The Wonderful World of Roald Dahl
1 x 60mins. Channel FIVE

Roald Dahl is a literary legend. His repertoire of extraordinary fiction has captured the imaginations of successive generations of children and adults alike. In this one-off documentary for Five we celebrate the world of Roald Dahl through the films that have been inspired by his classic literary works.

The documentary aired on Five on July 24th 2005, as part of a Roald Dahl season featuring some of the film adaptations of his brilliant bookshelf including 'James & The Giant Peach', 'The Witches', 'Danny – the Champion of the World' and, of course, 'Willy Wonka'.

The event was timed to precede the release of the latest film adaptation of his classic book, 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory' where Tim Burton, the director legendary for lowering the lights and filming the far side of the fun was charged with bringing out the Dahlian dark side with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and fun-size Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket.

'The combination of Burton, Depp and Dahl is invincible'
Tessa Dahl July 2005

The documentary traced the literary life and work of Roald Dahl and its transference to film and television - including his screenwriting experiences for James Bond and the classic television series' 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', 'Tales of The Unexpected' and 'Jackanory' to films such as 'Matilda' and the 'BFG'.

The programme featured interviews with Roald Dahl's daughter Tessa, as well as Dahl biographers Jeremy Treglown, Chris Powling and Andrew Donkin. Also included were the stars of some of the previous movies including Pam Ferris (Miss Trunchbull in 'Matilda' ), Bill Paterson ('The Witches') and stars from the first Willy Wonka film Rusty Goffe (Oompa Loompa) and the original 'Veruca Salt' Julie Dawn Cole. Other famous fans were featured including Jeremy Vine, Johnny Ball, Toyah Willcox, Brian Cant, Jenny Ross, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Kirsten O'Brien and Sarah Cawood who read passages from Roald Dahl's work as well as discussing their love of his library.

The documentary was aired before the original 'Willy Wonka' film from 1971, starring Gene Wilder, and reached a massive 2.3million viewers.