In both The Gruffalo’s Child and Dr Who (The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe) a child follows tracks in the snow into a dark wood. They leave the safety and security of the ‘normal’ world, venturing away from the bosom of the family into an unknown zone.
As we know from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Blair Witch, Twin Peaks and X-Files you enter this sort of densely wooded area at your peril. They are often places of mystery and evil and more likely to be cursed than enchanted. As such, they are an effective metaphor for the shadow side of the human psyche while preying on our fear of things that go bump in the night and a hidden evil ‘out there’.
Since both these BBC ‘Christmas treats’ are tailored for a younger audience, the fear factor is mild and the endings are reassuring to the point of sentimentality.
This ‘all things nice’ content is more justified in the Gruffalo story which is based on the charming children’s book by Julia Donaldson with beautiful illustrations by Axel Scheffler. Robbie Coltrane voices Daddy Gruffalo who aims to deter his child from going into the forest alone and invents a scary mouse threat to this end: “The big bad mouse is terribly strong / And his scaly tale is terribly long / His eyes are like pools of terrible fire / And his terrible whiskers are tougher than wire”. Kids being kids, the child takes this warning as a challenge and goes in search of the creature meeting a snake, owl and fox along the way. It all ends with him seeing the wisdom of staying put in his own cave. Moral of the story – there’s no place like home.
You don’t really expect Dr Who to be any darker but you do hope for some ‘hide behind the sofa’ moments. But this is light entertainment which puts the emphasis on light. Matt Smith as the Doctor even does a magic makeover of a house in the style of Mary Poppins.
The stand alone festive episode is set in 1941 during WWII and has strong eco-friendly trimmings. The environmental theme surrounds a living forest about to be destroyed by acid rain. Two trees assume towering regal dimensions but are benevolent beings who take human forms only in a desperate bid to save themselves. Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner) shows that the power of Mother Nature is stronger than the Doctor’s malfunctioning gadgetry. She channels thoughts of home to turn the trees into stars in so doing guides her husband to safety when he is about crash his fighter plane. Moral of the story – you can change history if you believe enough.
These homely homilies are typical of the mawkishness that pervades Festive TV specials and are only forgivable on the basis that Christmas comes just once a year.
Related link:
Doctor Who, Sexism and criticising popular things (Blog review courtesy of Mediocre Dave)
