Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, on PBS

Roald Dahl would be appalled by the prospect of sensitivity readers censoring his work. He always believed his young readers were smart enough and sufficiently snarky to appreciate his humor. It turns out Beatrix Potter would agree. She happens to meet the young Dahl just when she is getting pushback from the 1920’s equivalent of a sensitivity reader in David Kerr’s Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse, which airs on select PBS stations throughout December (starting today).

It is historically accurate that young Dahl’s father passed away a little more than a year after the death of his older sister. Other circumstances of the comfortable Dahl household were fictionalized for the sake of holiday film conventions. However, it is also true young Dahl successfully set out to meet his literary idol, Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit. According to Abigail Wilson’s amiable screenplay, Sofie Dahl allowed her grieving son to make the journey, providing only modest parental oversight, hoping it would yield therapeutic benefits.

Despite her happy marriage to William Heelis, Potter has grown eccentric and curmudgeonly. As Christmas approaches, she prefers to putter in her garden, rather than writing her next guaranteed bestseller. To spur her along, Potter’s publisher has dispatched the prim Ms. Anne Landy, who has a bone to pick with Potter regarding some of her more macabre rhymes. In fact, if Landy has her way, Potter will revise them, making them far less colorful. If “trigger warnings” were a thing in the 1920’s, Landy would have been an ardent proponent.

In between the live action storylines, Kerr intersperses stop-motion animated segments, following a little boy mouse, whose life clearly parallels young Dahl. The animation (directed by Thomas Harnett O’Meara) is stylishly nostalgic, evoking fond memories of the finer vintage Christmas specials, in the best way.

In fact, Kerr and Wilson consistently find the right tone for Roald & Beatrix. Of course, it is sentimental, but never excessively so. It always feels just right for holiday seasonal viewing. Yet, the bit with Ms. Landy has surprising bite and it could not be more relevant.

Dawn French is clearly having great fun chewing the scenery as cranky Potter. Harry Taylor is quietly winning as young, earnest Dahl, while Jessica Hynes is absolutely terrific personifying maternal sensitivity, as his widowed mother. Rob Brydon is uncharacteristically restrained, but still quite droll in an understated way, as the eternally understanding Mr. Heelis. Plus, Alison Steadman delivers reassuring English country charm as Dora, the teahouse proprietor.

Despite depicting the enormously popular Dahl, whom Forbes ranked as the top-earning dead celebrity of 2021, Roald & Beatrix has largely fallen through the cranks in the U.S., until now. It deserves better, because it really is wise and sweet little film. Fans of Willy Wonka, Matilda, and all the other Dahl classics should be delighted by it. Highly recommended, Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse starts airing today (12/1) on participating PBS stations across the country (dates will vary)—and it also streams on Freevee.