''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 actor, comedian, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little ...

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 Franc ...

. It was released by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

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 channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

, with the script written by Walliams and Kevin Cecil. 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, he achieved prominence in the 1960s as part of actors of the British New Wave. Courtenay has received numerous acco ...

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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1983 and tells the tale of Grandpa, a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

flying ace, who sadly is now

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

due to

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

, 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 Twilight Towers, a prison-esque old people's home run by Miss Swine, where the latter is committing Elder abuse. It soon becomes clear Miss Swine is running Twilight Towers for her own personal gain, 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 that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...

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."

Adaptations

Television film 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 Kevin Cecil and starred

as Grandpa, Kit Connor as Jack and

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer, and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School ...

as Miss Dandy, with

Samantha Spiro Samantha Spiro (born 20 June 1968) is an English actress and singer. She played Barbara Windsor in the stage play '' Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick'' and the television films '' Cor, Blimey!'' and '' Babs'', D.I. Vivien Friend in '' M.I.T.: ...

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 Utilita Arena Birmingham (previously known as Arena Birmingham, The Barclaycard Arena, originally as the National Indoor Arena and still commonly called The NIA) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, England. It is owne ...

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 Nottingham Arena (known for sponsorship reasons as the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham) is a multi-use indoor arena, part of the National Ice Centre in the Lace Market district of Nottingham, England. The National Ice Centre and Nottingham Arena ...

on 30 December,

Manchester Arena Manchester Arena (currently known as 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 space. Pr ...

on 1 January 2020,

Utilita Arena Newcastle The Newcastle Arena (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Utilita Arena) is an indoor arena in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Owned and operated by ASM Global, the naming rights are currently held by Utilita Energy. Hav ...

on 2 January, The SSE Hydro, Glasgow on 3 January and M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool on 4 January. The production was adapted by Kevin Cecil and directed by Sean Foley and starred

Nigel Planer Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, writer and musician. His television credits include playing Neil in the sitcom '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in the sitcom '' Filthy Rich & Catflap'', as well as narrating th ...

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