James R | On 21, Apr 2015

Timothy Spall will star as Fungus the Bogeyman in Sky’s Christmas series.

The actor, who impressed in Mr. Turner last year, is no stranger to Sky’s screens: he is about to play a lead role in Sky Living’s new supernatural drama, The Enfield Haunting.

Spall will be joined in the festive tale by the Bafta-winning Victoria Wood, Keeley Hawes (The Casual Vacancy, Line of Duty), and Marc Warren (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell). Also confirmed are Andy Serkis as the Narrator (Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of it) as Fungus’s beloved Bogeywife Mildrew, and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones) as the ‘bogeyhunter’.

The four-part programme is written by Tom MacRae and inspired by Raymond Briggs’ classic family story, which follows Fungus as he goes about his business menacing and frightening those on the surface (the “Dry Cleaners”) as Bogeymen do and have always done. After living underground for hundreds of years, though, Fungus begins to question his own existence.

Victoria Wood plays Eve, an earthy, eccentric “Dry Cleaner” living in the human inhabited town of Daventry. She’s warm, astute and has an open door policy to anyone in need but behind the smile there is more to Eve than meets the eye. Keeley Hawes and Marc Warren play Wendy and Daryl Snow, also “drycleaners” who live on the surface with their daughter Lucy.

Timothy Spall comments: “Fungus has brought joy to generations of children and I am so thrilled to be playing such a beloved character. It’s great to be working with Sky again and the skilled folk at Imaginarium to bring Fungus the Bogeyman out of the pages of Raymond Brigg’s book and on to the small screen this Christmas.”

The show is produced by Imaginarium Studios, in partnership with Double Negative’s TV department, DNeg TV and will contain both live action and animation.

Add to Watchlist