''Grandpa's Great Escape'' is a children's 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 ...

and 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 ...

. It was released 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 ...

on 24 September 2015. The story follows a boy called Jack trying to rescue his confused Grandpa from a retirement home, Twilight Towers run by an evil matron, Miss Swine. The book was adapted 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 ...

, with the script written by Walliams and

Kevin Cecil Kevin Robert Cecil (born 1969 in London) is a British screenwriter. Writing alongside Andy Riley (with whom he has been friends since attending Aylesbury Grammar School), he has won two BAFTA awards, the first for writing the Comic Relief one-o ...

. It starred

Tom Courtenay Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Courtenay achieved prominence in the 1960s with a series of acclaimed film roles, including ''The Loneliness of t ...

as Grandpa. Its British television premiere was on New Year's Day 2018.

Plot

Grandpa’s Great Escape is set in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1983 and tells the tale of Grandpa, a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

flying ace, who sadly is now

confused In medicine, confusion is the quality or state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion"

due to Alzheimer’s disease, and is still believing that World War II hasn't ended and longing to re-live his past. When his family can no longer look after him, Grandpa is moved to an old people’s home called Twilight Towers, run by Miss Swine. It soon becomes clear Miss Swine is running Twilight Towers for her own good profit and it is up to Grandpa and his 12-year-old grandson Jack, the only one who can understand his beliefs, to make a daring escape. Grandpa takes a final chance to relive his past and once again flies in his beloved

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...

Reception

Linda Lawlor from ''The Book Bag'' gave ''Grandpa's Great Escape'' a 4-and-a-half-star review, saying "Utterly silly from start to finish and yet it leaves the reader with a warm, cosy feeling. Forget about whether anything in the plot makes the slightest sense – just sit back and enjoy the ride" and "Tony Ross's superb illustrations add immeasurably to the carefree, slightly manic tone of the text."

Television adaptation

On 22 September 2017 it was announced that the book would be adapted for

and be shown at Christmas 2017. The script was written by Walliams and

and starred

as Grandpa,

Kit Connor Kit Sebastian Connor (born 8 March 2004) is an English actor. He has appeared in the films ''Get Santa'' (2014), ''Rocketman'' (2019) and '' Little Joe'' (2019). On television, he had a recurring role in the CBBC series '' Rocket's Island'' (2 ...

as Jack and Jennifer Saunders as Miss Dandy, with Samantha Spiro and Walliams as Jack's parents, Patricia and Barry. The film was shown on New Year's Day 2018 to an overnight audience of around 5 million.

Arena stage adaptation

A stage adaptation opened at the

Arena Birmingham Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...

on 23, 24 and 26 December 2019 and toured to The SSE Arena, Wembley on 27 and 28 December, FlyDSA Arena, Sheffield on 29 December, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on 30 December,

Manchester Arena Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights s ...

on 1 January 2020,

Utilita Arena Newcastle The Utilita Arena Newcastle (formerly the Newcastle Arena, Telewest Arena and Metro Radio Arena) is a large indoor arena in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Owned and operated by ASM Global and sponsored by Utilita Energy, it hosts mu ...

on 2 January, The SSE Hydro, Glasgow on 3 January and M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool on 4 January. The production was adapted by

and directed by Sean Foley and starred

Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End mu ...

as Grandpa.

References

{{David Walliams 2015 British novels British children's novels British novels adapted into films HarperCollins books Novels by David Walliams Fiction set in 1983