The Snowman and The Snowdog to star on prestigious Radio Times cover

9 December 2013

Popular Christmas characters The Snowman™ and The Snowdog - from the film produced by Lupus Films for Channel 4 and inspired by Raymond Brigg’s iconic figure The Snowman™, which was first published by Puffin in 1978 - are to take centre stage on the front cover of the prestigious Radio Times Christmas double issue for the second year running, it was announced today, Friday December 6th.  And this year, the front cover takes on added significance as it is Radio Times’ 90th Christmas issue.

The Snowman and The Snowdog first appeared on Radio Times cover this time last year, prior to the transmission of the animated film on Christmas Eve on Channel 4.  Commissioned by the magazine’s Art Director Shem Law, the cover featured a specially hand-drawn illustration of the characters by the film’s assistant director Robin Shaw and went onto sell 2.2million copies,.

This year’s Radio Times Christmas cover will also feature a beautiful hand drawn illustration by Robin Shaw, this time of Father Christmas tickling the Snowdog under the chin, with The Snowman and his friends looking on.  Again commissioned by Shem Law, the final illustration was drawn with a mixture of coloured pencil and gouache and took over two weeks to complete, with Father Christmas’s coat alone taking 16 hours.

“To be asked to do Radio Times’ Christmas front cover once is an honour but to be asked to do it a second time is overwhelming,” says Robin Shaw.  “I was thrilled to hear that following the success of last year’s cover they had been in touch. It’s a fantastic privilege to get your pencils out for such a prestigious magazine.”

Shown on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 2012 to great critical and popular acclaim, The Snowman and The Snowdog reunited audiences with one of world’s most iconic Christmas figures, thirty years after the screening of the original film The Snowman. Based in the same house where the original Snowman first appeared the story follows a young boy named Billy who moves into a new house and, with the snow beginning to fall, discovers a box containing a scarf, a hat, coal lumps and a dried Satsuma…

Directed by Hilary Audus and art directed by Joanna Harrison, both of whom worked as animators on the original film, the 24-minute film was  18 months in the making and, like the original, contained over 17,000 frames created using over 200,000 pieces of paper and 5,000 pencils. The screening of the film attracted an audience of 7.1million for its premiere on Channel 4, the biggest audience on the channel on Christmas Eve for more than a decade, and got over 11 million viewers for its consolidated transmissions over the Christmas week.  The film will be shown again this year on Channel 4 on  Christmas Eve at 7.30pm.

Camilla Deakin, one of the producers of The Snowman and The Snowdog from Lupus Films, says: ‘The Snowman and The Snowdog are fast becoming iconic Christmas characters and we’re extremely flattered that they have been asked to grace the cover of Radio Times once again for this historic festive edition”.

Radio Times Christmas double issue is on sale nationwide from Wednesday 12 December.

 

Notes to Editors

About the film

The Snowman and The Snowdog was the sequel to the Christmas classic The Snowman. Raymond Briggs' iconic children's book followed the wonderful adventures of a young boy and the remarkable snowman he created. Adapted for the screen in 1982, the Oscar-nominated film has been screened by Channel 4 every year since it was first transmitted.

The Snowman and The Snowdog was directed by Hilary Audus and art directed by Joanna Harrison, both of whom worked as animators on the original film. Producers were Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding. The sequel was dedicated to the late John Coates, who produced the original The Snowman film and was instrumental in getting The Snowman and The Snowdog into production.

The Snowman and The Snowdog was a Snowdog Enterprises and Lupus Films production for Channel 4, copyright Snowdog Enterprises

About The Snowman™

Originally published in 1978, The Snowman, created and illustrated by Raymond Briggs has become one of the world’s most popular children’s books.  Available in 15 languages it has sold in excess of 8.5 million copies worldwide with over 3 million of these sales in the UK published under Puffin editions.  The Snowman brand will soon enjoy an international audience with global broadcast of the sequel planned, along with an array of consumer products launching at Christmas 2013.  Snowman Enterprises Limited (SEL) is a Penguin owned company.