40 BBC1

SUPERWORM

Julia Donaldson’s children’s stories, illustrated by the brilliant Axel Scheffler, have become Christmas Day favourites. This halfhour animation features the pair’s first ever hero – a Superworm (right) who’s strong and long, saves baby toads who’ve run out into the road and beetles stuck in wells, and can be a skipping rope for bored bees. But then the Wizard Lizard hears about

Superworm’s many talents and sends a crow to kidnap him, putting our hero in danger. The all-star cast includes Matt Smith as Superworm, Olivia Colman as the narrator and Rob Brydon, who has starred in all of Julia’s adaptations, as the nasty Crow.