A television adaptation of the book aired in the UK on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 2019 and featured the voices of David Walliams as the narrator, David Oyelowo as the tiger, Clara Ross as Sophie, Maria Darling as the boy from the grocer's, Tamsin Greig as Sophie's mother, Benedict Cumberbatch as Sophie's father and Paul Whitehouse as the milkman. [10] [11] It was also released on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on 2 February 2020. Comedy actors to voice The Tiger Who Came To Tea". British Comedy Guide. 2019-07-29 . Retrieved 2020-02-24.

The illustrations in this book are lovely. The depictions of the characters and the clothes that they are wearing are a little old fashioned and I think this adds to the charm of the story.

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This one is particularly nostalgic for me, as it is the story I used to calm down a two year old who had fallen off the top bunk, thus needing an x-ray to see if any bones were broken. A normal examination was impossible as she started to scream every time the doctor came near her, so there we were, me and a doctor, both in lead aprons, trying to hold down a wriggling screeching refusenik so that her nice photo would come out unblurred. In the end I suggested that the doctor should leave, and I would tell her a story to soothe her and they could do the x-ray when they saw fit. This was the story. The reaction of the child-reader (or auditor) is guided by the exuberant joy of the child in the story, Sophie, who is obviously delighted with this amazing animal that proceeds to turn their lives upside down by eating all the food in the house and drinking all there is to drink (including the single bottle of beer, this is an abstentious household apparently). It's Sophie's reaction to the tiger that is the key to the book she's fully able to enjoy the pure extravagance of the tiger's behaviour, while the representative adult, in a nice touch of realism, comes across as being a bit overwhelmed even though the tiger is polite throughout and minds its Ps and Qs (at least figuratively, I don't recall how often it actually says please and thank you as one does when invited in for tea). In a witty and amusing narration, the author breaks the fear that a kid could feel toward a fierce animal like a tiger. It was portrayed as an enormous, giant creature that funnily takes up most of the space in the kitchen and dining room of the little girl's house. Yet it was (the tiger) funny, friendly and-somehow-polite till it left their home. In addition to being one of the best books for preschoolers as simple to be repeatedly told, the amazingly illustrated "Tiger" was the main reason why my little nephew loved that book.

But a tiger is a very big animal, with a simply enormous appetite. Although he sits very nicely at the kitchen table, and waits politely to be offered the sandwiches, the cakes, the buns and then the biscuits, each time he scoffs the lot! And when he is offered a cup of tea, he not only drinks it all, but also all the milk in the milk jug. Then he looks round to see what else he can find.

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Compared to social norms today, the depiction of gender roles in this story is out of date, with the mother as house wife preparing supper for daddy, and the father as the sole bread winner. However it must be considered that this story was written over forty years ago so I don’t think this is a real criticism. The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr is for me, a forgotten childhood favorite. The glee of sitting down with my grandfather as he read it to me had slipped my memory until I had to catalog a copy. Here at Twinkl, we know how time-consuming it can be to create engaging literacy resources. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the amazing Harper Collins to bring you a range of ready-made resources to support reading ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. Judith knows about dangerous people who come to your house and take people away. She was told as a young child that her father could be grabbed at any moment by either the Gestapo or the SS - he was in great danger. So I don’t know whether Judith did it consciously or not - I wouldn’t want to go there - but the point is he’s a jokey tiger, but he is a tiger”.