Dame Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman in Britain for Christmas

I'll be honest; there are often times when I wish I could live in England. I was born in London to British-born parents, now both dead, but I grew up with a mother who called everyone 'love', a father  who did the pools every week, parents who knew how to make a good cuppa, who said things like bloody hell, bugger off, dirty weekend, and occasionally that what we needed was 'a bloody good hiding'. While our family left when I was still a small child, there's a nostalgic yearning, a pull I feel to go home again. Silly, really because England hasn't been home for years, decades. England as 'home' is more of an idea, a thought, more than any kind of reality I can remember. In truth, I'm more of an American Anglophile than any kind of true Brit. But still, I feel the pull, especially when our American congress acts up, when I see the green green grass of home in television programs like Doc Martin, and when British actors thrill me with their accents and their uncanny ability to clone ours. And I dearly wish I could live in England when the UK gets BBC programs like the adaptation of Roald Dahl's Esio Trot starring Dame Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman while we wait and wait and wait.

I'm especially excited because in addition to the extremely talented stars, the director is Richard Curtis who gave us everyone's favorite love story, Love Actually as well as Knotting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones Diary, and most recently About Time. The writer/director definitely knows how to pull on the old heartstrings. Yank producer Harvey Weinstein has picked up the rights so hopefully we'll be seeing it on Netflix or Amazon soon.
Ooof! I'm in a nostalgic mood, eh, what?!

Esio Trot is the story of a man in love with his neighbor. But you know how that goes, she's in love with someone else. Er, make that something else. Her pet tortoise. Here's how the rundown from B&N:

Mr. Hoppy is in love with his neighbor, Mrs. Silver; but she is in love with someone else—Alfie, her pet tortoise. With all her attention focused on Alfie, Mrs. Silver doesn’t even know Mr. Hoppy is alive. And Mr. Hoppy is too shy to even ask Mrs. Silver over for tea. Then one day Mr. Hoppy comes up with a brilliant idea to get Mrs. Silver's attention. If Mr. Hoppy's plan works, Mrs. Silver will certainly fall in love with him. After all, everyone knows the way to a woman’s heart is through her tortoise.

Shy Mr. Hoppy devises a plan to win the heart of his true love by teaching her a spell to make her tortoise grow bigger.

James Corden who plays the baker in the upcoming Into the Woods  is what The Telegraph are calling a 'chirpy narrator'.

No trailer or poster yet, I'll keep you updated. Oh and by the way, to all the critics asking Dame Judi Dench if she isn't too old at 79 to continue acting — Bloody hell, did they really? — I say 'Bugger off!'

Since we don't have a trailer, I think I'll take this opportunity to watch the trailer for Love Actually. Care to join me? I'll put the kettle on...

source: The Telegraph, IMDB.com