TV star and author David Walliams meets hundreds of Wolverhampton pupils during his visit to Grand Station, Wolverhampton. The Express & Star catch up with him for a chat.

Express & Star

Transcript

00:00So obviously we're here inside of Wolverhampton Grand Station, the fantastic surroundings.

00:04I mean, seeing so many happy, smiling children out there, how good was it to be able to read

00:09a little bit of your book? Yeah, well it's lovely, it's a thrill, it's lovely to come on and

00:15see all those smiling faces and also the other thing is, although I'm there to entertain the

00:21kids, hopefully they can bring something away from it and maybe inspire them to write their

00:27own stories more or read more, you know, because kids now, there's so many other things they

00:31could be doing. It's weird I'm dressed as an elf talking to you, but yeah, I feel like

00:35kind of, I feel like my books are really meant as entertainment for kids to pick up and read

00:40for pleasure and, you know, it's harder and harder to get kids to read for pleasure. So

00:46I feel like coming here today, you know, if I've inspired some of the kids to read more,

00:51I'll be very happy. And also you never know, one day in like 10 years time or someone will

00:56tap me in the back and say, you came to my school and did a talk and then I realised that

01:00I wanted to be a writer or do something or be creative or something. That may happen.

01:05Absolutely. Maybe never, but we'll see.

01:07May happen. Next generation of Wolverhampton Grammar students, David Walliams, writers.

01:13So obviously there's a, one of the children picked up on the fact that a lot of the books

01:18have a very good tale behind them, good reasoning. It's about revealing too much.

01:22With Sandra and Son. Well, I sort of, I wanted to do a Christmas story, but I didn't want it to be

01:29twee because, you know, some Christmas stories are twee. I wanted it to be like an action adventure,

01:34a comedy. And so I was thinking Home Alone meets Die Hard. So that was my idea. Well,

01:41I thought I'd like it to be, you know, a comic action adventure, you know, in the way that

01:48it's something like Home Alone is, but also I thought the wonderful thing about Die Hard is it

01:51all to explode over one night, doesn't it? Between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

01:55And in the space of that time, he's kind of, you know, repaired his relationship with his

01:59ex-wife and all that sort of thing. So, so I was thinking, oh, is there, what, what can I,

02:04what can I sort of just take from those, which is just, just as a little bit, a little starting point,

02:08what makes those stories so good? And, um, and it was fun. I mean, a toy store, a toy store,

02:15it's all set in the toy store and the toy store is such a great place to have a story,

02:19especially at night, you know, being locked in overnight and you can kind of,

02:23you know, you can, anything can happen because you can use all the toys. So I kept on thinking,

02:29you know, can I use a, you know, remote control helicopters and can I create stink bombs? And

02:35can I, um, you have a, like a car, like, you know, those kinds of cars you can drive and stuff and,

02:41and, uh, and space hoppers and all kinds of things. So it was really fun. So there's something

02:46happening all the time, a bit of action and adventure involving toys. I mean, we're going

02:50to see a scene of maybe like a kid dressed in an elf crawler and through ventilation,

02:54not like that in the box, nothing that dangerous, but, um, but yeah, it was, it was fun to write.

03:00And I'm glad I did something that wasn't hopefully, you know, as I say to, to sugary syrupy,

03:05because I, I, I, you know, I like Christmas, but I find so, so much of it is like, you know,

03:12just a bit too draining. Well, just a bit too sort of sweet. I mean, you know, think about the best,

03:18best Christmas story ever is Christmas carol. It's quite dark. It's just quite, you know,

03:23it's, it's not just like a lovely story, is it? It's, it's, it's quite a lot of pain in it and

03:27stuff. And I think you can, you know, Christmas, I think it's sort of quite double-edged, isn't it?

03:31It's very happy time of year, but then there's also sometimes sadness creeps in for one reason or another.

03:36Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So just going back to what we were doing in the, uh, in the hall,

03:41obviously inspiring the next generation of writers potentially, lovely seeing it,

03:45lovely seeing so many smiling faces. Yeah, it was great. And, um, and, you know,

03:51I just want to go over the books of fun because if you don't read a book as a kid,

03:54you're probably never going to read as a grownup. And it, it's not like, you know,

03:58everybody has to read like Tolstoy or something, but, but there's, you know,

04:02it's just like reading biographies or whatever. There's a, there's a wealth of information in

04:07books that if you don't read at all, you're going to miss out on. And there's things you could connect

04:10with, you know, or that you'll learn more about yourself, you know, cause you, you know,

04:15you might read a story and you, you know, it makes moves you or something makes you empathetic.

04:20It's this so much you get from books, you know, and, um, and so long may they live and stories are

04:28really important. And there are things that books can do that films can't films become a very passive

04:32experience because there's music in every scene. I love movies. Um, but you know, it's a, you don't

04:37have to work, do you? Everything's done for you. And the music tells you what you should be feeling

04:41at any moment. And, um, but books, you have to use your imagination. So I think it's more involved,

04:47particularly important for kids, I think, you know, because if they're just possibly watching

04:51screens, then they're not, they don't have to think for themselves, you know, and films have

04:56got more and more sophisticated. So, you know, but imagine if you write, you know, reading a story

05:01about dragons or something, you have to imagine the dragon in your head, but you see a movie great

05:05though. It is, it's like, it's all done for you, isn't it? And you can just, I watch a lot of movies

05:09with my son. And it's interesting. They're quite from very passive experiences. And afterwards,

05:13he doesn't necessarily have much to say about what he's just seen.

05:16Absolutely. I guess reading as well also lets you add a little bit of your own creative.

05:19Yeah. Yeah. And then it's a lovely thing for parents and children to share. I mean,

05:23I loved reading the books to my son that I loved as a kid. So, um, so hopefully reading will

05:29all have, always have a place for kids and families.

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