Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Judi Dench, James Corden, Richard Cordrey, Lara Rossi, Pixie Davies, Katie Lyons, Jimmy Akingbola, Pik Sen Lim, Polly Kemp, Geoffrey McGivern, Lisa Hammond, Arran Mitra, Alexander Bracq, Joseph West, James Thomas Scott, Anna Cannings, Leo Umeh, Emily Ralph.

Sometimes in the smallest of details, a love, a hero and a story can be found. It may even be considered slightly strange in a more cynical world to find that the best television programmes put on any of the terrestrial channels between Christmas Eve and New Year, the traditional slot for new and so called exciting line-ups, should belong to a Roald Dahl story, two older people looking for love and a tortoise, but then that is the utter spell-binding effect that Esio Trot will have on anybody who catches this remarkable piece of television.

It is a credit to the endearing nature of Roald Dahl’s books that Esio Trot is as captivating and full of glimmering pathos and hope that it should attract one of the very biggest and best names in Hollywood history to be involved in its screen realisation. To watch Dustin Hoffman at any time is to be considered a lesson, master class, in acting but in witnessing the titan of American cinema on television in something perhaps uniquely Bristish/Nordic, truly only Dahl-ist, is somewhat of an absolute pleasure.

Mr. Hoppy is a very kind man but he is unbelievably alone in the world, his great passion is his garden. That is until his new downstairs neighbour moves in, then over time he finds he needs to finally come out of his shell if he is ever going to have Mrs Silver fall for him. With the help of ingenuity, a good mind and a fund that was meant to go on a Canadian fishing trip, Mrs. Silver’s small but much loved tortoise is going to go up in the world and become a bigger attraction than Mr. Hoppy could hope for.

If watching Dustin Hoffman in Esio Trot is a treat, then to have Dame Judi Dench as the object of his affections is like watching cultures merge and bloom. There is nothing better than finding two actors so in tune with each other, so completely immersed into the part that the viewer feels nothing but goodness and striking ability emanating in waves off the screen.

With first-rate narration by James Corden and a supporting cast seemingly completely at ease with the whole concept of a tortoise being the star attraction, Esio Trot is by far the best television programme of the festive period. It is just a shame viewers had to wade through many hours of tedium to get to it.

Ian D. Hall