Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot (BBC-1 2015, Judi Dench, Dustin Hoffman)

In Esio Trot Mr Hoppy lives a quiet retiree’s life, tending to his balcony garden, pottering to the shops and back and secretly being passionately, hopelessly in love with his downstairs neighbour, Mrs Silver.

From their first meeting in a cramped lift he was utterly captivated by her sparkle and warmth, and he regularly fails to tell her this during their neighbourly chats over the balcony.

When he finds she is distraught that her beloved tortoise, Alfie, doesn’t appear to be growing, Mr Hoppy spots a chance to make his true love happy, and maybe even get closer to her in the process.

When Mr Pringle, another neighbour, sets his more lascivious sights on Mrs Silver, Mr Hoppy’s world crumbles. Stoically, he continues with his cunning plan to make Alfie miraculously grow and win his way into Mrs Silver’s heart.

production details
UK / BBC One / 1×90 minute episode / Broadcast Thursday 1 January 2015 @ 6.30pm

Writers: Richard Curtis, Paul Mayhew-Archer / Producer: Hilary Bevan Jones / Director: Dearbhla Walsh

cast
Judi Dench as Mrs Silver
Dustin Hoffman as Mr Hoppy
James Corden as Narrator
Richard Cordery as Mr Pringle
Pixie Davies as Roberta
Lisa Hammond as Mrs Desmond
Anna Cannings as Mrs Court
Joseph West as Philip
Katie Lyons as Philip’s mother
Pik-Sen Lim as Mrs Wu
Salo Gardner as Mr Mavrokoukoudopolous
Geoff McGivern as Pet shop owner
Jimmy Akingbola as Keen pet shop owner
Polly Kemp as Woman on bus
Emily Ralph as Little girl
Ronnie Hughes as Trumpeter
Jack Honeybourne as Pianist
Leo Umeh as Puppy boy
Lara Rossi as Puppy boy’s mother