Novels by David Walliams 2011 children's books HarperCollins books