Snowman sequel to air at Christmas

The TV version of The Snowman has been screened on Channel 4 every year since 1982 and a £2m, 24-minute sequel, The Snowman And The Snowdog, is being broadcast this Christmas.

Briggs, 78, told the Radio Times that he endorsed the follow-up, partly because it was hand-drawn, and said: “It would have been cashing in to do it before. Now it won’t do any harm, and it’s not vulgar and American.

“I’ve never touched a computer, or anything like that. CGI makes everything too perfect, but they’re sticking to the old ways. I’m a notorious grumbler, but I found nothing to grumble about.”

No fan of Christmas

Briggs admitted he does not read many children’s books and is “not a fan of Christmas”, despite the animated version of his famous book featuring a visit to Father Christmas at the North Pole.

“You can’t keep up with the damned things,” he said of children’s books.

“I’ve never read Enid Blyton. I went once to Roald Dahl’s birthday party so must have read something of his. He was fairly curmudgeonly.”

He said: “Huge amounts of money have been generated by The Snowman. I’m not interested. I read it’s sold three million copies, but publishers bandy about numbers that aren’t usually true.

“I don’t spend anything. I don’t like going abroad – the Gatwick airport hell-hole. I buy clothes from charity shops, although I draw the line at trousers.”

Hand-drawn

The sequel’s co-producer Camilla Deakin said most of the film was hand-drawn because “computer-generated imaging can be too perfect”, but she added that computers were used at the end “to finesse the pictures, adding digital snow and lighting effects”.

The Snowman And The Snowdog will be on Channel 4 on 23 December.